Rapid onset and offset of circulatory adaptations to exercise training in men

Abstract

Chronic aerobic exercise lowers blood pressure (BP), peripheral resistance and cardiac work, and is used widely in antihypertensive and cardiac rehabilitation programmes. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that the cardiovascular benefits of training would occur progressively over several weeks and would diminish over a similar time course on termination of training. In all, 17 young, healthy men undertook a 4-week programme of cycle ergometry (30 min at 60% VO 2peak 3-4 times/week) and 13 subjects matched for age, body mass index and fitness acted as controls. Resting BP and rate-pressure product (RPP) had fallen significantly after only 1 week's training and reached a nadir after 2 weeks training. At this time, BP had fallen from 12177/ 6676 to 11075/5777 mmHg and resting RPP had fallen from 85710 to 7179 (mmHg (beats min À1 )) À2 (Po0.001 each). In parallel, resting forearm conductance had risen from 0.02670.010 to 0.05270.029 (ml min À1 ) 100 ml À1 mmHg À1 and peak reactive hyperaemia following 3 min brachial artery occlusion was increased from 0.10570.031 to 0.20970.041 (ml min À1 ) 100 ml À1 mmHg À1 (Po0.001 each). No significant further circulatory changes occurred over weeks 3-4 of training. On cessation of training, all values returned to pretraining levels within between 1 (SBP, RPP, vascular conductance) and 2 (DBP, MAP, heart rate, reactive hyperaemia) weeks. The results indicate that the optimal cardiovascular benefits of moderate exercise occur rapidly. At least with short training programmes, the benefits regress once training stops just as quickly as they appeared.

The Promises and Challenges of the Use of Genomics in the Prescription of Exercise in Hypertension

“…These discussions will primarily involve recent findings from our laboratory and the HERITAGE (HEealth, RIsk factors, exercise TrAining and GEnetics) Family study [18] utilizing an acute or short-term endurance exercise model. The rationale for using this acute exercise model is that there is a rapid onset of the long-term BP reductions that result from endurance exercise training [16,17]. Indeed, some if not all of the BP reductions from endurance exercise training programs are the result of the acute or immediate BP reductions following a single exercise session.…”

“…The BP reductions that result from endurance exercise training occur rapidly after just three sessions [16,17], and after short amounts (durations as short as 10 min) and low exertion levels (intensities equivalent to an enjoyable walking pace) of exercise. Therefore, the ACSM ExR x for those with elevated BP is as follows [8]:…”

A Prescription for Health and Fitness Based on Your Genes

“…We and others posit that the chronic BP reductions resulting from aerobic exercise training are largely due to PEH (Fitzgerald 1981;Wilcox et al 1982;Pescatello et al 1991Pescatello et al , 2004Haskell 1994;Halliwill 2001;Pescatello and Kulikowich 2001;Thompson et al 2001;Collier et al 2008), although the mechanisms that mediate the acute and chronic exercise BP effects may differ (Pescatello et al 2004;Green et al 2014;Bruneau et al 2016). PEH is of similar magnitude to the BP reductions that result from exercise training (Meredith et al 1990;Jennings et al 1991;Pescatello and Kulikowich 2001;Murray et al 2006;Moker et al 2014), and strongly correlates with the BP response to exercise training (Liu et al 2012;Hecksteden et al 2013;Tibana et al 2015). For these reasons, PEH is a time-efficient and clinically relevant model to investigate the antihypertensive effects of aerobic exercise.…”

Antihypertensive Effects of Exercise Among Those With Resistant Hypertension

“…Therefore, the assessment of ABP post training should occur ≥24 hours after the last training session because of postexercise hypotension, but not >48 hours after the last training session 2 because blood pressure increases to pretraining levels after only 1 week of detraining. 3,4 It is possible that postexercise hypotension and detraining effects confounded their findings.Dimeo et al 1 prescribed exercise intensity by the lactate curve method because this method is not dependent on exercise adherence, and in the elderly a cardiopulmonary graded maximal exercise stress test to exhaustion, be it the gold standard, is limited. The subjects enrolled in the exercise training program were 42 to 78 years with an average age of 63 years and had no diseases and health conditions other than resistant hypertension.…”

“…Therefore, the assessment of ABP post training should occur ≥24 hours after the last training session because of postexercise hypotension, but not >48 hours after the last training session 2 because blood pressure increases to pretraining levels after only 1 week of detraining. 3,4 It is possible that postexercise hypotension and detraining effects confounded their findings.…”