Hypotensive effects of resistance exercises performed at different intensities and same work volumes

ABSTRACT

The aim of this paper was to compare the effects of two sequences of resistance exercises (RE), with different intensities but same training volume, on post-exercise blood pressure responses. Sixteen young subjects with previous experience in RE were evaluated during three non-following days in chest press, legpress, pulley pull down, leg curl, shoulder press, and biceps curl. On the first day, the load associated with six maximal repetitions (6RM) were determined for each exercise. On the second day, three sets of 6RM were performed (SEQ6), with a two minute interval between the sets. On the last day, the same procedure was repeated, but using 12 repetitions with 50 percent of 6RM load (SEQ12). Rest BP was measured before the sequences by auscultatory method. Post-exercise resting BP was measured each 10 minutes by ambulatory BP monitoring during 60 minutes. The magnitude and duration of BP variability were compared by repeated ANOVA measures followed by Tuckey post-hoc test (p < 0.05). A significant reduction in diastolic blood pressure (DBP) was observed in the first 20 minutes after SEQ12, but not after SEQ6. SEQ12 elicited significant decline in systolic blood pressure (SBP), at least during the first 50 minutes after the exercise, while significant reductions were observed in all measures after SEQ6. There were no significant differences between the absolute values of DBP and SBP after both sequences. In conclusion: a) RE had hypotensive effects on blood pressure, mainly SBP; b) the absolute decline of SBP seem not to be influenced by different interactions between workload and number of repetitions; c) higher workloads seem to extend the total time of SBP post-exercise reduction; d) the number of repetitions seems to have more influence on DBP than SBP, but for a short period of time