Key result
High-intensity resistance exercise resulted in a greater drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older women, though a higher heart rate might offset this response.
Why the study?
Does resistance exercise intensity affect post-exercise blood pressure and heart rate differently in young versus older women?
Does resistance exercise intensity affect post-exercise blood pressure and heart rate differently in young versus older women?
High-intensity resistance exercise leads to a greater post-exercise reduction in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older women compared to young women.
May guide intensity selection for post-exercise BP responses in older women; leaves open prospective validation.
Resistance exercise (RE) is followed by a transient hypotensive recovery period. Studies in our laboratory suggest an intensity-dependent drop in blood pressure after RE in both young and older adults. However, the existence of a possible order effect, and protocol difference do not allow us to examine an age by intensity interaction on post-exercise hypotension. PURPOSE: This study examined age and intensity effects on systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure, and heart rate (HR) responses after RE in women. METHODS Twelve young (age: 21.4+ 1.4 yrs) and 12 older women (age: 69.7+ 3.9 yrs) performed single bouts of 5- and 15-RM of knee extension RE. Continuous BP and ECG data were acquired at 200Hz, converted to tachograms, re-sampled at 4Hz, and smoothed using a low-pass digital filter with a cutoff of 0.05 Hz. For each test condition, the dependent variables are reported at rest, peak exercise, and for each recovery period (R1; R3; R5; R15; R20; R30; R40; R50; R60). A 2X2 ANOVA with repeated measures was used to examine the effects of age, intensity, and test period on the CV parameters. Alpha was set a-priori at p = 0.05 and corrected using the Bonferroni technique for multiple comparisons (p = 0.0008). RESULTS Baseline SBP was higher among the older women (young: 105 + 8.5 Hg mm; older: 120 + 12.8 Hg mm), but no age-related differences in peak SBP response. SBP was higher at R1 compared to baseline, but SBP was lower from R5 to R60 compared to R1. Peak SBP was higher than baseline and all recovery periods. There was an age by intensity interaction such that both peak and recovery DBP values were lower after the higher intensity work in the older women. The age by intensity interaction was also present with for recovery HR suggesting that the intensity dependent diastolic hypotensive response in older adults is reflected in recovery HR. CONCLUSION High intensity RE appears to result in a greater drop in SBP and DBP in older women. The higher HR observed after higher intensity RE in this group might offset this BP response.
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Reyes et al. (2003) studied this question. Resistance exercise (knee extension) vs. Different intensities (5-RM vs 15-RM) and age groups was evaluated on Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and heart rate responses. High-intensity resistance exercise resulted in a greater drop in systolic and diastolic blood pressure in older women, though a higher heart rate might offset this response.
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