Twenty minutes of post-exercise hypotension are enough to predict chronic blood pressure reduction induced by resistance training in older women

AIM This study investigated the correlation between post-exercise hypotension (PEH) and chronic blood pressure (BP) reduction in older women after a resistance training (RT) program. METHODS Twenty-five older women (≥60 years) performed a RT program for 8 weeks, 3x/week consisting of 3 sets of 8-12 repetitions maximum in 8 exercises. Acute and chronic BP measurements were performed using automatic equipment, in which acute BP was measured before and after 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 min following the sixth exercise session, while chronic BP was measured pre and post-training. RESULTS Significant decrease for systolic blood pressure (SBP) was observed after the intervention period, however, the diastolic blood pressure (DBP) did not change. To acute changes in BP, SBP decreased at all times after a single RT session, while DBP increased after 40 min. The reduction for SBP after a single RT session at baseline showed positive and significant correlations with the reductions in basal SBP observed after the 8 weeks of RT, the strongest correlations were observed at 20 min. A linear relationship between the magnitude of change in chronic SBP and the 20 min for acute SBP, and 30 min for acute DBP of post-exercise was observed. CONCLUSION The results suggest that acute BP lowering after RT session is a reliable predictor of chronic BP response to exercise training, and 20 min of resting, after RT training, is enough to indicate chronic response of BP as this measure was highly associated with chronic BP lowering in older women.