Why the study?
Medical and sports medicine associations have been reluctant to endorse isometric exercise to the same extent as dynamic resistance exercise due to concern over potentially greater increases in blood pressure.
Does isometric resistance exercise evoke greater increases in blood pressure compared to dynamic resistance exercise in healthy participants?
Does isometric resistance exercise evoke greater increases in blood pressure compared to dynamic resistance exercise in healthy participants?
Isometric and dynamic resistance exercise using small-muscle mass evoke comparable increases in blood pressure, challenging the common belief that isometric exercise causes greater BP spikes.
Concerns over exaggerated BP rises should not preclude isometric RE; review leaves open direct magnitude comparisons versus dynamic RE.
Medical and sports medicine associations are reluctant to endorse isometric exercise to the same extent as dynamic resistance exercise (RE). The major concern is the fear of greater increases in blood pressure (BP) that might be associated with isometric exercise. This review comprehensively presents all human studies that directly compared the magnitude of hemodynamic responses between isometric and dynamic RE. We also discuss possible mechanisms controlling BP-response and cardiovascular adjustments during both types of RE. The most prominent finding was that isometric and dynamic RE using small-muscle mass evoke equal increases in BP; however, the circulatory adjustments contributing to this response are different in dynamic and isometric RE. In contrast, studies using large-muscle mass report inconsistent results for the magnitude of BP-response between the two types of RE. Thus, when the same muscles and workloads are used, the increase in BP during isometric and dynamic RE is more comparable to what is commonly believed. However, it should be noted that only a few studies equalized the workload in two types of RE, most used small sample sizes, and all studies employed healthy participants. More studies are needed to compare the cardiovascular risks associated with isometric and dynamic RE, especially in individuals with chronic disease.
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Kounoupis et al. (2020) studied this question.
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