Arterial Stiffness Differences between Aerobically and Resistance Trained Turkish Elite Athletes

The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether arterial stiffness was different in aerobicallytrained elite athletes than in anaerobically or resistance trained elite athletes. The cohort comprised 36 healthymale volunteers, aged between 17 and 32 years. All subjects were basketball players (n=10), weightlifters (n=11) orsedentary controls (n=15). The Pulse Trace System (Micro Medical Ltd., Rochester, UK) was employed to recordcentral and peripheral arterial stiffness. Echocardiographic images were taken by the use of a commerciallyavailable machine (Vivid 7 GE-Vingmed, Horten, Norway) with a 2.5 MHz transducer. Aortic elastic propertiesderived from echocardiographic measurements did not differ between the groups (p<0.05). Pulse wave velocitymeasurements reflected significantly lower values in both the basketball players and weightlifters compared tocontrols (p<0.001-0.05). No significant difference was seen between the basketball players and weightlifters(p<0.05). Contrary to existing knowledge, arterial stiffness of athletes that perform more resistance exercise suchas weightlifters improved significantly and did not get worse. This result implies that in the long-term arterialstiffness improves with sports activities that are predominantly comprised of resistance exercises despite increasedarterial stiffness in the acute phase.