MEDICAL AREA   

Medicina dello Sport 2014 December;67(4):643-52

Copyright © 2015 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English, Italian

Post-exercise blood pressure responses to upper and lower limbs resistance exercise

Mohebbi H. ¹, Rohani H. ², Ghiasi A. ¹

¹ Exercise Physiology, Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, University of Guilan, Rasht, Iran; ² Exercise Physiology, Department of Sports Medicine, Sports Science Research, Institute of Iran, Tehran, Iran

AIM: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the blood pressure response during recovery after upper and lower limbs resistance exercises (RE).
METHODS: Twelve normotensive men (age: 23.7±1.4 years; height: 176.4±4 cm and weight: 68.1±8.5 kg) randomly performed two resistance exercise trials with upper limbs (UL) (shoulder press, lat pull down, bench press and biceps curl) and lower limbs (LL) (leg press, leg extension, leg curl and squat). All exercises included 3 sets of 10 repetitions with 65% of 1 RM with 2 min rest interval between the sets and exercises. SBP and DBP were measured before and for 60 min after exercise with 15 min intervals as well as in a control session (CON). The ANOVA with repeated measures (trial × time) and Bonferroni post-hoc were used to analyze the data.
RESULTS: Post-exercise hypotension (PEH) was observed after UL and LL exercise trials for 60 min, whereas DBP was not changed after trials. No differences observed in SBP and DBP values between the trails.
CONCLUSION: Upper and lower limbs resistance exercises lead to similar PEH in magnitude and duration, despite the exercising involved different muscle mass. This suggests that these exercise modes may be used as an aid in prevention and control of blood pressure, even for non-hypertensive people.