Ambulatory Blood Pressure Lower Following Aquatic Exercise than Land Treadmill Exercise

Abstract

Blood pressure (BP) is an important marker of cardiovascular (CV) health. Aquatic (AQ) exercise training has been shown to reduce BP reactivity to exercise to a greater degree than land treadmill (LT) training. Furthermore, an acute bout of AQ exercise tended to elicit a greater post-exercise hypotensive response and augmentation in flow-mediated dilation (FMD). However, it is unclear how long the post-exercise hypotensive benefits last following an acute bout of AQ exercise. PURPOSE: To determine the effects of acute bouts of deep water aqua-jogging and land treadmill exercise on daytime ambulatory BP (AMBP) in pre-hypertensive, physically untrained men and women. METHODS: Following resting BP screening, 12 subjects (9 male, 29 ± 13 years, 30.4 ± 6.1 kg·m-2, 127 ± 8/ 82 ± 8 mmHg) completed acute bouts of both AQ and LT exercise at 55% heart rate reserve for a duration of 30 minutes. Exercise sessions began at 0700 hours. Immediately following the exercise bout, subjects wore an AMBP device (Oscar 2, Suntech Medical), which was programmed to take measurements every 15 minutes throughout the day until 1600 hours. Sessions occurred on separate days with 2-7 days off between sessions. The order that the modes were performed was counterbalanced among the subjects. Subjects were required to abstain from alcohol, caffeine, nicotine, and exercise on the day of the session and 24 hours prior. Comparisons between modes were made by a dependent sample t-test. RESULTS: All results are displayed in Table 1. CONCLUSION: Daytime AMBP was significantly lower following AQ than LT exercise. This is consistent with previous findings of a greater post-exercise hypotensive response in the 1-2 hours post AQ exercise. Previous research also demonstrated improved FMD and increased atrial natriuretic peptide levels following AQ exercise, which could potentially explain the reduced BP findings. These data further support the efficacy of AQ exercise for the promotion of CV health and BP regulation.Table 1: Ambulatory Blood Pressure Response