Cardiovascular Responses to Static Exercise: A Re-Appraisal

Abstract

Traditional findings of circulatory responses to a bout of static exercise include an abrupt rise in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, small increases in cardiac output with no rise in stroke volume, and unaltered systemic vascular resistance. These characteristics are not, however, consistent with current concepts of circulatory adjustments to high intramuscular pressure and inability of the heart to generate increases in cardiac output by heart rate alone. When circulatory responses to static exercise are in considered on a per-beat basis, at times of circulatory flow, these conflicts are resolved, as systemic vascular resistance is observed to rise, and augmentation of cardiac output can be accounted for by improvements in myocardial contractility.