Abstract
An exaggerated blood pressure response to resistance exercise is a marker of masked hypertension and a risk factor for future essential hypertension. Habitual aerobic exercise decreases systolic blood pressure (SBP) during resistance exercise in older individuals, but the underlying mechanisms have not been explored. This study tested the hypothesis that nitric oxide (NO) mediates a reduction of resistance exercise SBP with aerobic training in older individuals. Normotensive older adults participated in a 6-week program as a part of the aerobic training group (n = 23, exercised for an average of 4.4 d/wk and 59 min/d) or the control group (n = 26, asked not to modify their lifestyle during the experimental period). The aerobic exercise intervention increased plasma concentrations of nitrite/nitrate (NOx, end products of NO) and decreased SBP during a one-hand arm curl exercise at 20% and 40% of one-repetition maximum and brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (an index of arterial stiffness). In the control group, there were no differences in these measures before and after the experimental period. Changes in plasma NOx concentrations during the study period were correlated with changes in resistance exercise SBP. Stepwise regression revealed that changes in plasma NOx concentrations during the experimental period are a significant factor of changes in resistance exercise SBP, independent of age, sex, and changes in serum lipid profile, maximal oxygen uptake, resting SBP, and other variables. These results suggest that NO is associated with decreases in resistance exercise SBP with aerobic training in older individuals and help us better understand why habitual aerobic exercise prevents cardiovascular disease.
Highlights
An exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise is a risk factor for future cardiovascular disease (Keller et al, 2017; Schultz et al, 2017)
The major results of this study are that a 6-week aerobic exercise training program increased plasma NOx concentrations and decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP) during resistance exercise at 20% and 40% 1RM and baPWV in older normotensive individuals, whereas there were no changes in these measures in the control group
This study demonstrated for the first time that increases in plasma NOx concentrations with an exercise intervention are independently associated with decreases in resistance exercise SBP
Summary
An exaggerated blood pressure response to exercise is a risk factor for future cardiovascular disease (Keller et al, 2017; Schultz et al, 2017). To attenuate the blood pressure response, researchers have been investigating the relationships between blood pressure response and lifestyle components such as dietary habits (Michishita et al, 2019) and supplementation (Kim et al, 2018), habitual exercise (Kokkinos et al, 1997; Pitsavos et al, 2011), and medications (Nashar et al, 2004; Chant et al, 2018; Piche et al, 2018), because ischemic heart disease and stroke have been the leading causes of death around the world for the last 15 years They have resulted in 15.2 million deaths in 2016, according to the World Health Organization [WHO] (2018). It is important to explore lifestyle modifications to decrease blood pressure during resistance exercise
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