Abstract
Aerobic and isometric training have been shown to reduce resting blood pressure, but simultaneous aerobic and isometric training have not been studied. The purpose of this study was to compare the changes in resting systolic (SBP), diastolic (DBP), and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) after 6 weeks of either (i) simultaneous walking and isometric handgrip exercise (WHG), (ii) walking (WLK), (iii) isometric handgrip exercise (IHG), or control (CON). Forty-eight healthy sedentary participants (age 20.7 ± 1.7 yrs, mass 67.2 ± 10.2 kg, height 176.7 ± 1.2 cm, male n = 26, and female n = 22) were randomly allocated, to one of four groups (n = 12 in each). Training was performed 4 × week−1 and involved either treadmill walking for 30 minutes (WLK), handgrip exercise 3 × 10 s at 20% MVC (IHG), or both performed simultaneously (WHG). Resting SBP, DBP, and MAP were recorded at rest, before and after the 6-week study period. Reductions in resting blood pressure were significantly greater in the simultaneous walking and handgrip group than any other group. These results show that simultaneous walking and handgrip training may have summative effects on reductions in resting blood pressure.
Highlights
Hypertension has been identified as a major health risk and one of the most prevalent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality [1, 2]
Baseline data (Table 1) indicated that there were no significant differences between groups (WHG versus WLK versus isometric handgrip exercise (IHG) versus CON) for body mass, resting heart rate (RHR), resting systolic blood pressure (RSBP), resting diastolic blood pressure (RDBP) and resting mean arterial pressure (RMAP) (P > 0.05 in all cases)
The main finding of the present investigation was that performing isometric handgrip exercise whilst walking caused a reduction in resting systolic blood pressure, which far exceeded the reductions seen after walking or isometric handgrip only
Summary
Hypertension has been identified as a major health risk and one of the most prevalent risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and all-cause mortality [1, 2]. It can be defined as a mean resting systolic blood pressure of ≥140 mmHg and/or a mean resting diastolic pressure of ≥90 mmHg [3, 4]. Aerobic training has been reported to lower resting systolic blood pressure (SBP; −5 to −7 mmHg) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP; −2 to −7 mmHg) [7, 8, 12]. Previous research has identified a significant decrease in resting SBP (−5 to −13 mmHg) and DBP (−3 to −9 mmHg) following either upper [13, 14] or lower body [15, 16] isometric training
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Schedule a callMore From: Journal of sports medicine (Hindawi Publishing Corporation)
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