State Anxiety and Blood Pressure Responses to Resistance Exercise of Different Intensities

Abstract

Previous research has documented reductions in state anxiety following acute resistance exercise at moderate intensities. However, recently much of the research examining affective changes following resistance training has been called into question based on inadequate prescriptions of exercise intensity (i.e., those based on a percentage of 1RM). PURPOSE: This study examined selected psychobiological responses to acute bouts of resistance exercise (RE) of different intensities based on a percentage of repetition maximum (Arent et al., 2005) rather than %1RM. METHODS: Thirty-two male and female participants completed three different RE conditions (40%, 70%, and 100% 10RM), and a no-treatment control condition. Dependent variables consisted of state anxiety (SA), positive affect (PA), negative affect (NA), systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), and heart rate (HR). These dependent variables were assessed immediately before and at 0-5, 15, 30, 45, and 60 min following the conditions. Average RPE was also determined for each condition. Data were analyzed with a 4 (Condition) x 6 (Time) repeated measures ANOVA and Tukey post-hoc tests. RESULTS: Results indicated state anxiety significantly improved during recovery for both low and moderate intensity conditions, while high intensity RE resulted in an immediate increase in anxiety (p <.05), before returning toward baseline by 45 min postexercise. HR and SBP immediately following exercise increased significantly (p <.05) following all three RE conditions while DBP only increased significantly for the high intensity condition. Both high and moderate intensity conditions resulted in reduced SBP responses by 30 min which persisted up to 60 min postexercise, p <. 001. Repeated measures ANOVA also revealed significant effects for RPE, suggesting a linear trend based on increasing RE intensity. CONCLUSION: When properly denned based on intensities of RM, these data further support the notion that moderate intensity RE results in reduced state anxiety and SBP responses. Although high intensity exercise resulted in attenuated SBP responses during the postexercise recovery, these were not associated with state anxiety responses. Further, low intensity exercise is associated with a significant decrease in state anxiety responses.