How does the dose and type of exercise impact acute cardiovascular function in healthy individuals?

Abstract

During aerobic exercise, the cardiovascular system is tasked with delivering oxygen to active skeletal muscle via muscle blood flow while regulating mean arterial blood pressure. The impact of aerobic exercise on acute cardiovascular function may be modulated by the dose and type of exercise. Acutely, dose is the product of exercise intensity and time, while the exercise type may refer to common aerobic modalities like cycling, running, swimming or rowing. Each modality is unique for their medium of completion as well as the implications on blood flow arising from the position of active muscle mass relative to heart level. The purpose of this review was to address how an acute exercise dose influences cardiovascular function between prominent aerobic exercise modalities in healthy individuals. Across all modalities, all doses may transiently reduce both left and right ventricular systolic and diastolic function as well as both macro and micro -vascular function. However, accurately quantifying and comparing exercise dose across the literature is challenging due to methodological differences in exercise prescription and the cardiovascular demands imposed by differing modalities of exercise. Further, potential confounding influence of cardiovascular drift alongside variation in age, the composition of cohorts with respect to biological sex and timing of cardiovascular measures further complicates interpretation. Future work should focus on exercise intensity prescription according to modality specific physiological thresholds in order to provide a comparable dose. This approach may serve to standardize the physiological stimulus and allow for objective assessments to be compared with confidence.