Effect of involved muscle mass in resistance exercise on post exercise blood pressure and rate pressure product

As the blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) response during the recovery period can be influenced by size of activated muscle mass, it is possible that this variable also has some distinct effects on post-exercise rate pressure product (RPP). The aim of the present study was to investigate and compare the systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP), HR, and RPP responses during recovery to resistance exercise with different body regions.

Twelve normotensive young men randomly performed three resistance exercise trials with upper limbs (UL), lower limbs (LL), and whole body (WB), and a control session (CON). All exercise trails included 3 sets of 10 repetitions, with 65% of 1-repetition maximum (1RM) with 2 min rest interval between sets and exercises. SBP, DBP, HR, and RPP were measured before and at each 15 min after exercise until 60 min. Blood lactate (bLAC) was also measured before, and at the 1st minute after the end of exercise. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Bonferroni post hoc were used to analyze the data, with a p < .05.

The SBP decrease for 60 min after UL, LL, and WB exercise trials was similar, whereas there was no change in post-exercise DBP after the trials. Significant increases were observed in RPP for 15 min after LL, and 30 min after UL and WB. The blood lactate concentration significantly increased after UL, LL and WB resistance exercise when compared to the rest values, as well as in the CON sessions.

UL, LL and WB resistance exercise lead to post-exercise hypotension, similar in magnitude and duration, and almost produce the same cardiovascular responses, despite different muscle mass involvement.