The Acute Impact of Resistance Exercise Training on Cardiovascular Parameters in Trained and Untrained Adults with High Blood Pressure

Individuals with elevated blood pressure or stage 1 hypertension (ES1H) are recommended to engage in lifestyle modifications, including resistance exercise training (RT), to reduce blood pressure. Twenty-five adults (age = 51.4 ± 5.2 y; 15F/10 M) with ES1H who had either recently completed 9 weeks of 3 days/week RT intervention (TR; n = 12) or a non-exercise control period (UT; n = 13) completed the study. All participants had their peripheral and central systolic (SBP and cSBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP and cDBP), flow-mediated dilation (FMD), carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity, c-reactive protein (CRP), cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (BRS), resting cardiac output, resting total peripheral resistance, and heart rate variability measures including low-frequency power, high-frequency power, and root mean square of the successive differences (lnRMSSD) collected before (T1), 20-24 h after (T2), and 72-h (T3) after a single RT session. Compared to UT, TR experienced reductions in FMD from T1 to T2 (mean change: - 2.51 ± 0.55%; p = 0.012) but were protected against reductions in BRS, which was significantly lower in UT at T2 (- 1.76 ± 1.47 ms/mmHg; p = 0.019). CRP was significantly elevated in both groups at T2 compared to T1 (+ 0.61 ± 0.29 mg/L; p = 0.037), whereas DBP (+ 3.19 ± 1.6 mmHg; p = 0.003) and lnRMSSD (- 0.29 ± 0.07 ms; p = 0.015) were significantly different at T3 compared to T1. There were no other significant effects observed. Trained individuals may experience impairments in endothelial function but be protected from impairments in cardiovagal BRS during the 24 h following a resistance exercise session performed in accordance with exercise guidelines for individuals with ES1H.