Inter- and Intra-Individual Analysis of Post-Exercise Hypotension Following a Single Bout of High-Intensity Interval Exercise and Continuous Exercise: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Recently, post-exercise blood pressure (BP) has been considered a predictive tool to identify individuals who are responsive or not to BP reductions with exercise training (i. e., "high" and "low responders"). This study aimed to analyze the inter- and intra-individual BP responsiveness following a single bout of high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE) and continuous exercise (CE) in normotensive men (n=14; 24.5±4.2 years). Mean change in BP during the 60 min period post-exercise was analyzed and minimal detectable change (MDC) was calculated to classify the subjects as "low" (no post-exercise hypotension [PEH]) and "high responders" (PEH occurrence) following each exercise protocol (inter-individual analysis). The MDC for systolic and diastolic BP was 5.8 and 7.0 mmHg. In addition, a difference equal/higher than MDC between the exercise protocols was used to define an occurrence of intra-individual variability in BP responsiveness. There were "low" and "high" PEH responders following both exercise protocols (inter-individual variability) as well as subjects who presented higher PEH following a specific exercise protocol (intra-individual variability between exercise protocols). These results were observed mainly for systolic BP. In summary, PEH is a heterogeneous physiological phenomenon and, for some subjects, seems to be exercise-protocol dependent. Further investigations are necessary to confirm our preliminary findings.

Acute Hypotension after High-Intensity Interval Exercise in Metabolic Syndrome Patients

“…Cohen's formula for effect size (ES; [9]) was used, and the results were based on the following criteria; > 0.70 large effect; 0.30-0.69 moderate effect; ≤ 0.30 small effect. Minimal detectable change (MDC) was calculated as: MDC = Z-score (90 % CI) × SEM × √2 according to Costa et al [10]. Data are presented as mean ± SEM.…”

“…We performed a minimal detectable change (MDC) analysis of the blood pressure response because it has been reported that PEH may be a heterogeneous physiological phenomenon with responders and non-responders, rendering it impossible to appreciate the potential effects of different exercise methods (i. e., continuous vs. interval [10]) on PEH. However, 10 out of 14 subjects (71 %) responded to HIIT with detectable reductions in systolic blood pressure, whereas only 3 out of 14 (21 %) responded with reductions after CE.…”

“…These results coincide with our ANOVA analysis, confirming that the effects of exercise mode are stronger than the possible biological variability in the response to different exercise methods. Costa et al [10] tested young, healthy normotensive males, whereas our participants were middle-aged, hypertensive (50 % of the sample) and suffered from metabolic syndrome (all of them). Undoubtedly, the scope for blood pressure improvement was larger in our sample, which could explain the more homogeneous blood pressure responses, unveiling the statistical differences between exercise methods (i. e., continuous vs. interval).…”

Reproducibility (Reliability and Agreement) of Post-exercise Hypotension

“…Many studies have investigated PEH, but they have applied different BP values as control levels (i. e. pre-exercise levels or BP measured on a control day without exercise) and have employed different ways of calculating PEH. In many studies [5,11,12,16,25], BP has been measured before and after an exercise bout, and PEH has been calculated as the difference between post-and pre-exercise BP (PEH_I = post-exercise BP − pre-exercise BP). In other studies [4,13,14,19,22], BP has been measured after an exercise and a control session, and PEH has been calculated as the difference between post-exercise and post-control BP (PEH_II = post-exercise BP − post-control BP).…”

Hypertrophy, heart failure, brain and physical activity - the molecular basis of this connection

“…This phenomena is described as post-exercise hypotension and it is observed both acutely and chronically as a body physiological consequence of exercise. 63 Acutely, it has been reported reductions of BP in both aerobic and resistance training. 64,65 Chronically, previous studies found that regularly-performed PE is associated with reductions of 8.3 and 5.2 mmHg in resting systolic and diastolic BP, respectively.…”