Korean J Sports Med.  2021 Mar;39(1):27-33. 10.5763/kjsm.2021.39.1.27.

The Effect of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Central Blood Pressure Reactivity to Sympathetic Activation in Healthy Adults: A Randomized Crossover Trial

• KMID: 2513515
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.5763/kjsm.2021.39.1.27

Abstract

Purpose
Acute aerobic exercise has been shown to attenuate brachial blood pressure (BP) reactivity to sympathetic activation, though whether it also attenuates central BP reactivity remains unclear. We tested the hypothesis that an acute bout of aerobic exercise would attenuate central BP reactivity to sympathetic activation.
Methods
In a randomized crossover design, 15 healthy adults (23±0 years and 23±1 kg/m 2 ) completed two trials; (1) acute aerobic exercise (30 minutes at 60% of heart rate reserve) and (2) sitting as a time control prior to the cold pressor test (CPT) in a randomized order. During the CPT, a hand was submerged up to the wrist in an iced water bath (4°C) for 3 minutes. Heart rate and brachial and central BP were measured at baseline, during and after the CPT.
Results
Heart rate, and brachial and central BPs increased similarly during the CPT in both trials and returned to baseline after CPT (time effect, p＜ 0.05). However, brachial systolic BP reactivity to the CPT was attenuated in the acute aerobic exercise trial compared to control trial (interaction effect, p＜ 0.05). In addition, the magnitude of central systolic BP reactivity during the CPT was less increased in the acute aerobic exercise trial (Δ 19.8 mmHg) versus in the control trial (Δ 24.6 mmHg) (p=0.017).
Conclusion
These findings demonstrated that acute aerobic exercise attenuated both brachial and central BP reactivity to the sympathetic activation, suggesting that aerobic exercise may have a favorable effect on central BP reactivity to the sympathetic activation in young adults.

Keyword

Exercise; Blood pressure; Autonomic nervous system; Vasomotor system; Sympathetic nervous system

Figure

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  Fig. 1 Experimental design. AE: aerobic exercise, Con: control, CPT: cold pressor test, Rec: recovery.

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  Fig. 2 Blood pressure reactivity and recovery in response to cold pressor test (CPT). CPT is calculated as the change of (A) brachial systolic blood pressure (bSBP), (B) brachial diastolic blood pressure (bDBP), (C) central SBP (cSBP), and (D) central DBP (cDBP) from during CPT to baseline. Rec-30 and Rec-120 are calculated as the change of bSBP, bDBP, cSBP, and cDBP from during recovery (30 sec and 120 sec) to baseline. *p<0.05 compared to aerobic exercise (AE).

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