Influence of Fitness on Moderate-Intensity Blood Pressure Responses in Normotensive and Hypertensive Individuals

Authors

Joseph Larsen, Brigham Young UniversityFollow
Jayson GiffordFollow

Abstract

Early detection and treatment is important in cardiovascular disease because arteries are often occluded by 75% or more before symptoms become apparent. Exercise blood pressure has been shown to be predictive of future cardiovascular disease independent of resting blood pressure. However, many factors affecting exercise blood pressure need to be further investigated and described before exercise blood pressure can become a common practice. PURPOSE: To investigate how exercise intensity and fitness influence the blood pressure response in hypertensive and normotensive individuals. We hypothesized that hypertensive participants would have greater increases in exercise blood pressure than normotensive subjects during a standard low-intensity exercise (walking at the same speed and grade on a treadmill) but that differences would be attenuated when tightly controlling relative exercise intensity. METHODS: We have had 4 normotensive (2 male and 2 female) and 4 hypertensive (3 male and 1 female) participants complete the study. We had participants complete 2 treadmill exercise bouts that were the same for everyone (2.5mph on a 0% incline and 2.5mph on a 12% incline) and 2 treadmill exercise bouts that were based on their lactate threshold (LT) (80% and 120% of LT) to compare absolute intensity and relative intensity exercise. Blood pressures were taken during each treadmill stage and the 2 groups were compared. RESULTS: In this ongoing study, we have found that hypertensive participants had greater exercise blood pressure during the 2.5mph 12% incline (p=0.046) exercise trial but not during the 80% LT (p=0.298) exercise trial. Although other tests were not significant, we expect that we will see more differences as more participants complete the study. CONCLUSIONS: Hypertensive individuals may experience greater increases in blood pressure during low-intensity exercise due to generally lower fitness level compared to normotensive individuals. Further research should be done investigating other factors such as vascular function that could account for differences between the exercise blood pressure response of normotensive and hypertensive people.

Recommended Citation

Larsen, Joseph and Gifford, Jayson (2024) "Influence of Fitness on Moderate-Intensity Blood Pressure Responses in Normotensive and Hypertensive Individuals," International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 14: Iss. 4, Article 4.
Available at: https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol14/iss4/4