Inter-individual responses to acute resistance training in the blood pressure dipping response in normotensive and hypertensive men

Abstract

The blood pressure dipping response to acute resistance training exercise (RTE) is scarce in the literature. We determined the inter-individual blood pressure (BP) dipping variability of normotensive (NT) and hypertensive (HT) men completing two modalities of a single session of RTE. Volunteers (NT n = 21, HT n = 20) underwent a non-exercise control (CTRL), RTE high-sets low-repetitions (HSLR), and RTE high-repetitions low-sets (HRLS) conditions. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory BP monitoring recorded diurnal and nocturnal systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) BP. Non-significant interactions were found between the category of individuals and the experimental conditions on the SBP (p = 0.511, η²ₚ = 0.02) and DBP (p = 0.807, η²ₚ = 0.01) differences. Diurnal SBP (p = 0.0001) and DBP (p ≤ 0.0001) were lower in the NT than in the HT groups. Nocturnal SBP (p ≤ 0.0001) and DBP (p = 0.014) were lower in the NT than in the HT groups. The percentage of dipping responders for SBP in the CTRL condition were 71.4% for NT and 70.0% for HT, in the HRLS condition were 66.7% for NT and 60.0% for HT, and in the HSLR condition were 57.1% for NT and 60.0% for HT. The dipping responders for DBP in the CTRL condition were 57.1% for NT and 60.0% for HT, in the HRLS condition were 61.9% for NT and 70.0% for HT, and in the HSLR condition were 71.4% for NT and 65.0% for HT (p > 0.05 for all). In conclusion, the dipping response was similar between NT and HT individuals. The proportion of responders was similar between NT and HT individuals completing acute RTE.