Acute Effect of Resistance Exercise with and without Blood-Flow Restriction on Blood Pressure in Pre-Hypertensive and Hypertensive Middle-aged Women

Hypertensive is among the leading causes of mortality and exploring alternative strategies for its better control has ever had special importance. The aim of this study was to investigate effect of acute resistance exercise session with and without blood flow restriction (BFR) on blood pressure in pre-hypertensive and hypertensive women.

 24 volunteer subjects, were randomized into two groups (n=12) of pre-hypertensive (blood pressure: 12.5-14 mmHg, age: 54.5±1.88 years and BMI 27.0±2.01 kg/m2) and hypertensive (blood pressure: 14.5-16 mmHg, age: 55/25±2.05 years and BMI 27.51±1.93 kg/m2) patients. All three groups experienced three different sessions with a week washout interval including on control, resistance training (3 sets at 20-30% of 1RM) with BFR and resistance training (3 sets at 70% of 1RM) without BFR. Blood pressure and heart rate were recorded at resting condition, between sets rest intervals, at respectively 15, 30, 45, 60 and 120 minutes, post exercise and also at resting condition 24 hours post exercise. Data were analyzed by repeated measures analysis of variance test at the P <0.05.

There were significant falls in systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and mean arterial blood pressure (MAP) level as well as heart rate (HR) post exercise in both groups, with sharper drops observed in training with BFR session (P<0.001).

It seems that resistance training with BFR could be more beneficial to lower patients’ blood pressure.