Cardiovascular responses during resistance exercise after an aerobic session.
Thaliane Mayara Pessôa Dos Prazeres, Marilia De Almeida Correia, Gabriel Grizzo Cucato and 2 others
PMID 28736212WHAT IT FOUND
Doing aerobic exercise before resistance training did not lower blood pressure spikes.
It actually increased diastolic and mean blood pressure during the first two sets and kept heart rate higher. Therapists should not prescribe aerobic warm-ups to reduce cardiovascular stress during resistance exercise.
Key findings
01Aerobic exercise prior to resistance training failed to attenuate blood pressure responses and instead resulted in greater increases in diastolic and mean blood pressure during the first and second sets.
02Peak heart rate was significantly higher when resistance exercise was performed after aerobic exercise compared to resistance exercise alone.
03The authors explicitly conclude that aerobic exercise cannot be used to minimize cardiovascular responses during resistance exercise in normotensive subjects.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The sample size was small (19 participants) and consisted only of healthy, normotensive men, limiting generalizability to women, older adults, or those with hypertension. The transition time between aerobic and resistance exercise was short (approx. 15 minutes), which may have prevented the post-exercise hypotension seen in other studies. Physical activity status was not directly measured, only self-reported as insufficient. Finger photoplethysmography can slightly overestimate systolic and underestimate diastolic blood pressure, though change scores were used to mitigate this.
Declared interests
The author declares no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that aerobic exercise is universally harmful before resistance training. This study only tested a specific protocol (30 mins treadmill at 60% HRR followed immediately by knee extensions) in healthy men. The finding is that it does not *reduce* cardiovascular stress, not that it is dangerous, but it should not be prescribed with the expectation of blunting blood pressure spikes.