Exercise is a major modifiable lifestyle factor that leads to temporarily increased systolic blood pressure (SBP), which is thought to influence left ventricular mass normalized to body surface area (LVM/BSA). This relationship has never been studied in women who habitually perform resistance exercise.
Purpose: To determine if a direct correlation exists between the SBP response to resistance exercise (change from rest; eSBP) and LVM/BSA in young healthy women who habitually resistance train.
Methods: Leg extension resistance exercise was performed while continuously monitoring blood pressure using finger plethysmography. LVM was estimated using echocardiography. Data are shown as mean ± SD.
Results: Thirty-one women participated (age 23 ± 3 years, height 164 ± 7 cm, body mass 63.7 ± 10.3 kg). Resting SBP (110 ± 8 mmHg, r = 0.355, p = 0.049) was shown to be directly correlated to LVM/BSA (72.0 ± 28.4 g/m2). Conversely, eSBP (30.8 ± 14.6 ∆mmHg, r = -0.437, p = 0.014) was inversely related to LVM/BSA. eSBP was not correlated to interventricular septum width (0.88 ± 0.12 cm, r = -0.137, p = 0.463) or posterior wall thickness (0.91 ± 0.15 cm, r = -0.084, p = 0.654). eSBP was inversely related to left ventricle internal diameter during diastole (LVIDd) (4.25 ± 0.33 cm, r = -0.411, p = 0.021).
Conclusion: Counter to the hypothesis, these data suggest an inverse association between eSBP during resistance exercise and LVM/BSA in healthy young women who resistance train. This relationship is due to a smaller LVIDd with greater eSBP.
Keywords: left ventricular mass; resistance exercise; systolic blood pressure; women.