Continuous blood pressure response at different intensities in leg press exercise.

BackgroundGenerally, the evaluation of the blood pressure response to resistance exercise has been limited to the evaluation of discontinuous casual blood pressure monitoring, often measured at the end of the exercise.DesignTo continuously evaluate the blood pressure response at different intensities of leg press exercise with the same duration and number of repetitions.MethodsSeven normotensive healthy men performed an incremental test on the leg press machine at relative intensities of one repetition maximum (1RM). The blood pressure and heart rate were measured simultaneously to the incremental exercise by a photoplethysmographic method.ResultsThe mean ± SD peak values of the heart rate, diastolic blood pressure (DBP) and systolic blood pressure (SBP) were obtained on 70% of 1RM and were 145 ± 20 bpm, 113.1 ± 15.4 mmHg, and 192.4 ± 20.0 mmHg, respectively. The SBP was characterized by a decrease followed by an increase during the sets of exercise. The decrease in the SBP was 12–22 mmHg and took approxi...