The effects of exercise duration on post-exercise hypotension

Study 1: Thirteen normotensive participants with average baseline blood pre ssure of 126/71 mm Hg participated in the study. Participants performed bou ts of cycle ergometry for 15, 30 and 45 min at 70% (V) over dot O-2 Peak. B lood pressure was monitored by the Finapres method with 2 min windows recor ded at rest, 5, 10, 15, 30, 45 and 60 min post-exercise. Following exercise , systolic blood pressure (SBP) was similar between the three trials and wa s reduced from pre-exercise values at 5 through 60 min of measurement. Dias tolic blood pressure (DBP) was also unaffected by the duration of exercise and was lower than before exercise at 30 through 45 min post-exercise. Study 2: Eight borderline hypertensive participants with average baseline b lood pressure of 133/79 mm Hg participated in the study. Subjects performed bouts of cycle ergometry for 10 and 30 min at 70% (V) over dot O-2 Peak. F ollowing exercise, blood pressure was monitored as in study 1, SEP was simi lar between both trials and was reduced from baseline at 5 through 60 min p ost-exercise, The largest decrement of SEP was 14 mm Hg and occurred 15 min post-exercise. DBP was also unaffected by the duration of exercise and was lower than preexercise levels at 5 min and again at 15 through 45 min post -exercise. Mean arterial pressure (MAP) also showed significant decrements throughout the entire 1 h post-exercise period by a maximum of 9 mm Hg at 1 5 min post-exercise, irrespective of exercise duration. We conclude that mo derately intense exercise may be as brief as 10 min in duration in order to elicit a decrease in resting blood pressure and may have potential benefit s as a non-pharmacological aid to hypertension.