Exercise blood pressure
The effect of endurance training on blood pressure
during exercise can be analysed, either by considering
the data at a fixed workload or by considering
the effect at a relative workload—that is, at a certain
percentage of the pretraining maximal aerobic
power and of the usually higher post-training
maximal aerobic power. In the current overview,
only the more relevant first approach will be used.
In eight randomized controlled trials8 blood pressure
was measured during bicycle exercise at a
median work load of 100W (range: 60–140 W).
Blood pressure was measured during treadmill
exercise at an energy expenditure of B4 METS in
two other studies. Baseline exercise SBP averaged
180mmHg and heart rate 124 beats/min. The
weighted net training-induced change in SBP
amounted to 7 (9.5; 4.5)mmHg and heart rate
decreased by 6.0 (2.7; 9.2) beats/min.