Effect of gender on blood pressure and heart rate variability during increasing intensities of isometric hand grip exercise in untrained adults

Niyi-Odumosu, Faatihah Adeyinka; Meah, Mohammed Shahabu

Abstract

The impact of sexual dimorphism on physiological responses to exercise has been a major issue. Gender variation in exercise responses is a major indicator in understanding gender-specific adaptations to exercise for athletic performance and overall wellbeing (Dimpka and Ugwu, 2009; Gleim et al., 1991; Ogawa et al., 1992). Exercise is a planned, repetitive, and purposeful activity used to enhance physical fitness, health, and wellbeing (Fletcher et al., 2001). Hand grip exercise is a simple form of isometric exercise which involves exerting a sustained force by muscles of the forearm and hand to the arm with or without the use of a hand grip transducer (Clerke et al., 2005). During isometric hand grip (IHG) exercise, the systolic blood pressure (SBP) increases significantly due to increase in systolic contractile force (stroke volume) while the diastolic blood pressure remains unchanged or exhibit slight change due to reduction in peripheral vascular resistance to increase blood supply to exercising muscles (O’Sullivan and Bell., 2000; Surawics et al., 2001). The elevated SBP with or without the DBP is proportional to the exerted efforts and intensity of exercise (Fielding, 2006), and an exaggerated increase in SBP predicts development of future hypertension which is an independent predictor of mortality (Manolio et al., 1994). It has been shown that exercise training may result in sustained reduction in resting blood pressure in hypertensive
individuals (Tipton et al. 1991), while acute bouts of exercise may elicit a transient reduction in blood pressure (e.g. Floras and Senn 1991). The above study outcomes may suggest that both endurance and resistance exercise may act as a useful, non-pharmacological aid in the treatment of hypertension. However, majority of investigations have documented endurance (Pescatello et al. 1991; Floras and Wesche 1992) and or resistance (Brown et al., 1994) exercise as the stimuli for post-exercise hypotension.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 16, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 15, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 15, 2023
• Deposit Date: Apr 23, 2023
• Journal: Malaysian Journal of Sport Science and Recreation
• Print ISSN: 1823-3198
• Electronic ISSN: 2735-1238
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 19
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 119-138
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.24191/mjssr.v19i1.21764
• Keywords: Gender, heart rate variability, blood pressure, isometric handgrip exercise
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/10703436
• Publisher URL: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/74590/2/74590.pdf