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Effects of endurance training on heart rate and blood pressure variability
Author(s) -
Uusitalo Arja L. T.,
Laitinen Tomi,
Väisänen Sari B.,
Länsimies Esko,
Rauramaa Rainer
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1046/j.1475-097x.2002.00414.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiorespiratory fitness , blood pressure , heart rate , endurance training , randomized controlled trial , physical therapy , analysis of variance , cardiology , vo2 max , heart rate variability , interval training , autonomic nervous system
Purpose: To study the influences of a 1‐year controlled, randomized endurance exercise training period on heart rate (HR) and blood pressure variability in a representative sample of Finnish men in their late middle age. Methods and results: Subjects were 140 sedentary men aged 53–63 years. The men were randomized into two identical groups: an intervention (EX) and a reference (CO) group. One hundred and twelve of them remained in the final analysis (EX: n =59, CO: n =53). EX trained for 30–60 min three to five times a week with the intensity of 40–60% of maximal oxygen consumption. In EX, 1 year of regular exercise training increased oxygen consumption at respiratory compensation threshold by 11% ( P ≤ 0·001) in a maximal cardiorespiratory test. Total power and very low frequency power of R–R interval variability (ms 2 ) tended to increase in the EX group by 26 and 42% and to decrease in the CO group by 13 and 10% (interaction P <0·05 and P <0·01), respectively. There were no significant changes in blood pressure variability. Conclusion: Regular low‐ to moderate‐intensity exercise training could retard the decli‐ning tendency in cardiac autonomic nervous function in older men during 1 year.