Relationship between blood pressure and physical performance

Background: Changes in blood pressure during subjects’ exercise are individually different. The reasons of these differences are unknown.Aim of the study: The aim of this paper is to investigate the rate of changes in cardiovascular system at rest and at physical load which enhance systolic blood pressure (SBP) = 200 mmHg in people with different physical performance.Material and methods: The studies included 18 soccer players and 14 students who do not practice any sport, whose age, body mass, body height and BMI have been similar, and who at baseline were measured systolic blood pressure (SBPr), diastolic blood pressure (DBPr) and heart rate (HRr). Then, the subjects performed exercise on a cycloergometer with increasing intensityin which at the level of the systolic blood pressure = 200 mm Hg (SBP200) were measured DBP200 and HR200. In terms of resting and exercise time the size of the mean arterial pressure (MAPr, MAP200), pulse pressure (PPr, PP200) and rate-pressure product (DPr, DP200) were calculated. Moreover the power achieved in PWC170 test (W and W/kg) and maximal oxygen uptake(VO2max) (ml/min and ml/min/kg) were also calculated.Results: Soccer players have reached a higher power in PWC170 and higher VO2max and lower HR200 and DP200 (p<0,001), as well as lower values of HRr (p<0,01) than students however SBP, DBP, MAP and PP registered during rest and during exercise did not differ between the groups. Among the players power reached at PWC170 (W) correlate negatively with DP200 – (p<0,05) and VO2max (ml/min; ml/min/kg) also correlated negatively with HRr (p<0,05, p<0,01). Among students power reached at PWC170 (W, W/kg) and VO2max (ml/min, ml/min/kg) correlate negatively with HR200 and DP200. Moreover VO2max (ml/min/kg) correlate negatively with HRr.Conclusions: Studies have shown that, despite differences in physical performance of both groups, there were no significant changes in blood pressure at rest or modified during exercise. However, at extremely high increase in SBP improved economization in function of the heart and circulatory system independent of the size of physical performance of the subjects were observed.