Effect of physical training on systemic and brachial artery haemodynamics in normal men

The effect of endurance training on resting systemic and brachial haemodynamics was studied in 27 normal sedentary volunteers using a randomized cross-over design. After four months of physical training, peak oxygen uptake and physical working capacity at a heart rate of 130 beats/min (PW130) were increased by 16% (p less than 0.01) and 29% (p less than 0.001), respectively. At end-diastole left ventricular wall thickness was increased (p less than 0.01), whereas internal diameter was not changed. However, the change in internal diameter was positively related (r = 0.44, p less than 0.036) to the change in PWC130, indicating that the internal diameter increased, particularly in those subjects with the greatest increase in exercise capacity. The systemic haemodynamic adaptation to training was characterized by an increased stroke volume and concomitant reduction in heart rate so that cardiac output was not changed. On the other hand, brachial blood flow decreased by 36% on average. The change in blood flow was negatively related (r = -0.43, p = 0.03) to the change in PWC130 after training. Half the number of subjects were restudied after a four-month detraining period. The echocardiographic and Doppler variables tended to return to the pretraining level.