Heart Rate and Blood Pressure Responses Vary Between Blood Flow Restriction Cuff Type

The purpose of the study was to compare heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) following high load resistance exercise (HLRE) and blood flow restriction exercise (BFRE) with a knee wrap (kBFRE) and pneumatic cuff (pBFRE). Eleven men (N = 9) and women (N = 2) participated. HR, SBP, and DBP were collected at Rest, immediately post exercise (IP), 10-, 30-, and 45-minutes post exercise. Repeated measures ANOVAs assessed the effects of condition across time on all variables. Significant effects were examined with pairwise comparisons and a Sidak correction. Significance was defined a priori p ≤ 0.05. There were significant condition by time interactions for HR (p = 0.005; ES = 0.31), SBP (p = 0.016; ES = 0.27), and DBP (p = 0.03; ES = 0.24). There were significant main effects of time for HR (p < 0.001; ES = 0.78), SBP (p < 0.001; ES = 0.84), and DBP (p = 0.004; ES = 0.44). The HR was increased from Rest for up to 45 minutes across all conditions. IP, the HR was lower following pBFRE compared to HLRE. There was an increase in SBP at IP. SBP was higher following HLRE compared to kBFRE and pBFRE. DBP was decreased at 10 minutes across all conditions, with kBFRE prompting larger reductions compared to HLRE at 10 minutes. DBP was lower following kBFRE compared to pBFRE at 45 minutes. This study suggests that BFRE alters cardiovascular function differently than HLRE, but is dependent on cuff type. Specifically, pneumatic cuffs may attenuate the increase in the HR and SBP response, and knee wraps augment the reduction in DBP.