Acute Blood Pressure Responses to Agonist and Agonist-Antagonist Paired Set Resistance Training in Normotensive and Stage 1 Hypertensive Individuals

To compare differences in blood pressure responses after the agonist and agonist-antagonist paired set training using the upper and lower-body exercises among individuals with normotension and stage 1 hypertension. A repeated-measures experimental design was conducted with 47 participants, including 30 normotensive individuals (age 47.8 ± 5.9 years, systolic/diastolic blood pressure 120.3 ± 12.0/70.6 ± 8.3 mmHg, and BMI of 25.3 ± 3.6 kg/m²) and 17 individuals with stage 1 hypertension (age 54.3 ± 6.0 years, systolic/diastolic blood pressure 135.5 ± 12.0/81.5 ± 7.3 mmHg, and BMI 28.5 ± 4.5 kg/m²). Each resistance training session consisted of eight exercises performed for three sets of 10 repetitions at 75% of one-repetition maximum. Blood pressure was measured before, immediately after, and at 10 and 20 minutes after session. Traditional agonist and agonist-antagonist paired set resistance training significantly increased systolic blood pressure (p < .05) immediately after session. Acute post-exercise systolic hypotension was evident only following traditional agonist resistance training for upper-body in individuals with stage 1 hypertension at 10 and 20 minutes after session. Significant acute post-exercise diastolic hypotension (p < .05) occurred immediately after and at 10 and 20 minutes after traditional agonist upper-body resistance training and agonist-antagonist paired set resistance training for the upper-body in individuals with normotension and the stage 1 hypertension. Traditional agonist resistance training for upper-body induce post-exercise systolic and diastolic hypotension in individuals with stage 1 hypertension and agonist-antagonist paired set resistance training for upper-body induce post-exercise diastolic hypotension in individuals with normotension.