[Plasma renin activity (PRA) and aldosterone (PA) during submaximal exercise. Effect of training (author's transl)]

The effect of training on PRA, PA, hematocrit and weight loss was studied at rest and following an exercise performed until exhaustion. Two groups of subjects were used, the first, a group of 4 young well trained men (88.6% +/- 7.7 V02 max) and the second a group of 4 young untrained men (77.5% +/- 7 V02 max). PRA and PA displayed highly significant increases after exercise in both groups, but PRA resting values were lower in the well trained subjects (p less than 0.05). PRA values were also lower in the latter group after exercise, but the difference in this case was not significant. Further, the variation of hematocrit was less (p less than 0.05) and the weight loss greater in the well trained subjects. In an additional experiment, the same parameters were studied in four subjects submitted to a five month training programme (87% V02 max). Though resting values for PA remained unchanged after training, PRA resting values and PRA post exercise values were significantly lower. A comparison between the magnitude of weight loss and hematocrit variation showed that when untrained subjects became trained, the variation of hematocrit was smaller (p less than 0.05) while weight loss was larger (p less than 0.01). These observations could be explained in terms of the change in blood volume, and/or a decrease in sympathetic nervous activity induced by training.