AHE3100 Advanced Exercise Physiology

5 Pages / 1,233 Words Published On: 16-07-2020

Question:

Cardiopulmonary Responses to Exercise

Aim

To examine heart rate and blood pressure responses to static and dynamic exercise

Introduction

During exercise, the cardiovascular system performs a number of important functions:

(1) to increase blood flow and oxygen delivery to contracting skeletal and cardiac muscle

(2) to maintain mean arterial pressure (MAP), thereby ensuring adequate cerebral blood flow, and

(3) to minimize exercise-induced hyperthermia by transporting heat to the skin where it is used to evaporate sweat.

The cardiovascular centre controls cardiovascular function, and is activated in concert with the motor cortical inputs to the contracting skeletal muscle. This “central command” is subject to feedback modification by baroreceptors, chemoreceptors, volume receptors and afferents within contracting skeletal muscle. The cardiovascular response to exercise is influenced by a number of factors including mode of exercise, exercise intensity and active muscle mass. Thus, the responses to different types of exercise can provide a lot of information about the health of the cardiovascular system.

Note

- students with a history of hypertension or a resting diastolic blood pressure of >90 mmHg are excluded from being subjects in this class

Part A: Static Exercise (The Same Volunteer Has To Do Both Parts!)

Getting Started – Baseline Assessment

Record resting heart rate – Palpitation (carotid or radial pulse) is fine

Measure blood pressure a number of times to establish resting values. Record resting blood

pressure

Place a blood pressure cuff on the non-exercising arm (usually your non-dominant arm)

While seated, exert maximum force with the hand-grip dynamometer with your dominant hand. The highest of three trials is to be recorded as the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC)

Procedure: Test 1

Start and maintain a handgrip contraction of the hand-held dynamometer at 30% MVC for 3 minutes, breathing normally

Record heart rate and measure blood pressure each minute during exercise At the end of 3 minutes contracting - Stop contracting

Record heart rate and measure blood pressure during 3 minutes of recovery

Procedure: Test 2

Following a 20 minute rest period, repeat test 1, but with an additional procedure

Place an additional blood pressure cuff over the biceps of the exercising arm (do not inflate)

Start and maintain a handgrip contraction of the hand-held dynamometer at 30% MVC for 3 minutes, breathing normally, and record heart rate and blood pressure as before

During the last 30 seconds of exercise, inflate the cuff on the exercising arm to between 160-200 mmHg in order to occlude the blood supply

Record heart rate and measure blood pressure (in non-exercising arm) for 3 minutes of rest with circulatory occlusion, and then record the same variables for another 3 minutes of recovery with the cuff deflated

Note

- if the subject experiences any discomfort, release the cuff to restore normal circulation

Graph heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure against time for both experimental conditions.

Part B: Dynamic Exercise (The Same Volunteer Has To Do Both Arm And Leg Exercises!)

Getting Started – Baseline Assessment

Place a blood pressure cuff on the arm for blood pressure

Record heart rate and measure blood pressure to establish resting (baseline) values

The subject then exercises for 12 minutes (4 minutes at 3 workloads) in 2 ways (these can be done in any order you like):

(a) leg exercise

- the subject performs step ups at a rate of 1 every 3 seconds, 1 every 2 seconds and then 1 every second

(b) arm exercise

- the subject will "bicep curl" (Both arms) light, medium and heavy loads Record heart rate and measure blood pressure during the last 30 seconds of each workload

Note 1

- as the subject will have to cease exercising for the blood pressure to be accurately taken, pump up the cuff just prior to the subject stopping so that you are ready to take the measurement as soon as the person stops exercising, and ensure that you take no more than 30 seconds to measure blood pressure

Graph heart rate and systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure against workload for the two modes of exercise.

Note 2

- the workloads have been designed so that they are equivalent (ie. 1 step up every 2 seconds = bicep curl with medium load. However, since we do not have absolute values for the work performed, simply list the workloads as 1, 2 and 3.

Task:

Instructions

This research is to be completed using the scientific structure (except for the introduction as that is not needed). It must include;

Introduction
Results (including tables, graphs etc)
Discussion
Conclusion
References

Please Graph heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure against time for both experimental conditions.

Please include to answer the following questions in the discussion:

What do the results say about the relative importance of central and peripheral mechanisms for the control of the heart rate and blood pressure during static exercise?
What are the differences in cardiovascular responses between arm and leg exercises, and the possible underlying reasons?

Results

Part A: Static Exercise

Maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) highest of three tries = 496N

Test 1

Exercise	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
Pre-test	126/60	65
1 minute	128/62	67
2 minutes	131/63	69
3 minutes	135/65	70

Rest	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1 minute	130/63	67
2 minutes	128/62	65
3 minutes	125/60	65

Test 2

Exercise with cuffs	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1 minute	127/62	67
2 minutes	132/63	69
3 minutes	136/66	72

Rest with cuffs (inflated)	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1 minute	136/66	69
2 minutes	137/67	67
3 minutes	136/66	64

Rest with cuffs (deflated)	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1 minute	136/66	64
2 minutes	133/63	63
3 minutes	127/60	63

Part B: Dynamic Exercise

Step up exercise	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
Resting	129/70	73
Step up every 3 seconds	135/72	77
Step up every 2 seconds	141/73	85
Step up every 1 second	145/72	95

*Step ups were performed for 4 minutes for each workload and measurements were taken in the final 30 seconds of each workload (3:30)

Bicep curls exercise	Blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
Light weights	138/75	80
Medium weights	150/77	91
Heavy weights	156/78	101

*Bicep curls were performed for 4 minutes for each workload and measurements were taken in the final 30 seconds of each workload.

Answer:

Introduction:

The aim of this experiment was to determine how the heart rate and blood pressure changes in response to two different types of exercise. It has been well established from scholarly studies that exercise is beneficial for improving the cardiovascular health (Nystoriak and Bhatnagar 2018). It has also been found that there is an increase in both of the values of blood pressure and heart rate during the exercise (Oh, Hong and Lee 2016). The parameters also returns to the normal range after finishing the activities. This event suggests a presence of a regulatory activity in the body for controlling the heart rate and the blood pressure. The regulation is important for maintaining the oxygen balance inside the body (Romero, Minson and Halliwill 2017). However, this study is based on the assumption that different types of exercise along with different exercising conditions might affect both the heart rate and blood pressure in different ways. This paper will be discussing different effects of static and dynamic exercises on the cardiovascular system along with comparing the results between each other. The effects of static exercises will be considered for determining the comparative importance between the regulatory mechanisms present and the effect of dynamic exercises will be discussed for comparing the cardiovascular response for arm and leg exercises.

Results:

The results can be represented in a tabular format and can be explained via graphical representation.

Part A: Static Exercise

Test 1: Exercise without cuff

Table 1:

Exercise time (Minute)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
0	126	60	65
1	128	62	67
2	131	63	69
3	135	65	70

Graph:

Interpretation: Heart rate and blood pressure increased with exercise time.

Table 2:

Resting time (Minute)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
0	0	0	0
1	130	63	67
2	128	62	65
3	125	60	65

Graph:

Interpretation: Heart rate and blood pressure decreased with an increase in the resting time.

Test 2: Exercise with cuffs

Table 3:

Exercise time (Minutes)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
0	126	60	65
1	127	62	67
2	132	63	69
3	136	66	72

Graph:

Interpretation: Both blood pressure and heart rate increased with exercising time.

Table 4:

Resting time with inflated cuffs (Minutes)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1	136	66	69
2	137	67	67
3	136	66	64

Graph:

Interpretation: There was a significant decrease in the heart rate with increased resting time. However, a significant decrease in the blood pressure with increased resting time was absent.

Table 5:

Resting time with deflated cuffs (Minutes)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
1 minute	136	66	64
2 minutes	133	63	63
3 minutes	127	60	63

Graph:

Interpretation: After deflating the cuff the blood pressure decreased significantly with an increase in the resting time. However, there was no significant decrease in the heart rate.

Part B: Dynamic Exercise

Table 6:

Step up exercise interval time (seconds)	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
0	129	70	73
3	135	72	77
2	141	73	85
1	145	72	95

Graph:

Interpretation: The complexity of the exercises increased as the time of interval (y-axis) decreased. Thus, both heart rate and blood pressure increased with an increase in the complexity of the exercises.

Table 7:

Bicep curls exercise	Systolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Diastolic blood pressure (mmHg)	Heart Rate (BPM)
Light weights	138	75	80
Medium weights	150	77	91
Heavy weights	156	78	101

Graph:

Interpretation: Exercises using heavy weight are more complex than using medium weight and light weight. Thus, both heart rate and blood pressure increased with an increase in the complexity of the exercises.

Discussion:

Exercises cause an increase in both the blood pressure and the heart rate, which are restored during the resting period. The central mechanism for the control of heart rate and blood pressure involves the central nervous system or CNS (Raven and Chapleau 2014). There is also another mechanism for controlling the blood pressure and heart rate, which is known as peripheral vascular resistance system (Raven and Chapleau 2014). Both of these mechanisms assist in regulation of the two parameters inside the body. In this experiment, during the static exercises, the peripheral mechanism for vascular resistance was made impaired by using cuff in test 2. The first experiment was used as a control. The experiment found a normal rise in the blood pressure and heart rate with increased exercise time. Those parameters were also measured during the resting time. It was found that after 3 minutes of exercising without cuffs the heart rate was only 75 bpm and the blood pressure was 135/65 mmHg. The increase in the heart rate was only 10 bpm and the same in the blood pressure was 9/5 mmHg. According to the results the increased values almost restored to normal after resting for 3 minutes post exercise. In this experiment, both central and peripheral mechanisms were responsible for the regulation. However, in test 2, the experiment was carried out using cuffs or making the normal functioning of the peripheral system impaired. In this experiment both the blood pressure and heart rate increased at a faster rate. However, the resting time of 3 minutes was unable to restore the values into normal range, suggesting a slower recovery. Additionally, it was found that when the cuffs were deflated or the peripheral system was enabled, there was a faster recovery. Thus from this experiment, it can be decided that peripheral system for blood pressure and heart rate regulation is as important as the central system during static exercise.

The next experiment was based on the dynamic exercises. The results found that with an increase in the complexity of the exercises, the heart rate and blood pressure also increased. However, the increase was higher in case of dynamic arm exercises compared to the leg exercises. The possible reason for this result might be the choice of exercise. The exercise that was chosen as the leg exercises was step-up exercise. However, for the arms, the weight lifting exercise. Since the results of this experiment already suggests that the increase in blood pressure and heart rate is a result of increase in the complexity of the exercises, it can be deduced that the step up exercise was less complex than the weight lifting exercise. This was the possible reason for the different cardiovascular response in case of two different exercises.

Conclusion:

Hence, it can be decided from the above discussion that there are two principle regulatory system present for regulating the blood pressure and heart rate, which are CNS and peripheral vascular resistance. In this experiment the peripheral system was affected, which resulted in poor regulation of the parameters. The experiment suggested that the peripheral system is equally important as CNS for maintaining an appropriate regulation.

The results of this study also found that there is an increased cardiovascular response with an increase in the complexity of the exercises. There was also a significant difference between the cardiovascular responses for the arm exercises and leg exercises. The values for the step up exercises were lower compared to the arm exercises. The possible explanation for the event is the higher complexity of the arm exercises compared to the leg exercises.

References:

Nystoriak, M.A. and Bhatnagar, A., 2018. Cardiovascular effects and benefits of exercise. Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine, 5, p.135.

Oh, D.J., Hong, H.O. and Lee, B.A., 2016. The effects of strenuous exercises on resting heart rate, blood pressure, and maximal oxygen uptake. Journal of exercise rehabilitation, 12(1), p.42.

Raven, P.B. and Chapleau, M.W., 2014. Blood pressure regulation XI: overview and future research directions. European journal of applied physiology, 114(3), pp.579-586.

Romero, S.A., Minson, C.T. and Halliwill, J.R., 2017. The cardiovascular system after exercise. Journal of Applied Physiology, 122(4), pp.925-932.

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