Effect of Hand-Arm Exercise on Venous Blood Constituents During Leg Exercise

Abstract

To test the hypothesis that ancillary arm and hand exercise would change the values of antecubital blood constituents during leg exercise, seven healthy men (19-27yrs) performed static (10% of a maximal voluntary contraction) or dynamic (60 finger flexions/min) hand-arm exercise with one hand during submaximal leg exercise (50% V̇₂ max) in the supine position. Venous blood was analyzed for serum Na⁺, K⁺, osmolality, albumin, total Ca²⁺, and glucose; blood hemoglobin, hematocrit, and lactic acid; and change in plasma volume. During leg exercise there were no significant differences in these blood constituents between right and left arms at rest. Only glucose and lactate were affected by additional arm exercise. Compared with resting arm values during leg exercise, glucose decreased from 4.7 to 4.5mmol/l (Δ = 4%, P < 0.05) and lactate increased from 2.0 to 2.4mmol/l (Δ = 20%, P < 0.05) during static arm exercise. With dynamic arm exercise, glucose decreased from a resting level of 4.8 to 4.7mmol/l (Δ = 2%, P < 0.05). We conclude that additional static or dynamic hand-forearm exercise accompanying leg exercise could introduce significant errors in glucose (2%-4%) and lactic acid (6%-20%) concentrations measured in venous blood.

Key words

glucose - lactic acid - electrolytes - albumin - plasma volume - serum