Abstract
Physiological responses to stressors provide insight into future disease risk and
sex differences in response to and recovery from stressors, such as a
hypertensive stimulus, provide understanding of cardiovascular control. The
purpose of this study was to determine sex specific responses to an acute
resistance exercise bout in central and peripheral blood pressures and arterial
stiffness. Twenty-five young males and females who had not engaged in resistance
training over the previous year underwent measurements of aortic, carotid, and
brachial blood pressures, and carotid and aortic arterial stiffness measurements
before, immediately after, and 30 minutes following a full-body resistance
exercise bout. Resistance exercise resulted in increased carotid systolic
pressure and increased aortic in males only. Both males and females increased
carotid stiffness, but males had a greater increase in stiffness that remained
elevated while females returned to baseline by 30 minutes post. These findings
highlight that blood pressure and arterial stiffness responses to an acute bout
of resistance exercise are sex-specific and vary based on measurement timing and
location within the arterial tree. Females do not display the same increases in
aortic stiffness and central pressures and did not have the same magnitude of
carotid stiffness increases as seen in males.
Keywords
beta stiffness - arterial compliance - pulse wave velocity - aortic blood pressure
- MPS carotid blood pressure
