Postexercise blood pressure regulation. Individual differences in cardiovascular responses to acute exercise

As one of the primary lifestyle treatments, daily aerobic exercise is recommended for blood pressure control. Acute postexercise responses are important in predicting long-term physiological outcomes. A large heterogeneity of BP responses after acute aerobic exercise have been observed, even in healthy normotensive participants. Some individuals exhibit no change or even adverse effects on blood pressure.

In a doctoral thesis conducted at the University of Oulu, the association between individual factors, such as muscle fiber composition, and postexercise blood pressure responses was investigated in healthy subjects. The findings demonstrate that postexercise blood pressure regulation is a highly individual phenomenon influenced by several physiological mechanisms. The key results of the dissertation indicate that 1) postexercise blood pressure responses are highly reproducible within individuals, even though the underlying regulatory mechanisms vary, and 2) changes in systolic blood pressure after interval-type exercise were associated with muscle fiber composition—individuals with a higher proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibers showed a more pronounced decrease in systolic blood pressure compared with resting levels.

The mechanisms regulating blood pressure vary not only between individuals but also between different types of exercise. The results suggest that, in the future, individual physiological characteristics could be taken into account more carefully in exercise recommendations as well as in lifestyle-based treatment of elevated blood pressure. The findings of this study highlight the potential of acute exercise responses as non-invasive, cost-effective screening tools to identify those most likely to benefit from exercise-based interventions targeted to lower blood pressure levels.