Blood Pressure Response to Isometric and Incremental Handgrip Exercise

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to measure a variability in blood pressure caused by the handgrip exercise which was divided into 6 stages according to the incremental intensities, and was to draw up an outline of the specific exercise test with isometric handgrip (IHG) to estimate a possibility of hypertension in future. For this study, 10 healthy men aged 23-62 years old performed the IHG as voluntary subjects. The exercise test was consisted of six degrees of intensity which were 8.3%, 16.7%, 25%, 33.3%, 42.7% and 50% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) with IHG, and performed in a sitting position. Each intensity of IHG was kept for 10 seconds, totally subjects carried out the exercise for exact 60 seconds. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP, DBP) in all subjects were increased dramatically at the intensity of 25% MVC and more. These results indicate that typical change of blood pressure would be caused for the sake of vasoconstriction induced by strenuous IHG. Especially, excessive increase of blood pressure was observed at the intensities from 25% to 50% MVC, therefore the exercise test with IHG performing over 25%MVC might be able to estimate a possibility of hypertension in future.