Effects of Skin Pressure by Cuff on Endurance Performance and Voluntary Reaction Time

Abstract

  The present experiment aimed to know the effects of skin pressure by the cuff for the measurement of blood pressure on endurance and reaction time in 10 female young adults. Exercise by hand ergometer until the occurrence of volitional exhaustion and reaction time to the acoustic stimuli were compared between two kinds of conditions with and without skin pressure by the cuff in a bioclimatic chamber controlled at an ambient temperature of 25℃ and a relative humidity of 60%. The results are summarized as follows : 1) Number of contractions by handgrip exercise was significantly smaller with skin pressure by the cuff than otherwise. 2) Time between the acoustic stimuli and the beginning of button press and of jumping called reaction time, was significantly longer with skin pressure by the cuff than otherwise. The former and the latter results could be probably interpreted in terms of the decrease of maximal oxygen uptake and the slow down of the speed of information processing in the central nervous system under the influence of skin pressure by the cuff, respectively.