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Acute effect of stretching one leg on regional arterial stiffness in young men

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Abstract

Purpose

Our previous study demonstrated that a single bout of stretching exercises acutely reduced arterial stiffness. We hypothesized that this acute vascular response is due to regional mechanical stimulation of the peripheral arteries. To test this hypothesis, we examined the effect of a single bout of passive one leg stretching on arterial stiffness, comparing the stretched and the non-stretched leg in the same subject.

Methods

Twenty-five healthy young men (20.9 ± 0.3 years, 172.5 ± 1.4 cm, 64.1 ± 1.2 kg) volunteered for the study. Subjects underwent a passive calf stretching on one leg (six repetitions of 30-s static stretch with a 10-s recovery). Pulse wave velocity (PWV, an index of arterial stiffness), blood pressure (BP), and heart rate (HR) were measured before and immediately, 15, and 30 min after the stretching.

Results

Femoral–ankle PWV (faPWV) in the stretched leg was significantly decreased from baseline (835.0 ± 15.9 cm/s) to immediately (802.9 ± 16.8 cm/s, P < 0.01) and 15 min (810.5 ± 16.0 cm/s, P < 0.01) after the stretching, despite no changes in systolic and diastolic BP, or HR. However, faPWV in the non-stretched leg was not significantly altered at any time. Brachial–ankle PWV (baPWV) also showed similar responses with faPWV, but this response was not significant. Additionally, the passive stretching did not alter carotid–femoral PWV (cfPWV).

Conclusions

These results suggest that mechanical stimulation to peripheral arteries as induced by static passive stretch may modulate arterial wall properties directly, rather than resulting in a systemic effect.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

baPWV:

Brachial–ankle pulse wave velocity

BMI:

Body mass index

CAVI:

Cardio-ankle vascular index

cfPWV:

Carotid–femoral pulse wave velocity

DBP:

Diastolic blood pressure

faPWV:

Femoral–ankle pulse wave velocity

HR:

Heart rate

NIRS:

Near-infrared spectroscopy

PWV:

Pulse wave velocity

SBP:

Systolic blood pressure

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan (KAKENHI: #26282199 for M. Iemitsu and 16K01746 for Y. Yamato).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, 1-1-1 Nojihigashi, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan

    Yosuke Yamato, Natsuki Hasegawa, Shumpei Fujie & Motoyuki Iemitsu

  2. Department of Physical Therapy, Aino University, Osaka, Japan

    Yosuke Yamato

  3. Department of Biomedical Engineering, Toyo University, Saitama, Japan

    Shigehiko Ogoh

Authors
  1. Yosuke Yamato
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  2. Natsuki Hasegawa
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  3. Shumpei Fujie
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  4. Shigehiko Ogoh
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  5. Motoyuki Iemitsu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Motoyuki Iemitsu.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Communicated by Toshio Moritani.

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Yamato, Y., Hasegawa, N., Fujie, S. et al. Acute effect of stretching one leg on regional arterial stiffness in young men. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 1227–1232 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3609-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3609-x

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