Abstract
Purpose
Both constant and intermittent acute aerobic exercises have been found to decrease arterial stiffness. However, direct comparisons of these two types of exercise are sparse. It is not known which type of exercise has the greatest effect.
Methods
We evaluated the haemodynamic responses in 15 males (age 48.5 ± 1.3 years; BMI 27.5 ± 0.8 kg m−2) following acute constant (CE) and intermittent cycling exercise (IE). Duration and heart rate were matched during both exercises (131.8 ± 3.2 bpm for CE and 132.0 ± 3.1 bpm for IE). Central and peripheral arterial stiffness was assessed through pulse wave velocity (PWV). Plasma concentrations of nitric oxide (NO), atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), blood lactate, noradrenaline, and adrenaline were measured before and after each exercise.
Results
Central (+ 1.8 ± 7.4 and − 6.5 ± 6.8% for CE and IE) and upper limb PWV (+ 2.7 ± 6.2 and − 8 ± 4.6% for CE and IE) were not significantly altered although a small decrease (small effect size) was observed after IE. However, lower limb PWV significantly decreased after exercises (− 7.3 ± 5.7 and − 15.9 ± 4% after CE and IE), with a larger effect after IE.
Conclusions
Greater decrease in lower limb PWV occurred after IE despite greater heart rate. This may be due to the higher blood levels of lactate during IE, while NO, ANP, noradrenaline, and adrenaline levels remained not statistically different from CE. These results underlined the importance of lactate in triggering the post-exercise vascular response to exercise, as well as its regional characteristic.
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Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- ANP:
-
Atrial natriuretic peptide
- BP:
-
Blood pressure
- CE:
-
Constant exercise
- DBP:
-
Diastolic blood pressure
- ECG:
-
Electrocardiogram
- IE:
-
Intermittent exercise
- HPLC:
-
High performance liquid chromatography
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- HRV:
-
Heart rate variability
- MBP:
-
Mean blood pressure
- NO:
-
Nitric oxide
- PTT:
-
Pulse transit time
- PEH:
-
Post-exercise hypotension
- PWV:
-
Pulse wave velocity
- PWVUL:
-
Pulse wave velocity upper limb
- PWVLL:
-
Pulse wave velocity lower limb
- rMSSD:
-
Root mean square of the successive differences
- SBP:
-
Systolic blood pressure
- SDNN:
-
Standard deviation of the r-r interval
- SEM:
-
Standard error of the mean
- TD:
-
Time delay
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the subjects for their time and enthusiasm. We also thank to National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq-Brazil) for the support, C. Capitan for technical assistance and F. Ecarnot for translation and editorial assistance. The research was supported by grants from the Ministry for Higher education, Research Innovation and from Tomsk Polytechnic University Competitiveness Enhancement Program grant, Project no. ВИУ-ИСГТ-108/2017-TPU CEP-HSTI-108/2017 and by a Young Investigator Grant (from the Region of Franche-Comté, France).
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Conception of the study: LM., AM and NT designed the study and carried out the experiment of the presented idea and developed the theory. DP, LM, AM and NT analyzed data, DP, LM, AM, MB, BG, JR, and NT interpreted results of experiments. DP prepared figures. DP, LM, NT drafted, edited and revised manuscript but all authors contributed to the final version of the manuscript, provided critical feedback.
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Communicated by Massimo Pagani.
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Peres, D., Mourot, L., Ménétrier, A. et al. Intermittent versus constant aerobic exercise in middle-aged males: acute effects on arterial stiffness and factors influencing the changes. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 1625–1633 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3893-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-018-3893-0