Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this study was to quantify obesity-related differences in systemic physiologic responses and cerebral hemodynamics during physical work to exhaustion.
Methods
Twenty men, ten who are obese and ten of healthy weight, completed an incremental exercise lifting a box from 25 cm below to 25 cm above knuckle height at 10 lifts/min. The lifting started with a load of 5 kg and was increased by 2 kg every 2 min until participants reached either voluntary fatigue or two of the American College of Sports Medicine endpoints for maximum aerobic capacity. Cardiorespiratory and prefrontal hemodynamic responses were measured simultaneously during rest, incremental lifting, and recovery.
Results
The non-obese group lifted for ~64 % longer than the obese group. Both groups reached similar peak pulmonary oxygen uptake at the termination of exercise; however, when these responses were expressed relative to their body mass, the obese group had ~60 % reduced oxygen uptake. As the load increased, steady increases in cerebral oxygenation and blood volume responses were observed in both groups up to ~90 % of the lifting trial. In contrast, at higher intensities (near 100 % of the lifting trial), cerebral oxygenation and blood volume decreased in the obese group, whereas it plateaued or slightly increased in the non-obese group, with greatest cerebral oxygen extraction occurring at the cessation of lifting trial.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that acute exposure to repetitive lifting exercise decreases cardiorespiratory responses and cerebral hemodynamics in the group who are obese, which may contribute to their reduced lifting capacity.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Abbreviations
- ACSM:
-
American College of Sports Medicine
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- Hb:
-
Hemoglobin
- HHb:
-
Deoxygenated hemoglobin
- NIRS:
-
Near-infrared spectroscopy
- O2Hb:
-
Oxygenated hemoglobin
- PetCO2 :
-
End tidal partial pressure of carbon dioxide
- RPE:
-
Rating of perceived exertion
- tBV:
-
Total blood volume
- TOI:
-
Tissue oxygenation index
References
Anderson CK (2010) Relationship between aerobic capacity, injury risk and tenure for new-hire delivery drivers. Ergonomics 53:1395–1401. doi:10.1080/00140139.2010.524252
Bhambhani Y, Norris S, Bell G (1994) Prediction of stroke volume from oxygen pulse measurements in untrained and trained men. Can J Appl Physiol 19:49–59. doi:10.1139/h94-003
Bhambhani Y, Malik R, Mookerjee S (2007) Cerebral oxygenation declines at exercise intensities above the respiratory compensation threshold. Respir Physiol Neurobiol 156:196–202. doi:10.1016/j.resp.2006.08.009
Bilzon JLJ, Scarpello EG, Bilzon E, Allsopp AJ (2002) Generic task-related occupational requirements for Royal Naval personnel. Occup Med 52:503–510. doi:10.1093/occmed/52.8.503
BLS (2013) Nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses requiring days away from work, 2012. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/osh2.nr0.htm
Borg G (1998) Borg’s perceived exertion and pain scales. Human kinetics, Champaign
Cavuoto LA, Nussbaum MA (2013a) Differences in functional performance of the shoulder musculature with obesity and aging. Int J Ind Ergon 43:393–399. doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2013.08.001
Cavuoto LA, Nussbaum MA (2013b) Obesity-related differences in muscular capacity during sustained isometric exertions. Appl Ergon 44:254–260. doi:10.1016/j.apergo.2012.07.011
Cavuoto LA, Nussbaum MA (2014) The influences of obesity and age on functional performance during intermittent upper extremity tasks. J Occup Environ Hyg 11:583–590
Cohen J (1988) Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. Lawrence Erlbaum, Mahwah
Commissaris DA, Toussaint HM (1996) Dissociated oxygen uptake response to an incremental intermittent repetitive lifting and lowering exercise in humans. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 74:264–273. doi:10.1007/BF00377449
Corbeil P, Plamondon A, Teasdale N, Handrigan G (2013) Biomechanical differences between obese and healthy-weight workers in manual materials handling. In: Proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, vol 57, pp 958–961. doi:10.1177/1541931213571213
Dempsey PG (2003) A survey of lifting and lowering tasks. Int J Ind Ergon 31:11–16. doi:10.1016/S0169-8141(02)00104-X
Dempsey P, Ciriello V, Maikala R, O’Brien N (2008) Oxygen consumption prediction models for individual and combination materials handling tasks. Ergonomics 51:1776–1789. doi:10.1080/00140130802331625
Eksioglu M (2011) Endurance time of grip-force as a function of grip-span, posture and anthropometric variables. Int J Ind Ergon 41:401–409. doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2011.05.006
Franco RL, Fallow BA, Huang CJ, Acevedo EO, Arrowood JA, Evans RK (2013) Forearm blood flow response to acute exercise in obese and non-obese males. Eur J Appl Physiol 113:2015–2023. doi:10.1007/s00421-013-2626-7
Frey Law LA, Avin KG (2010) Endurance time is joint-specific: a modelling and meta-analysis investigation. Ergonomics 53:109–129
Hammermeister JON, Page RM, Dolny D, Burnham TIM (2001) Occupational physical activity as an indicator of health and fitness. Percept Mot Skills 92:121–127. doi:10.2466/pms.2001.92.1.121
Ikeda ER, Borg A, Brown D, Malouf J, Showers KM, Li S (2009) The valsalva maneuver revisited: the influence of voluntary breathing on isometric muscle strength. J Strength Cond Res/Natl Strength Cond Assoc 23:127–132. doi:10.1519/JSC.0b013e31818eb256
Jackson AS, Pollock ML (1978) Generalized equations for predicting body density of men. Br J Nutr 40:497–504. doi:10.1079/BJN19780152
Kell R, Bhambhani Y (2003) Cardiorespiratory and hemodynamic responses during repetitive incremental lifting and lowering in healthy males and females. Eur J Appl Physiol 90:1–9. doi:10.1007/s00421-002-0776-0
Kell RT, Bhambhani Y (2006) In vivo erector spinae muscle blood volume and oxygenation measures during repetitive incremental lifting and lowering in chronic low back pain participants. Spine 31:2630–2637. doi:10.1097/01.brs.0000240647.57959.72
Kern PA, Simsolo RB, Fournier M (1999) Effect of weight loss on muscle fiber type fiber size, capillarity, and succinate dehydrogenase activity in humans. J Clin Endocrinol Metab 84:4185–4190. doi:10.1210/jc.84.11.4185
Khalil TM, Genaidy AM, Asfour SS, Vinciguerra T (1985) Physiological Limits in Lifting. Am Ind Hyg Assoc J 46:220–224. doi:10.1080/15298668591394699
Koch A, Ivers M, Gehrt A, Schnoor P, Rump A, Rieckert H (2005) Cerebral autoregulation is temporarily disturbed in the early recovery phase after dynamic resistance exercise. Clin Auton Res 15:83–91. doi:10.1007/s10286-005-0249-8
Lavie CJ, McAuley PA, Church TS, Milani RV, Blair SN (2014) Obesity and cardiovascular diseasesimplications regarding fitness fatness, and severity in the obesity paradox. J Am Coll Cardiol 63:1345–1354. doi:10.1016/j.jacc.2014.01.022
Lazzer S, Salvadego D, Porcelli S, Rejc E, Agosti F, Sartorio A, Grassi B (2013) Skeletal muscle oxygen uptake in obese patients: functional evaluation by knee-extension exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 113:2125–2132. doi:10.1007/s00421-013-2647-2
Levinger I, Goodman C, Hare DL, Jerums G, Morris T, Selig S (2009) Psychological responses to acute resistance exercise in men and women who are obese. J Strength Cond Res 23:1548–1552
Lin TC, Verma SK, Courtney TK (2013) Does obesity contribute to non-fatal occupational injury? evidence from the national longitudinal survey of youth scand. J Work Environ Health 39:268–275
Maffiuletti N et al (2007) Differences in quadriceps muscle strength and fatigue between lean and obese subjects. Eur J Appl Physiol 101:51–59
Maffiuletti N, Ratel S, Sartorio A, Martin V (2013) The impact of obesity on in vivo human skeletal muscle function. Curr Obes Rep 2:251–260. doi:10.1007/s13679-013-0066-7
Maikala RV, Bhambhani YN (2006) Comparisons of physiological and perceptual responses in healthy men and women during standardized arm cranking and task-specific pushing-pulling. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 79:509–520
Maikala R, King S, Bhambhani Y (2005) Cerebral oxygenation and blood volume responses to seated whole-body vibration. Eur J Appl Physiol 95:447–453. doi:10.1007/s00421-005-0013-8
Maikala RV, Ciriello VM, Dempsey PG, O’Brien NV (2010) Comparison of psychophysiological responses in healthy men and women workers during cart pushing on two walkways of high and low coefficient of friction. Int J Ind Ergon 40:171–179. doi:10.1016/j.ergon.2009.06.003
McConnell T, Swett D Jr, Jeresaty R, Missri J, Al-Hani A (1984) The hemodynamic and physiologic differences between exercise modalities. J Sports Med Phys Fitness 24:238–245
Neary JP, Roberts ADW, Leavins N, Harrison MF, Croll JC, Sexsmith JR (2008) Prefrontal cortex oxygenation during incremental exercise in chronic fatigue syndrome. Clin Physiol Funct Imaging 28:364–372. doi:10.1111/j.1475-097X.2008.00822.x
Nindl BC, Sharp MA, Mello RP, Rice VJ, Murphy MM, Patton JF (1997) Gender comparison of peak oxygen uptake: repetitive box lifting versus treadmill running. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 77:112–117. doi:10.1007/s004210050308
Nussbaum MA, Clark LL, Lanza MA, Rice KM (2001) Fatigue and endurance limits during intermittent overhead work. AIHAJ Am Ind Hyg Assoc 62:446–456
Ofir D, Laveneziana P, Webb KA, O’Donnell DE (2007) Ventilatory and perceptual responses to cycle exercise in obese women. J Appl Physiol 102:2217–2226. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00898.2006
Ogden CL, Yanovski SZ, Carroll MD, Flegal KM (2007) The epidemiology of obesity. Gastroenterology 132:2087–2102
Ogoh S et al (2005) The effect of changes in cardiac output on middle cerebral artery mean blood velocity at rest and during exercise. J Physiol 569:697–704. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2005.095836
Petrofsky JS, Lind AR (1978) Comparison of metabolic and ventilatory responses of men to various lifting tasks and bicycle ergometry. J Appl Physiol Respir Environ Exerc Physiol 45:60–63
Rasmussen P, Dawson EA, Nybo L, van Lieshout JJ, Secher NH, Gjedde A (2007) Capillary-oxygenation-level-dependent near-infrared spectrometry in frontal lobe of humans. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab 27:1082–1093
Rooks CR, Thom NJ, McCully KK, Dishman RK (2010) Effects of incremental exercise on cerebral oxygenation measured by near-infrared spectroscopy: a systematic review. Prog Neurobiol 92:134–150. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2010.06.002
Rupp T, Perrey S (2008) Prefrontal cortex oxygenation and neuromuscular responses to exhaustive exercise. Eur J Appl Physiol 102:153–163. doi:10.1007/s00421-007-0568-7
Salvadori A, Fanari P, Mazza P, Agosti R, Longhini E (1992) Work capacity and cardiopulmonary adaptation of the obese subject during exercise testing CHEST Journal 101:674–679. doi:10.1378/chest.101.3.674
Salvadori A et al (1999) Oxygen Uptake and Cardiac Performance in Obese and Normal Subjects during Exercise. Respiration 66:25–33
Sartorio A, Proietti M, Marinone P, Agosti F, Adorni F, Lafortuna C (2004) Influence of gender, age and BMI on lower limb muscular power output in a large population of obese men and women. Int J Obes 28:91–98
Schmier JK, Jones ML, Halpern MT (2006) Cost of obesity in the workplace. Scand J Work Environ Health 32:5–11
Secher NH, Seifert T, Van Lieshout JJ (2008) Cerebral blood flow and metabolism during exercise: implications for fatigue. J Appl Physiol 104:306–314. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00853.2007
Sharp MA, Harman E, Vogel JA, Knapik JJ, Legg SJ (1988) Maximal aerobic capacity for repetitive lifting: comparison with three standard exercise testing modes. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol 57:753–760. doi:10.1007/BF01075999
Skinner JS, Hutsler R, Bergsteinova V, Buskirk E (1972) The validity and reliability of a rating scale of perceived exertion. Med Sci Sports 5:94–96
Subudhi AW, Dimmen AC, Roach RC (2007) Effects of acute hypoxia on cerebral and muscle oxygenation during incremental exercise. J Appl Physiol 103:177–183. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01460.2006
Subudhi AW, Lorenz MC, Fulco CS, Roach RC (2008) Cerebrovascular responses to incremental exercise during hypobaric hypoxia: effect of oxygenation on maximal performance. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol 294:H164–H171. doi:10.1152/ajpheart.01104.2007
Subudhi AW, Miramon BR, Granger ME, Roach RC (2009) Frontal and motor cortex oxygenation during maximal exercise in normoxia and hypoxia. J Appl Physiol 106:1153–1158. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.91475.2008
Swain DP, Brawner CA (2012) ACSM’s resource manual for guidelines for exercise testing and prescription. Wolters Kluwer Health, Philadelphia
Taylor JL, Gandevia SC (2008) A comparison of central aspects of fatigue in submaximal and maximal voluntary contractions J Appl Physiol 104:542–550. doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.01053.2007
Vogiatzis I et al (2011) Frontal cerebral cortex blood flow, oxygen delivery and oxygenation during normoxic and hypoxic exercise in athletes. J Physiol 589:4027–4039. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2011.210880
Volkow ND et al (2009) Inverse Association between BMI and prefrontal metabolic activity in healthy adults. Obesity 17:60–65. doi:10.1038/oby.2008.469
Waters TR, Putz-Anderson V, Garg A, Fine LJ (1993a) Revised NIOSH equation for the design and evaluation of manual lifting tasks. Ergonomics 36:749–776
Waters TR, Putz-Anderson V, Garg A, Fine LJ (1993b) Revised NIOSH equation for the design and evaluation of manual lifting tasks. Ergonomics 36:749–776. doi:10.1080/00140139308967940
Willeumier KC, Taylor DV, Amen DG (2011) Elevated BMI Is associated with decreased blood flow in the prefrontal cortex using SPECT imaging in healthy adults. Obesity 19:1095–1097. doi:10.1038/oby.2011.16
Wostyn P, Audenaert K, De Deyn PP (2009) The valsalva maneuver and alzheimer’s disease: is there a link? Curr Alzheimer Res 6:59–68. doi:10.2174/156720509787313943
Yang G, Chany A-M, Parakkat J, Burr D, Marras WS (2007) The effects of work experience, lift frequency and exposure duration on low back muscle oxygenation. Clinical Biomechanics 22:21–27. doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2006.07.005
Yang G, Marras WS, Best TM (2011) The biochemical response to biomechanical tissue loading on the low back during physical work exposure. Clin Biomech 26:431–437. doi:10.1016/j.clinbiomech.2011.01.005
Acknowledgments
The authors thank Niall O’Brien, Jacob Banks, and Amanda Rivard for their efforts in experimental setup and data collection. This work was supported by the American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) Foundation-Liberty Mutual Safety Research Fellowship awarded to the first author. All of the experiments were conducted at the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety in Hopkinton, MA during the second author’s time at the Research Institute. The results do not represent the views or endorsement of the Liberty Mutual Research Institute for Safety, the ASSE Foundation, or Providence Health and Services.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by William J. Kraemer.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cavuoto, L.A., Maikala, R.V. Role of obesity on cerebral hemodynamics and cardiorespiratory responses in healthy men during repetitive incremental lifting. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 1905–1917 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3171-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3171-3