Circulatory Responses to Weight Lifting, Walking, and Stair Climbing in Older Males
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OBJECTIVES: To compare the heart rate and intra‐arterial blood pressure responses during weight lifting, horizontal and uphill walking, and stair climbing in older male subjects.DESIGN: We used intra‐brachial artery catheterization to compare the arterial blood pressure (ABP) and heart rate (HR) responses during 10 repetitions (˜40 s) of single‐arm curl (SAC) and single‐arm overhead military press (SAMP) (70% of the one repetition maximum–1RM); 12 repetitions (˜50 s) of single‐ (SLP) and double‐leg press (DLP) weight‐lifting exercises (80% of 1RM); 10 minutes of horizontal treadmill walking (T10) at 2.5 mph holding a 20‐pound weight in minutes 4 to 6 (T104–6) and 30 pounds in minutes 8 to 10 (T108–10); 4 minutes of treadmill walking (T4) at 3.0 mph up an 8% incline; and 12 flights (192 steps) of stair climbing (STR) at 60 to 65 steps/minute on a Stairmaster 6000 ergometer (˜3 minutes).SETTING: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.PARTICIPANTS: Seventeen healthy males aged (X̄ ± SE) 64.4 ± 0.6 years.MEASUREMENTS: Continuous intra‐arterial measurements of systolic, diastolic, and mean arterial pressure and heart rate and rate‐pressure product.RESULTS: The peak values of HR, ABP and rate‐pressure product (HR · BPs/1000;(RPP,103)) were not systematically ordered among the various activities. The lowest peak values for all variables were recorded during the initial 4 minutes of horizontal treadmill walking. The STR and T4 walking exercises elicited higher HRs (151 ±3.2 and 121 ± 3.4 bpm) than the weight lifting (range from 100 ± 4.8 (SAC) to 113 ± 3.8 bpm (SAMP)), but the converse was true for diastolic pressure (range from 128 ± 6.3 (SAC) to 151 ± 4.8 mm Hg (SAMP) versus 101 ± 2.5 (T4) to 118 ± 3.4 mm Hg (T108–10) and mean arterial pressure (range from 145 ± 4.5 (SAC) to 158 ± 4.8 mm Hg (SAMP) versus 129 ± 3.4 in T4 to 148 ± 3.8 (T108–10) and 157 ± 4.1 mm Hg (STR)). The peak systolic pressure was greatest in STR (271 ± 9.6 mm Hg) followed by SAMP (261 ± 9.3 mmHg) and T108–10 (244 ± 6.4 mm Hg) and was lowest in SAC (224 ± 10.5 mm Hg) and T104–6 (220 ± 5.7 mm Hg). The peak RPP descended in sequence from STR (41 ± 1.8), SAMP (29.8 ± 1.7), T4 (28.1 ± 1.3), DLP (27.2 ± 1.3), T108–10 (27.1 ± 1.4), SLP (25.4 ± 1.7), T104–6 (22.7 ± 1.2) and SAC (22.0 ± 2.2).CONCLUSION: We concluded that older adults who engage in weight lifting with heavy submaximal loads are exposed to no more peak circulatory stress than that created during a few minutes of inclined walking. Moreover, climbing only three to four flights of stairs at a moderate pace (–50–70 s) elicits peak circulatory demands similar to, but at a much more rapid rate of adjustment than, 10 minutes of horizontal walking at 2.5 mph intermittently carrying a 30‐pound weight or 4 minutes of walking up a moderately steep slope. J Am Geriatr Soc 44:121–125, 1996.
