Do Continuous And Intermittent Exercises Sets Induce Similar Cardiovascular Responses In The Elderly Women?

There is a lack of information about elderly acute cardiovascular responses in the elderly during exercise involving different muscle groups and strategies of load/repetition interaction (LRI) in continuous and intermittent sets. The purpose of this study was to compare heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), rate-pressure product (RPP) and quality of exercise performance (QEx) of upper and lower body exercises (arms abduction and hip flexion) in different situations of LRI. Twelve healthy women aged 65 to 85 years old volunteered to this study. The subjects performed both exercises at 12 maximal repetitions workload, continuously (2 sets of 12 reps) and alternately (4 sets of 6 reps). HR was measured with a cardiotachometer and SBP through auscultation technique at the end of the last repetition of each set. The exercises were recorded in video to evaluate QEx. At least for the selected exercises, LRI did not influence QEx. However, SBP and RPP values for the intermittent sets were significantly higher than for continuous situations (p < 0.05). The authors concluded that continuous sets seem to be associated to greater cardiovascular stress in elder subjects, mainly because of SBP responses during the exercise.

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