Comparison of Acute and Chronic Responses of Blood Pressure, Pulse Wave Velocity, and Ankle-brachial Index to Two Different High-intensity Interval Training Protocols

Introduction The present study aimed to compare the acute and chronic responses of blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and peripheral arterial disease to 11 weeks of two different high-intensity interval training (HIIT) protocols in hypertensive patients.
This study was conducted on 31 hypertensive patients who were randomly assigned into SDHIIT (n=10), LDHIIT (n=11), and control (n=10) groups. The patients in the SDHIIT group were subjected to HIIT protocol, including 27 repetitions of 30 sec at 80-100% VO2peak with 30-sec recovery intervals at VO2peak of 10-20%. On the other hand, the LDHIIT group performed four repetitions of 4 min at 75-90% VO2peak interspersed by four 4-min recovery repetitions at the VO2peak of 15-30%. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure, pulse wave velocity (PWV), and ankle-brachial index (ABI) were measured before and after the first and last exercise sessions.
There was no significant differences between the two groups in terms of PWV after one session of training (P>0.05). However, the SBP, DBP, and ABI significantly decreased in the two groups (P0.05).
Based on the findings of the study, both HIIT protocols improved blood pressure and hemodynamic factors in acute forms. However, SDHIIT was more effective than LDHIIT in the improvement of blood pressure and other variables in the long run.