THE BLOOD PRESSURE RESPONSE TO SIMULATED STAIR CLIMBING ON A STEP TREADMILL

Fromme A, Zumkley A, Mooren FC, Thorwesten L, Rudack P, Voelker K

Research article in edited proceedings (conference)

Abstract

It has been proved in epidemiological studies that stair climbing influences the risk of CHD, but little is known about the blood pressure response to this daily life activity. PURPOSE To examine the increase of blood pressure during exercise on a step treadmill by means of an noninvasive beat-to-beat method (Finapress) and to determine the influence of the individual factors gender, age, weight, and training status on the blood pressure. METHODS 16.4 years) performed on a□57 subjects (32 female, 25 male; mean age 41.1 Stepmill 7000 PT two stages of 15 sec (S1) and 30 sec (S2), corresponding to the average time needed to climb one resp. two floors, which had been determined by a preliminary study with 219 test persons climbing stairs under daily life 23.2□circumstances. RESULTS The systolic blood pressure increased from 135.4 28.4 mmHg during S2 with□27.6 mmHg during S1 and 166.9□mmHg at rest to 144.2 single maxima of more than 200 mmHg. The average values in S1 as well as in S2 were significantly (p < 0.05) higher in the group of older persons (46–72 years). The diastolic blood pressure remained nearly unchanged. The heart rate 13.8 bpm□14.4 bpm in S1 and 126.7□14.1 bpm at rest to 114.0ĭncreased from 82.4 1.6 in S2.□1.8 in S1 and 11.6□n S2. The rate of perceived exertion was 10.3 CONCLUSION Stair climbing of one or two floors, done with a normally used intensity, leads on average to moderate increases of blood pressure and heart rate, while the actual workload is relatively high. This difference is probably caused by the short workload period. The necessary time to adapt blood pressure to load is much longer than the climbing time. However there are some cases in which critical hypertensive values of blood pressure can be observed. When recommending this exercise modality for cardiorespiratory benefits, these overreactions must be taken into account.

Details zur Publikation

Release year: 2003
Language in which the publication is written: English
Link to the full text: https://journals.lww.com/acsm-msse/Fulltext/2003/05001/THE_BLOOD_PRESSURE_RESPONSE_TO_SIMULATED_STAIR.854.aspx