The relationship between the blood pressure responses to exercise following training and detraining periods.

Exercise training lowers blood pressure (BP), while BP increases and returns to pre-training values with detraining. Yet, there is considerable variability in these BP responses. We examined the relationship between the BP responses after 6 months of training followed by 2 weeks of detraining among the same people.Subjects (n = 75) (X+SD, 50.2 ± 10.6 yr) were sedentary, obese, and had prehypertension. They completed an aerobic (n = 34); resistance (n = 28); or aerobic + resistance or concurrent (n = 13) exercise training program. We calculated a metabolic syndrome z score (MetSz). Subjects were classified as BP responders (BP decreased) or non-responders (BP increased) to training and detraining. Linear and multivariable regression tested the BP response. Chi Square tested the frequency of responders and non-responders. The systolic BP (SBP, r = -0.474) and diastolic (DBP, r = -0.540) response to training negatively correlated with detraining (p<0.01), independent of modality (p>0.05). Exercise responders reduced SBP 11.5 ± 7.8 (n = 29) and DBP 9.8 ± 6.2 mmHg (n = 31); non-responders increased SBP 7.9.± 10.9 (n = 46) and DBP 4.9 ± 7.1 mmHg (n = 44) (p<0.001). We found 65.5% of SBP training responders were SBP detraining non-responders; while 60.9% of SBP training non-responders were SBP detraining responders (p = 0.034). Similarly, 80.6% of DBP training responders were DBP detraining non-responders; while 59.1% of DBP training non-responders were DBP detraining responders (p<0.001). The SBP detraining response (r = -0.521), resting SBP (r = -0.444), and MetSz (r = 0.288) explained 44.8% of the SBP training response (p<0.001). The DBP detraining response (r = -0.553), resting DBP (r = -0.450), and MetSz (r = 0.463) explained 60.1% of the DBP training response (p