Our recent paper evaluating acute HRV and blood pressure responses to two different styles of upper-body resistance exercise in trained men shows that:
– For greater hypotensive effects, traditional sets > cluster sets
– For faster cardiac-parasympathetic reactivation, cluster sets > traditional sets
Full text below:
Highlights from our latest study in JSCR. Full-text available here.
We aimed to determine how 10 min of post-resistance exercise cycling affects aortic stiffness responses and next day recovery markers in well-trained men.
– A 10-min bout of air bike cycling was ineffective at countering acute RE-induced increases in cfPWV (aortic stiffness), likely because of the rapid and unanticipated cfPWV return to baseline by Post-RE 15min in both conditions (intervention & control).
– Accelerated post-RE cfPWV normalization may be an adaptation to habitual RE, as acute RE-induced aortic stiffness typically persists for >60 min in less experienced lifters.
– Thus, targeting the attenuation of acute post-RE increases in cfPWV is likely unnecessary, but whether the intervention exerts chronic effects, such as limiting long-term RT-induced increases in resting cfPWV, remains TBD.
– Despite no effect of the intervention on cfPWV at the group level, it altered changes at the individual level, such that those with a lower relative cycling power output at the target HR exhibited greater reductions in cfPWV.
– This may indicate that lifters with lower aerobic fitness may derive greater AE-induced destiffening effects after acute RE. – Finally, the AE intervention neither enhanced nor impaired recovery indicators (HRV, subjective, barbell velocity), alleviating concerns about short-term AE interfering with next-day recovery status or performance.
HRVtraining 