Resistance and aerobic physical activity and high blood pressure

Background: The US physical activity (PA) guidelines have focused primarily on aerobic PA. However, few studies have evaluated whether there are benefits of resistance PA such as weight lifting on blood pressure (BP), independent of aerobic PA. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study in 311 men and women aged 30-93 years (means age, 46) from April-June in 2013. All were free of heart attack, stroke, or cancer, and not taking high BP medication. PA was assessed on the questionnaire over the past 30 days. High BP was defined as resting systolic/diastolic BP ≥140/90 mmHg. Results: Compared with the inactive participants not meeting the resistance or aerobic PA guidelines, the ORs (95% CIs) of high BP were 0.35 (0.16-0.79) for participants meeting the resistance PA guidelines (≥2 days/week) and 0.49 (0.21-1.15) for participants meeting the aerobic PA guidelines (≥150 minutes of moderate-intensity, ≥75 minutes of vigorous-intensity PA a week, or a combination of both) in the multivariable logistic regression after adjusting for age, sex, body mass index, smoking status, alcohol intake, and dietary restriction. After further adjustment for aerobic PA, participants meeting the resistance PA guidelines had still a lower OR (95% CI) of 0.38 (0.15-0.95) of high BP. Compared with participants not meeting the resistance PA guidelines (<2 days/week), the ORs (95% CIs) of high BP were 0.22 (0.06-0.75), 0.47 (0.13-1.69), and 0.70 (0.20-2.41) for 2-3, 4-5, and ≥6 days/week of resistance PA, respectively. Discussion: Resistance PA was independently associated with high BP in middle-aged adults.