Cardiovascular stress reactivity tasks successfully predict the hypotensive response of isometric handgrip training in hypertensives

This study aimed to determine whether: (a) isometric handgrip (IHG) training lowers resting blood pressure (BP), (b) cardiovascular reactivity to a serial subtraction (SST), IHG (IHGT), and cold pressor (CPT) task predicts this hypotensive response, and (c) cardiovascular reactivity is attenuated posttraining. Resting BP and cardiovascular reactivity to a SST, IHGT, and CPT were measured in 24 hypertensives (5174 years) before and after 10 weeks of IHG training (n=12) or control (n=12). IHG training lowered resting BP (8/5mmHg), whereby the decrease in systolic BP was correlated to pretraining systolic BP reactivity to the SST (r=.85) and IHGT (r=.79; all ps<.01), but not the CPT (r=.34; p>.01). Furthermore, following IHG training, systolic BP reactivity to the SST (7mmHg) and IHGT (8mmHg) was reduced (all ps<.01). The results offer promising implications for hypertensives and may provide a tool to identify IHG training responders.