Hemodynamic and Energy Cost Responses to Changes in Arm Exercise Technique

The purpose of this investigation was to determine heart rate, blood pressure, rate pressure product, and oxygen consumption responses to variations in arm exercise technique of a specific calisthenics for cardiac rehabilitation. Eight subjects performed the following four variations of an arm calisthenics: slow paused, slow continuous, fast paused, and fast continuous. Heart rate, blood pressure, and metabolic cost were measured during the last minute of each variation. An analysis of variance revealed significant differences between exercise variations (p less than .05) across means in heart rate, blood pressure, rate pressure product, and metabolic equivalent terms. Post hoc analysis revealed that changes in technique caused significantly large differences (p less than .05) in heart rate, blood pressure, and rate pressure product, but metabolic equivalent term levels did not change significantly. Changes in arm exercise technique result in significant changes in heart rate, blood pressure, and rate pressure product with little or no changes in metabolic equivalent terms. This finding suggests that prescribing exercise based on metabolic equivalent terms may not be indicative of cardiac stress unless the technique of exercise is carefully monitored and controlled.