Skip to main content
Bulletin of Faculty of Physical Therapy
Download PDF
  • Original article
  • Open access
  • Published:

The effect of 12 weeks of resistive exercises versus aerobic exercises in overweight hypertensive postmenopausal women

Bulletin of Faculty of Physical Therapy volume 24, pages 40–48 (2019)Cite this article

Abstract

Background

Hypertension is the most important risk factor that affects women in the early years of postmenopausal period. Approximately 30–50%of the women develop hypertension before starting the age of 60 years, and beginning of hypertension can cause a variety of manifestations that are frequently associated with menopause.

Objective

The aim of this study was to determine and compare the effect of 12 weeks of resistive exercises versus aerobic exercises for the treatment of postmenopausal hypertension.

Participants and methods

A total of 60 postmenopausal women with hypertension were included. Their ages ranged from 50 to 60 years old; their BMI ranged from 30 to 34.9 kg/m2; and their blood pressure ranged between 140/90 and 170/105 mmHg. They were randomly assigned to group A, which received resistive exercises; group B, which received aerobic exercises; or group C (control group), which received antihypertensive medication (bisoprolol fumarate 5 mg). The three groups followed the treatment program for 12 weeks. Assessment of the systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) for all participants in the three groups (A, B, and C) was carried out before, after 6 weeks, and after the end of the treatment program through the use of mercury column sphygmomanometer.

Results

All groups (A, B, and C) recorded a significant decrease in both SBP and DBP values (P=0.001, 0.001, and 0.003, respectively, and P=0.001, 0.001, and 0.009, respectively) after the end of the 12 weeks of the treatment program when compared with their corresponding values measured before treatment. However, the participants in group A exhibited a greater reduction in DBP more than groups B and C.

Conclusion

These results suggest that the resistance exercises may be more effective than aerobic exercises in reducing SBP and DBP in postmenopausal women.

References

  1. Maas AH, Franke HR. Women’s health in menopause with a focus on hypertension. Neth Heart J 2009; 17:68–72.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Tyagi R, Dhall M, Kapoor S. Bio-social predictors of hypertension among premenopausal and postmenopausal women. Sage 2015; 5:1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  3. Turky K, Elnahas N, Oruch R. Effects of exercise training on postmenopausal hypertension: Implications on nitric oxide levels. Med J Malaysia 2013; 68:459–464.

    Google Scholar 

  4. Atapattu P, Fernando D, Wasalathanthri S, de Silva A. Menopause and exercise: linking pathophysiology to effects. Arch Med 2015; 28:1–7.

    Google Scholar 

  5. Lizcano F, Guzmán G. Estrogen deficiency and the origin of obesity during menopause. review article. Biomed Res Int 2014; 757461:1–11.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Sarma S, Christian P. Exercise as a physiologic intervention to counteract hypertension: can a good idea go bad?. Hypertension 2007; 50:294–296.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Collier S, Frechette V, Sandberg K, Schafer P, Ji H, Smulyan H. Sex differences in resting hemodynamics and arterial stiffness following four weeks of resistance versus aerobic exercise training in individuals with pre-hypertension to stage 1 hypertension. Biol Sex Diff 2011; 2:1–7.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Cornelissen VA, Fagard RH. Effect of resistance training on resting blood pressure: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. J Hypertens 2005; 23:251–259.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Fahlman M, Boardley D, Lambert C, Flynn M. Effects of endurance training and resistance training on plasma lipoprotein profiles in elderly women. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2002; 57:54–60.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  10. Pal S, Radavelli-Bagatini S, Ho S. Potential benefits of exercise on blood pressure and vascular function. J Am Soc Hypertens 2013; 7:3–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Sattar M, Esfarjani F, Nezakat-Alhosseini M, Kordavani L. Effect of aquatic resistance training on blood pressure and physical function of postmenopausal women, Special Issue in National Hypertension Treatment ARYA. Atherosclerosis J 2012; 8:178–182.

    Google Scholar 

  12. Kokkinos PF, Giannelou A, Manolis A, Pittaras A. Physical activity in the prevention and management of high blood pressure. Hellenic J Cardiol 2009; 50:52–59.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  13. Brook R, Rubenfire M, Bisognano J, Elliott W, Lackland D, Townsend R, Rajagopalan S. Beyond medications and diet: alternative approaches to lowering blood pressure a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. Hypertension 2013; 13:1–24.

    Google Scholar 

  14. Sikiru L, Okoye CG. Therapeutic exercise and hypertension. Afr Res Rev 2008; 2:249–261.

    Google Scholar 

  15. Colado J, Triplett N. Effects of a short-term resistance program using elastic bands versus weight machines for sedentary middle-aged women. J Strength Cond Res 2008; 22:1441–1448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Colado J, Triplett N, Tella V, Saucedo P, Abellán J. Effects of aquatic resistance training on health and fitness in postmenopausal women. Eur J Appl Physiol 2009; 106:113–122.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Thomas G, Hong A, Tomlinson B, Lau E, Lam C, Sanderson J, Woo J. Effects of Tai Chi and resistance training on cardiovascular risk factors in elderly Chinese subjects. Clin Endocrinol (Oxf) 2005; 63:663–669.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Williams M, Haskell W, Ades P, Amsterdam E, Bittner V, Franklin B, Stewart S. Resistance exercise in individuals with and without cardiovascular disease. Circulation 2007; 116:572–584.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Tsai J, Yang H, Wang W, Hsieh M, Chen P, Kao CH, et al. The beneficial effect of regular endurance exercise training on blood pressure and quality of life in patients with hypertension. Clin Exp Hypertens 2004; 26:255–265.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  20. Iellamo F, Volterrani M. Effect of exercise training in essential arterial hypertension. Rev Bras Hipertens 2010; 17:68–71.

    Google Scholar 

  21. Schroeder EC. Independent and combined effects of aerobic and resistance training on blood pressure (ART-B) [graduate thesis and dissertation]. Ames, Iowa: Iowa State University; 2015. p. 14535.

    Google Scholar 

  22. Banz WJ, Maher MA, Thompson WG, Bassett DR, Moore W, Ashraf M, Zemel MB. Effects of resistance vs aerobic training on coronary artery disease risk factors. Exp Biol Med 2003; 228:434–440.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Figueroa A, Song Y, Park MS, Dae Y, Seo D, Gonzalez M. Combined resistance and endurance exercise training improves arterial stiffness, blood pressure, and muscle strength in postmenopausal women. Menopause 2011; 18:15–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Bateman LA, Slentz CA, Willis LH, Shields AT, Piner LW, Bales CW, et al. Comparison of aerobic versus resistance exercise training effects on metabolic syndrome (from the Studies of a Targeted Risk Reduction Intervention Through Defined Exercise − STRRIDE-AT/RT). Am J Cardiol 2011; 108:838–844.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  25. Ammar T. Effects of aerobic exercise on blood pressure and lipids in overweight hypertensive postmenopausal women. J Exerc Rehabil 2015; 11:145–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. Braith RW, Stewart KJ. Resistance exercise training: its role in the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Circulation 2006; 113:2642–2650.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  27. Braz NF, Carneiro MV, Oliveira-Ferreira F. Influence of aerobic training on cardiovascular and metabolic parameters in elderly hypertensive women. Int J Prev Med 2012; 3:652–659.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  28. Reid R, Abramson B, Blake J, Desindes S, Dodin S, Rowe T, et al. Managing menopause. J Obstet Gynaecol Can 2014; 311:1–13.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Paoli A, Pacelli QF, Moro T. Effects of high-intensity circuit training, low-intensity circuit training and endurance training on blood pressure and lipoproteins in middle-aged overweight men. Lipids Health Dis 2013; 12:1–8.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  30. Cardoso CG, Gomides RS, Queiroz AC, Pinto LG, da Silveira Lobo F, Tinucci T, et al. Acute and chronic effects of aerobic and resistance exercise on ambulatory blood pressure. Clinics (Sao Paulo) 2010; 65:317–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Carnethon MR, Evans NS, Church TS, Lewis CE, Schreiner PJ, Jacobs DR, et al. Joint associations of physical activity and aerobic fitness on the development of incident hypertension: coronary artery risk development in young adults. Hypertension 2010; 56:49–55.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  32. Ho SS, Bagatini SR, Dhaliwal SS, Hills AP, Pal S. Resistance, aerobic, and combination training on vascular function in overweight and obese adults. J Clin Hypertens 2012; 14:848–854.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Fagard RH. Exercise is good for your blood pressure: effects of endurance training and resistance training. Clin Exp Pharmacol Physiol 2006; 33:853–856.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy for Women’s Health, Faculty of Physical Therapy, Cairo University, 7 Ahmed Elzaiat St. Ben Elsaryat, EI Dokki-Giza, 12612, Egypt

    Ghada E. El-Refaye PhD

  2. Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Faculty of Medicine (girls), AlAzhar University, Cairo, Egypt

    Hanaa A. Younis

Authors
  1. Ghada E. El-Refaye PhD
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hanaa A. Younis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

This is an open access journal, and articles are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 License, which allows others to remix, tweak, and build upon the work non-commercially, as long as appropriate credit is given and the new creations are licensed under the identical terms.

Rights and permissions

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

El-Refaye, G., Younis, H. The effect of 12 weeks of resistive exercises versus aerobic exercises in overweight hypertensive postmenopausal women. Bull Fac Phys Ther 24, 40–48 (2019). https://doi.org/10.4103/bfpt.bfpt_19_18

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.4103/bfpt.bfpt_19_18

Keywords