BACKGROUND Arterial hypertension is a serious health problem affecting mainly the elderly population. Recent studies have considered both aerobic and resistance exercises as a non-pharmacological aid for arterial hypertension treatment. However, the cardiovascular responses of the elderly to isometric resistance exercise (eg, isometric handgrip [IHG]) have not yet been documented. OBJECTIVE T...

The incidence of arrhythmias during isometric sustained handgrip exercise and during dynamic graded bicycle exercise was compared in a group of 45 patients with various forms of heart disease on no antiarrhythmic therapy. Atrial arrhythmias were equally common during handgrip and bicycle exercise but ventricular arrhythmias were more frequent during handgrip exercise. Of the 45 patients, 38 per...

The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the association of a novel test of upper body isometric strength against a 1RM bench press measurement. Forty college age adults (n = 20 female, n = 20 male; age 22.8 ± 2.8 years; body height 171.6 ± 10.8 cm; body mass 73.5 ± 16.3 kg; body fat 23.1 ± 5.4%) volunteered for the present investigation. The participants reported to the lab on t...

Malignant hypertension seems to be the consequence of very high blood pressure. Furthermore, an increase in sympathetic and renin-angiotensin system activity is considered to be the main mechanisms producing malignant hypertension. In the present study, 10 offspring of malignant hypertensive (OMH) parents (age 28 +/- 5 years, 7 males, 3 females, 2 white and 8 non-white) and 10 offspring of norm...

Background: Osteoarthritis is a chronic and debilitating disease that often occurs in elderly populations, causing pain and loss of balance. The aim of this study was to compare the effect of Tai Chi and isometric exercises on the pain and balance in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Methods: In this study, 24 male subjects with knee osteoarthritis were selec...

PURPOSE Normal-tension glaucoma has been found to be related to transient increases in intraocular pressure (IOP). Isometric exercise induces a pressor response with a characteristic increase in blood pressure. The purpose of the present study was to investigate how transient changes in systemic blood pressure, induced by isometric exercise, affect IOP. METHODS Nine healthy volunteers partici...

It has been suggested that the effects of old age on the ability to resist fatigue may be task dependent. To test one aspect of this hypothesis, we compared the neuromuscular responses of nine young (26 +/- 4 yr, mean +/- SD) and nine older (72 +/- 4 yr) healthy, relatively sedentary men to intermittent isometric (3 min, 5 s contract/5 s rest) and dynamic (90 at 90 degrees /s) maximum voluntary...

Objectives: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a chronic and disabling disease of the nervous system. This study was conducted to determine the effect of isometric exercises on balance and ability in the patients with MS.  Methods: Sixty MS patients participated in this randomized controlled trial study and patients were randomly assigned into treatment and control groups. Treatment group partici...

The dramatic increase in skin blood flow and sweating observed during heat stress is mediated by poorly understood sympathetic cholinergic mechanisms. One theory suggests that a single sympathetic cholinergic nerve mediates cutaneous active vasodilation (AVD) and sweating via cotransmission of separate neurotransmitters, because AVD and sweating track temporally and directionally when activated...