International journal of psychophysiology : official journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology
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Int J Psychophysiol · Oct 2009
Influence of blood pressure elevations by isometric exercise on pain perception in women.
Very little research has been conducted examining the relationship between blood pressure (BP), exercise, and hypoalgesia especially in women, even though research indicates that there is an interaction between pain modulatory and cardiovascular systems. The purpose of this study was to examine if pain perception was altered shortly after brief isometric contractions that caused an associated transient prior elevation in BP. Twenty-three healthy women completed two randomly-assigned sessions consisting of isometric exercise (25% MVC for 1-min and 3-min) and quiet rest. ⋯ Patterns of responses for PT, however, differed with a small increase in PT following 3-min vs 1-min of isometric exercise (d=0.38) while there was a small decrease in PT following 3-min vs 1-min of quiet rest (d=0.20). PR-I and PR-U were not found to change significantly following isometric exercise or quiet rest. It was concluded that both durations of isometric exercise significantly elevated BP, but these elevations in BP were not associated with a consistent alteration in pain perception in this sample of normotensive women.