Abstract
Purpose
Habitual Aerobic exercise reduces arterial stiffness, but effects of habitual swimming on arterial stiffness are not yet fully understood. Swimming can also increase systolic blood pressure (BP) in normotensive individuals. Accordingly, this cross-sectional study aimed to investigate arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers after considering the influence of BP.
Methods
Participants comprised 41 men (18–21 years), including 15 untrained controls (C), 11 competitive cyclists (aerobic-trained athletes; A), and 15 competitive swimmers (S). Arterial stiffness was assessed by brachial-ankle pulse-wave velocity (baPWV), heart-ankle pulse-wave velocity (haPWV), and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). CAVI is the measurement of arterial stiffness that is theoretically adjusted by BP.
Results
Although physical characteristics and handgrip strength did not differ between groups, peak oxygen uptake was significantly greater in A and S than in C. A tendency towards higher systolic BP and a significantly higher pulse pressure were found in S as compared to C and A. Most importantly, baPWV was significantly lower in A than in C or S, and no significant difference in baPWV was observed between C and S (C, 1027 ± 25; A, 852 ± 23; S, 1032 ± 24 cm/s). No significant difference in haPWV was observed. However, CAVI was significantly lower in A and S than in C, and did not differ significantly between A and S (C, 5.8 ± 0.2; A, 5.1 ± 0.2; S, 5.3 ± 0.2 unit).
Conclusion
These findings indicate that arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers is lower than in age-matched sedentary controls and similar to land-based aerobic-exercise individuals, after considering the influences of BP.
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Abbreviations
- ABI:
-
Ankle-brachial index
- A group:
-
Aerobic-trained athletes
- ANCOVA:
-
Analysis of covariance
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- BP:
-
Blood pressure
- baPWV:
-
Brachial ankle pulse-wave velocity
- CAVI:
-
Cardio-ankle vascular index
- C group:
-
Untrained control men
- CV:
-
Coefficients of variation
- DBP:
-
Diastolic blood pressure
- haPWV:
-
Heart ankle pulse-wave velocity
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- LBM:
-
Lean body mass
- PP:
-
Pulse pressure
- PWV:
-
Pulse-wave velocity
- S group:
-
Competitive swimmers
- SBP:
-
Systolic blood pressure
- \(\dot{V}\)O2 peak:
-
Peak oxygen uptake
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Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the study participants for their cooperation. This study was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology to MN (JSPS KAKENHI Grant number JP26750345).
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The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests regarding the publication of this article. Conceived and designed the study: MN and KT. Performed the study: MN and KT. Analyzed the data: MN and KT. Wrote the paper: MN, KT, and NM. Interpreted the data: MN and NM. All authors approved the final version of the article.
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Communicated by Massimo Pagani.
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Nishiwaki, M., Takahara, K. & Matsumoto, N. Arterial stiffness in young adult swimmers. Eur J Appl Physiol 117, 131–138 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3505-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-016-3505-9