Acute Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure Responses to Resistance Exercise Followed by Manual Massage or Pneumatic Compression in Women

Abstract

de Oliveira, F, Reis, BML, Corrêa Neto, VG, Reis, LFdF, Vingren, JL, Marchetti, PH, Novaes, JdS, and Monteiro, ER. Acute systolic and diastolic blood pressure responses to resistance exercise followed by manual massage or pneumatic compression in women. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000–000, 2026—This study aimed to examine the acute effects of heavy resistance exercise (RE) followed by manual massage (MM) or lower-leg pneumatic compression bout (PCB) on systolic (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) during recovery in women. Thirteen recreationally resistance-trained and nonhypertensive women completed 3 conditions: Control (sitting quietly); RE followed by MM (RE+MM); and RE followed by PCB (RE+PCB), with 72 hours between conditions. RE consisted of 4 sets of back squat, bench press, leg press, and lateral pulldown at 80% of 1-repetition maximum until concentric failure. MM was applied unilaterally in a single set for 120 seconds to each of the quadriceps, hamstring, lateral thigh, multifidus, and calf regions. PCB consisted of intermittent pressure applied to the lower limbs at 80 mm Hg pressure following a caudal-cranial direction over a 20-minute period. Systolic and diastolic BP were measured before (PRE) and every 10 minutes postintervention for 60 minutes (Post-10 to Post-60). There were no differences ( p > 0.05) from PRE to any Post timepoints in SBP for any condition ( F = 0.616; p = 0.697). For DBP, a significant reduction from PRE was found at Post-20 ( p = 0.002; d = 0.35) for RE+MM. Despite the lack of significant differences, RE+MM and RE+PCB induced moderate-to-large effect sizes for reductions in SBP and RE+MM induced moderate-to-large effect sizes for reductions in DBP from PRE to Post timepoints. Effect sizes suggest a potential practical relevance of the combination of RE and MM for achieving postexercise hypotension in women and thus use as a nonpharmacological intervention when BP reductions are relevant.