عباسعلی گائینی

Introduction: The current study aimed to evaluate the effects of different musical intensities on performance and cardiovascular responses after incremental exercise in male athletes.  Materials and Methods: In this quasi-experimental study with a cross-over design, 15 male athletes were voluntarily selected. The study subjects performed Bruce protocol, along with listening to progressive music, slow music, and without music until exhaustion.  Results: This study indicated that systolic and diastolic blood pressure, maximum oxygen consumption, maximum heart rate, and time to exhaustion insignificantly decreased while listening to slow music, compared to the no music (P=0.134, P=0.993, P=0.999, P=0.160, P=0.819, respectively). Furthermore, while listening to progressive music, compared to no music, the systolic and diastolic blood pressure, as well as maximum heart rate insignificantly increased (P=0.735, P=0.999, P=0.496, respectively); the maximum oxygen consumption and the time of exhaustion significantly increased in the study subjects (P=0.043, P=0.008 respectively). Moreover, while listening to progressive music, compared to slow music, the systolic blood pressure, maximum oxygen consumption, maximum heart rate, and the time of exhaustion significantly increased (P=0.004, P=0.009, P=0.002, P=0.001 respectively); however, diastolic blood pressure presented an insignificant decrease (P=0.253).  Conclusion: The obtained findings revealed that listening to progressive music can affect physiological factors and performance during exercising. It increases the athlete’s motivation and postpones the time to exhaustion to continue exercising; however, listening to slow music creates a state of relaxation during exercise and reduces heart rate. As a result, individuals with hypertension can decline their blood pressure during endurance exercise by listening to soft music.

Background: Adropin is a newly identified bioactive protein that is important in energy hemostasis and vascular endothelial function. Aim : The purpose of the present study was to investigate plasma levels of adropin and nitrite/nitrate (NO), in elderly treated hypertensive subjects at baseline and follow-up after 6 weeks of high-intensity interval training (HIIT). Material and Methods: Forty-four elderly participants with treated hypertensives (age 61.09±5.82 years, 25 male and 19 female, BMI= 25.7±1.31 kg/m 2 ) were randomly assigned to either the high-intensity interval training (HIIT) or control group. The HIIT group received an intervention consisting of 10 intervals of 1.5 min at 85% to 90% of their heart rate reserve (HRR), separated by 2 min of rest at 50% to 55% of their HRR, in three sessions per week for a duration of six weeks. Plasma levels of adropin and NO were measured using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. The statistical analysis was performed by two-way repeated ANOVA to determine differences between groups and Pearson’s correlation coefficient to determine correlation. Results: The results showed that, following the six-week HIIT intervention, the plasma levels of adropin and NO significantly increased when compared to both control group ( P = 0.0016) and the baseline ( P = 0.0003) measurements. Peak oxygen consumption was increased after exercise training compared to the control group ( P =0.005). Δ adropin in the HIIT group showed a positive correlation with increased Δ NO (r= 0.707, P = 0.002) and Δ VO 2 peak (r= 0.836, P = 0.001), and a negative correlation with Δ DBP (r= 0.643, P = 0.025) and Δ SBP (r= 0.691, P = 0.013). Conclusions: The study findings suggests that HIIT can enhance both blood pressure and cardiorespiratory fitness. The observed increase in plasma level of adropin may have contributed to reduction of blood pressure by promoting nitric oxide production.