During aerobic exercise DBP tends to stay the same or slightly drop; during resistance exercise DBP tends to...

• A. Increase with aerobic exercise
• B. Stay the same or slight drop with aerobic
• C. Decrease with resistance
• D. Increase with resistance

Answer: (B)

During dynamic, aerobic activity the working muscles receive more blood through local vasodilation, which lowers systemic vascular resistance. This reduction offsets the larger cardiac output, so diastolic pressure tends to stay about the same or drop slightly. Systolic pressure, on the other hand, rises because of the increased stroke volume and heart rate.

In contrast, resistance (especially isometric) exercise involves intense muscle contractions that physically compress blood vessels and raise peripheral resistance. The combination of higher vascular resistance and, at times, higher intrathoracic pressure from breathing efforts tends to push diastolic pressure up.

So, diastolic blood pressure tends to stay the same or drop slightly with aerobic exercise, while it tends to increase with resistance exercise.