José Morais Souto Filho
Modern society is increasingly exposed to stressful situations on a daily basis. Neuro-excitatory, metabolic, cardiovascular and even inflammatory responses can become hyper-reactive to these situations, increasing the chances of various physiological dysfunctions, especially cardiovascular ones. It has been shown that a single exercise session carried out before stressful situations can be useful in attenuating hyper-reactivity of blood pressure to stress. Among the methods used to assess cardiovascular reactivity to stress is the cold pressor test (CPT). However, heart rate variability (HRV) responses to the CPT have been little investigated. Although there is evidence that a higher level of physical fitness is related to lower stress reactivity, the relationship between muscle strength levels and cardiovascular reactivity to the CPT has not yet been investigated. In this way, we address the effect of maintaining good levels of strength as a strategy to reduce the physiological effects caused by stress.
