Objective: Autonomic imbalance in patients with chronic heart failure (CHF) and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) is characterized by reduced parasympathetic and enhanced sympathetic activity. Aerobic exercise improves autonomic function in patients with CHF and CVD. However, little is known about the effects of resistance training (RT) on cardiac autonomic function. Therefore, we aimed to investigate the effects of RT added on aerobic training on autonomic function in patients with CHF and CVD. Data sources: The relevant clinical trials were searched in PubMed, Physiotherapy evidence Database (PEDro, Science Direct and Google Scholar databases using the following keywords, “resistance or strength training”, “chronic heart failure”, “coronary artery disease”, “myocardial infarction”, “hypertension”, “cardiovascular disease”, “heart rate variability (HRV)”, “heart rate recovery (HRR)”, “muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA)”, and “autonomic function”.
Data synthesis: Twelve articles with 323 subjects were eligible to be evaluated. The outcome measures included HRV, HRR, and MSNA. There were seven studies on CHF, two on CAD, and three studies on hypertension. Meta-analysis of all the studies showed that combined RT and aerobic training decreased MSNA significantly in patients with CHF and CAD (mean difference: -3.796; CI: -6.779 to 0.813; p=0.013; I2 =93.5%). No study evaluated the effects of RT or combined training on HRR.
Conclusion: We could not find sufficient data about the effects of RT alone on HRV and HRR, but the results showed that combined RT and aerobic training improved MSNA in patients with CHF and CAD, significantly. Further studies with similar methodological principles on the same patient population are needed.