Objective:

To compare the acute psychobiological and perceptual responses in normotensive and hypertensive men after resistance training sessions with different levels of social interaction: manual resistance training and free weights resistance training.

Method:

26 men (14 normotensive, 40.29 ± 8.63 years, Body Mass Index: 26.53 ± 5.24 kg/m2; 12 hypertensive, 46.00 ± 9.13 years, Body Mass Index: 32.51 ± 4. 41 kg/m2) underwent single sessions of manual resistance training and free weights resistance training. Anxiety and mood were measured in pre- and post-intervention. In addition, a questionnaire was applied to identify positive and negative points of the interventions. For data analysis, we used two-way ANOVA and post-hoc Bonferroni. The significance level adopted was 5%. For anxiety and mood it was also used analysis of effect size. The analysis of the qualitative questionnaire considered the frequency of positive and negative points reported by the volunteers.

Results:

Both intervention was ineffective in significantly decreasing the initial values of anxiety; however the manual resistance training showed greater magnitude of decrease in effect size. In the negative factors of mood, the manual resistance training also provided greater magnitudes to decrease in effect size. The manual resistance training had more positive and less negative points mentioned by the sample relative to free weights resistance training.

Conclusion:

Social interaction level appears to positively influence the acute psychobiological responses of resistance training, and the manual resistance training appears to be a viable alternative for this purpose.