The effects of exercise training on hypertensive older adults: an umbrella meta-analysis.

Exercise training has been shown to blunt many of the physiological declines and common diseases of the aging process. One such beneficial effect is the reduction of blood pressure (BP) in hypertensive older adults. However, there is no consensus about which benefits of aerobic (AT) or resistance training (RT) may be lost by the use of combined training (CT) or even what benefits could be acquired only by performing CT, considering the extensive health needs of older adults with hypertension.

Do baseline blood pressure and type of exercise influence level of reduction induced by training in hypertensive older adults? A meta-analysis of controlled trials.

Background: Exercise recommendations for hypertensive individuals encourage the use of aerobic training (AT) for lowering blood pressure (BP). However, it is not clear whether equivalent BP-lowering effects are obtained with different exercise training types in older adults, among whom hypertension is more prevalent.

Design: We meta-analyzed previous literature testing different types of training [AT, resistance (RT) and combined (CT)] effects on casual systolic BP (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP), taking into account age and baseline BP influences.