Aerobic exercise improves cardiorespiratory fitness but does not reduce blood pressure in prehypertensive African American women.

Objective: To determine the effectiveness of a 10-week aerobic exercise training intervention on blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness, and workload in African American women with prehypertension.

Design: After we obtained informed consent and medical clearance, each participant underwent baseline measurements, an aerobic exercise-training regimen, and postintervention assessments.

Setting: This investigation took place in Columbus, Ohio, on the campus of The Ohio State University.

Participants: Twelve sedentary African American women with prehypertension volunteered to participate.

Interventions: Study participants trained three days per week for 30 minutes per session at an intensity of 70% maximal oxygen consumption (VO2 peak) for 10 weeks.

Main Outcome Measures: Blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness, and workload achieved.

Results: Exercise training resulted in a significant improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness and workload capacity. However, no significant reductions in blood pressure were seen after the 10-week aerobic exercise period.

Conclusions: Ten weeks of 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, three times a week at 70% VO2 peak, is a sufficient stimulus to improve cardiorespiratory fitness and workload achieved. However, this exercise regimen was not adequate in eliciting a simultaneous reduction in systolic, diastolic, or mean arterial blood pressure in this cohort of prehypertensive African American women. Additional studies are needed to determine specific exercise protocols that would be effective in lowering blood pressure in various populations. These exercise protocols may vary across ethnicity, sex, and disease status.