The effect of exercise training on human hypertension

Numerous sources of information in both the medical and exercise physiology areas state that exercise training lowers blood pressure at rest and during submaximal exercise in normotensive and hypertensive individuals. Based on these statements, the medical community is currently recommending regular exercise as a non-pharmacological therapy for reducing blood pressure in hypertensive patients. The purpose of this review was to assess the existing literature in this area to determine whether a basis exists for this recommendation. Our findings indicate that most of the studies reviewed reported modest reductions in blood pressure (means less than or equal to 10 mmHg) at rest and during submaximal exercise after training. However, even the modest reductions in blood pressure reported in these studies must be interpreted with caution because of numerous methodological shortcomings and inadequate study design, most notably the omission of non-exercising hypertensive control groups. Therefore, the evidence available at the present time is inadequate to recommend exercise training as a non-pharmacological therapy in hypertension.