Razi Journal of Medical Sciences

Background: Physical activity has been recognized as one of the non-pharmacological methods in the treatment of hypertensive disorders. This study aims to compare the effects of aerobic exercise performed and alternative (AI) and constant intensities (CI) in hypertensive individuals.

Methods: In this semi-experimental study, subjects were 20 hypertensive women who were asked to fill in the questionnaire before being randomly distributed into two exercise groups, CI (10 individuals) and AI (10 individuals).

The CI exercise consisted of 45 min at 60% of heart rate reserve (HRR) while the AI exercise consisted of 2 minutes exercise at 50% and 1 minute exercise at 70% of HRR. Blood pressure was monitored at each 30 min post-exercise recovery period up to 10 hours. Results were analyzed using independent T-test and ANOVA test.

Results: Results revealed that a session of aerobic exercise with CI and AI has no significant effect on variation of average mean arterial blood pressure in middle-aged women.

Conclusion: Although a session of constant and alternative intensity exercise had no significant effect on variation of average mean arterial blood pressure in middle-aged women, it led to a continual decrease in arterial blood pressure for 10 hours, which was more significant in CI exercise. As a result, aerobic exercise with CI can lower the blood pressure for a period of hours following the exercise.