Effects of 8-week aerobic exercise on ambulatory blood pressure and exercise capacity in obese adolescents

Objective To investigate the effects of 8-week aerobic exercise on ambulatory blood pressure(ABP) and exercise capacity in obese adolescents and provide evidence for special exercise prescription in this population.Methods Fifty-two obese adolescents were randomly divided into exercise group and control group.Subjects of exercise group performed an eight-week aerobic exercise training prescription(5 times per week,50 ~ 60 min once) and control group maintained their daily lifestyle.Before and after the experiment,morphological parameters including body height,body weight,body mass index(BMI) and body composition,office blood pressure including office systolic blood pressure(SBP) and office diastolic blood pressure(DBP),ABP parameters including daytime ABP(dSBP and dDBP),nighttime ABP(nSBP and nDBP) and 24 h ABP(24 h SBP and 24 h DBP),exercise capacity parameters including maximal oxygen intake(VO2max),maximum power and exhausted time by graded bicycle ergometer exercise test were determined.Results After the experiment,compared within-group,fat mass(FM),per cent of body fat(BF%),24 h SBP,24 h DBP,dSBP and dDBP decreased(P 0.01),office SBP,office DBP,nSBP and nDBP had no significant change(P 0.05),VO2max,maximum power and exhausted time increased(P 0.01) in exercise group,but all parameters in control group retained no significantly change(P 0.05).After the experiment,compared between-group,FM,BF%,24 h SBP,24 h DBP,dSBP and dDBP were lower(P 0.01) while VO2max,maximum power and exhausted time were higher(P 0.01) in exercise group than those of control group.Conclusion Eightweek aerobic exercise could effectively reduce ABP level and enhance exercise capacity in obese adolescents.