Comparison of different types of exercise training on resting blood pressure in 30-45 years old hypertensive patients

Hypertension is the modifiable risk factor that leads to many cardiovascular diseases. It is rising at alarming rate in urban India. Exercises in the form of aerobics, progressive resistance exercise and isometrics has shown to reduce blood pressure in early stage hypertension. In fact, these are the first line management (life-style modification) in these populations. Recently, isometric exercise in the form of hand-grip exercise has shown superior to that of other form of exercises. However, no study till date compared all these 3 types of interventions. Thus primary objective of this trial is to compare these three interventions in early stage hypertensive urban Indian population. Sample size of this trial will be 120 [60 prehypertension and 60 stage I hypertension; 60 males and 60 females] from 405 eligible patients of a urban cohort. After getting their informed consent, they will be divided into 4 groups (Control or waiting list [C]; aerobic exercise [A]; progressive resisted exercise [PRE] and isometric exercise [IHG]) with 30 patients per group. Aerobic exercise group will be given exercise (walk or jog) at 60-75% target heart rate for 30 minutes. Progressive resisted exercise group will be given 8 body-weight exercises in the form of circuit training (3 cycles with 5 minutes rest in-between). Isometric exercise will be given four 2 minutes bouts of hand-grip exercise at 30% of maximal isometric contraction with 4 minutes rest in-between. Frequency of exercise will be three sessions per week for the total duration of 8 weeks. Outcome variable will be measured at pre, during (4th, 6th ), immediately after (8th ) as well as 10th, 12th and 14th weeks of post-exercise training.