Effect of moderate exercise on VO2 max and blood pressure in individuals with different body mass index

Abstract

Background: Cardiorespiratory fitness is important for a person to efficiently perform his day to day life activities. Obesity influences this fitness leading to the development of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Fitness can be improved through physical exercise which could be categorized into moderate or severe based on the maximum heart rate. Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) is yet another equivalent parameter in use to assess the severity of the exercise. This study aims to study if there is any influence of moderate exercise on the VO2 max in individuals with greater BMI. Materials and Methods: Institutional Ethics Committee approval was obtained and a written informed consent was obtained from all the study participants. Sixty four young adults of mean age (19.66 + 0.2years) underwent a 30 minutes normal walking in order to perform a moderate exercise using a pedometer counting 3000 steps. Pre and post exercise variables like blood pressure and heart rate was recorded using a semiautomatic digital sphygmomanometer(OMRON HEM 401,India).Maximum oxygen uptake (VO2 max) was calculated and the difference between the pre and post exercise condition was derived. Paired ‘t’ test was done using SPSS 17.0 and the statistical significance value was set at p