Background Both exercise training and diet are recommended to prevent and control hypertension and overweight/obesity. Purpose The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of different 16-week aerobic exercise programmes with hypocaloric diet on blood pressure, body composition, cardiorespiratory fitness and pharmacological treatment. Methods Overweight/obese, sedentary participants ( n = 175, aged 54.0 ± 8.2 years) with hypertension were randomly assigned into an attention control group (physical activity recommendations) or one of three supervised exercise groups (2 days/week: high-volume with 45 minutes of moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT), high-volume and high-intensity interval training (HIIT), alternating high and moderate intensities, and low-volume HIIT (20 minutes)). All variables were assessed pre- and post-intervention. All participants received the same hypocaloric diet. Results Following the intervention, there was a significant reduction in blood pressure and body mass in all groups with no between-group differences for blood pressure. However, body mass was significantly less reduced in the attention control group compared with all exercise groups (attention control -6.6%, high-volume MICT -8.3%, high-volume HIIT -9.7%, low-volume HIIT -6.9%). HIIT groups had significantly higher cardiorespiratory fitness than high-volume MICT, but there were no significant between-HIIT differences (attention control 16.4%, high-volume MICT 23.6%, high-volume HIIT 36.7%, low-volume HIIT 30.5%). Medication was removed in 7.6% and reduced in 37.7% of the participants. Conclusions The combination of hypocaloric diet with supervised aerobic exercise 2 days/week offers an optimal non-pharmacological tool in the management of blood pressure, cardiorespiratory fitness and body composition in overweight/obese and sedentary individuals with hypertension. High-volume HIIT seems to be better for reducing body mass compared with low-volume HIIT. The exercise-induced improvement in cardiorespiratory fitness is intensity dependent with low-volume HIIT as a time-efficient method in this population. ClinicalTrials.gov Registration: NCT02283047.

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Purpose: To analyze the changes in cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) and body composition following 2 different (low-volume vs high-volume) high-intensity aerobic interval training (HIIT) programs with Mediterranean diet (Mediet) recommendations in individuals after myocardial infarction (MI) and compared with an attention control group (AC). Methods: Body composition and CRF were assessed before and after a 16-wk intervention in 70 participants (58.4 ± 8.5 yr) diagnosed with MI. All participants received Mediet recommendations and were randomly assigned to the AC group (physical activity recommendations, n = 14) or one of the 2 supervised aerobic exercise groups (2 d/wk training): high-volume (40 min) HIIT (n = 28) and low-volume (20 min) HIIT (n = 28). Results: Following the intervention, no significant changes were seen in the AC group and no differences between HIIT groups were found in any of the studied variables. Only HIIT groups showed reductions in waist circumference (low-volume HIIT, Δ = −4%, P < .05; high-volume HIIT, Δ = −2%, P < .001) and improvements in CRF (low-volume HIIT, Δ = 15%, P < .01; high-volume HIIT, Δ = 22%; P < .001) with significant between-group differences (attention control vs HIIT groups). Conclusions: Results suggest that a 16-wk intervention (2 d/wk) of different HIIT volumes with Mediet recommendations could equally improve CRF and waist circumference after MI. Low-volume HIIT may be a potent and time-efficient exercise training strategy to improve functional capacity.