REF-1726 · Bersaoui et al., 2026 · Frontiers in Rehabilitation Sciences, · Paper · PubMed

One 30-min treadmill walk or jog at moderate intensity lowered office systolic blood pressure 30 min later by 9.0 mmHg in adults of African descent and 7.4 mmHg in adults of South-Asian descent with high-normal pressure or grade 1 hypertension, while one isometric handgrip session (4 × 2 min at 30%) changed nothing, in a randomised crossover of 57 inactive, mostly medicated adults in Suriname; over the next 8 hours of daily life (the primary outcome) the walk's fall was smaller and not significant. A single-bout blood-pressure response, not a training effect. Read in full

Main caveat: One-bout responses only; resting pressure after weeks of training was not studied.
limited evidenceMeasured on non-athletesRead in full

Bersaoui and colleagues (Anton de Kom University of Suriname and KU Leuven) asked whether the short-lived fall in blood pressure after exercise, documented mostly in white populations, also appears in adults of African and South-Asian descent.

They recruited inactive adults aged 18-65 living in Suriname with office pressure of 130-159 systolic and/or 85-99 diastolic mmHg, treated with at most two drugs, and had each complete three morning sessions in random order: 30 min on a treadmill at moderate intensity, a standard handgrip protocol of four 2-min holds at 30% of maximal force, and 30 min of seated rest.

The primary outcome was mean ambulatory pressure over the 8 waking hours after the session; office pressure 30 min after, night-time and 24-h pressure were secondary. Of 66 randomised, 57 completed (29 African, 28 South-Asian descent).

Against seated rest, the walk lowered office systolic pressure 30 min later by 9.0 mmHg in the African group and 7.4 mmHg in the South-Asian group, and diastolic by 4.4 mmHg in the South-Asian group; handgrip changed neither.

Over the next 8 hours the walk's fall in the African group (−4.1/−3.1 mmHg) was not significant, and in the South-Asian group there was none; night-time systolic pressure rose by 4.7 mmHg after handgrip in the African group. No adverse events occurred.

The authors conclude that one aerobic session produced an immediate office-pressure fall in both groups and a daytime fall only in the African group, and that one handgrip session produced none; they call for work on intensity, volume and frequency.

Participants

57 completers of 66 randomised (222 volunteered): 29 of African descent (31% men; age 48.7 ± 9.9 years; office BP 142.9 ± 11.2 / 88 ± 8.0 mmHg) and 28 of South-Asian descent (51.5 ± 10.6 years, 46.4% men, 138.2 ± 6.9 / 85.7 ± 4.5 mmHg); ethnicity by at least three grandparents.
Whole sample: BMI 31.7 ± 5.9 kg/m², waist 100 ± 18 cm, peak VO2 16.9 ± 4.6 mL/kg/min; 58% high-normal BP and 42% grade 1 hypertension; 81% on antihypertensive drugs (calcium-channel blockers in 66% of the African and 25% of the South-Asian group, P = 0.002); non-smokers; no diabetes or cardiovascular, renal or pulmonary disease.

Protocol

Screening: office BP in triplicate on two days; questionnaires; maximal cycle test with 12-lead ECG (40 W start, +20 W per min).
Sessions: morning, same time of day for each person, temperature-controlled room; order by drawing sealed lots; washout at least 7 days.
Aerobic: 30 min treadmill walking or running at 40-60% of heart-rate reserve, monitored by ECG (achieved 51.2% and 51.4% of reserve).
Handgrip: both hands, 4 × 2 min at 30% of maximal voluntary contraction, 1 min rest, with visual and auditory feedback (compliance 90.5% and 90.2%).
Control: 30 min seated rest, reading allowed.
Measures: supine office BP before (triplicate) and 30 min after; ambulatory BP every 30 min for 24 h at home with an activity diary; daytime = first 8 h after the session.
Analysis: linear mixed models with session as fixed effect and pre-session BP as covariate, separately by ethnic group; sensitivity analyses for medication and calcium-channel-blocker use. Sample size: 20 for the aerobic and 23 for the handgrip contrast per group (power 0.95, alpha 0.01), with significance then set at p < 0.05.
Funding and interests: KU Leuven, the Academic Hospital Paramaribo and the Anton de Kom University of Suriname; funders had no role; no commercial conflicts declared.

Key Results

Change against the seated-rest session, mmHg (95% CI):

OutcomeAfrican descent (n = 29)South-Asian descent (n = 28)
Office systolic 30 min, aerobic−9.03 (−13.35 to −4.71), p < 0.001−7.40 (−12.19 to −2.61), p < 0.01
Office diastolic 30 min, aerobic−3.46 (−6.56 to −0.36), p = 0.08−4.41 (−7.48 to −1.33), p = 0.01
Office systolic 30 min, handgrip−1.42 (−5.72 to 2.89), p = 0.51+0.20 (−4.60 to 4.99), p = 0.93
Office diastolic 30 min, handgrip−0.82 (−3.93 to 2.31), p = 0.61−0.25 (−3.33 to 2.81), p = 0.87
Daytime (8 h) ambulatory systolic, aerobic−4.08 (printed −0.26 to −7.75), p = 0.08no difference
Daytime (8 h) ambulatory diastolic, aerobic−3.07 (printed −0.27 to −5.90), p = 0.08no difference
Daytime ambulatory, handgripno reductionno difference
Night-time ambulatory systolic, handgrip+4.74 (1.13 to 8.35), p = 0.03−4.76 (printed −8.57 to 0.29), p = 0.11
Hourly analysis over 8 h (23 and 24 participants with enough readings): in the African group the aerobic session lowered diastolic pressure by 3.09 mmHg (−0.27 to −5.90, p = 0.03), systolic −4.08 (p = 0.08); no reduction in the South-Asian group.
24-h pressure: no effect of the aerobic session in the African group; the text gives no 24-h figure for the South-Asian group.
No adverse events, cardiovascular complications or injuries in any session.
Several printed intervals exclude zero while their p values are above 0.05 (office diastolic in the African group, both daytime values), and the same daytime diastolic difference carries p = 0.08 in one analysis and 0.03 in another; in the South-Asian group the night-time diastolic value after handgrip (−2.19, interval −4.76 to 0.38) carries p = 0.29, larger than that interval implies; the text does not explain this.

Practical Application

For blood pressure, one 30-min moderate treadmill walk or jog gave a short-lived fall in office pressure (about 7-9 mmHg systolic at 30 min) in inactive adults with raised pressure, and one handgrip session gave none; neither is a training effect. What regular training does to resting pressure is a separate question, answered in SYNTH-88.
Not treatment advice. A person with high-normal or raised blood pressure, or on blood-pressure drugs, agrees any exercise programme with their physician; exercise sits beside the physician's plan, not instead of it.
Consistent with the guide. SYNTH-88 makes aerobic plus strength training the first lever for raised pressure and isometric holds an add-on, with the holds' benefit coming from weeks of training (4 × 2 min, three times a week); this trial shows that a single handgrip session does not lower pressure on the day, which the guide never claimed, and gives no reason to expect a hold to work as a one-off.
The day-long effect was small and uncertain. Over 8 hours of normal life the walk's fall was about 4/3 mmHg in one group (not significant) and absent in the other, so a single session should not be described as controlling pressure for the day.
Inference, not tested here: the night-time rise after handgrip in the African group (+4.7 mmHg) is one unexpected result among many comparisons; it is no reason to drop holds from a supervised training plan, and no reason to promote them as a single-session tool either.

Limitations

One-bout responses only; resting pressure after weeks of training was not studied.
The primary outcome (8-h ambulatory pressure) was not significant for either exercise in either group; the clear results are secondary office readings 30 min after.
Each ethnic group was analysed separately (29 and 28), with no direct comparison between groups and no correction for the many outcomes; sample size was planned at alpha 0.01, results judged at 0.05.
Printed intervals and p values disagree in several places (Key Results).
Not blinded; 81% on drugs, unevenly distributed between groups (calcium-channel blockers); obese, inactive, middle-aged sample; ethnicity by grandparents, not genetics; sleep not verified for night-time readings.
One handgrip dose (30%, 4 × 2 min) and one aerobic dose; no leg isometrics.
The registration date is not given, so whether the trial was registered before enrolment cannot be judged (ethics approval January 2020).
Funded by the universities and hospital involved; no commercial interests declared.
How this entry was checked and changed
Why this level

a crossover of 57 (29 and 28 analysed as separate groups) sits at B+, one step down because the claim is a blood-pressure response to one bout, a marker of what training might do rather than a training outcome; the primary outcome was not significant, and several reported intervals do not match their p values