Relationship Between BMI & HRR After 4 Weeks of Aerobic Training

World Health Organization (WHO) defined body mass index (BMI) as the ratio of weight in kilograms to the square of the height in meters (kg/m2). BMI has been used widely to diagnose obesity as it is a simple method to be carried out and is also inexpensive. According to WHO, there were 1.9 billion overweight individuals in 2014 with the age of 18 years old or above. Of 1.9 billion overweight individuals, there were 600 million obese adults. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease is higher among the overweight and obese individuals compared to individuals with normal body mass index. This probably is due to altered cardiovascular autonomic regulation. The risk of getting cardiovascular diseases is also higher among physically inactive individuals. As much as 60% of American adults are not regularly active and 25% of them are not active at all. Obese and overweight individuals tend to be physically inactive and it has been shown that there is a negative relationship between BMI and heart rate recovery (HRR). HRR is defined as difference in heart rate between maximum exercise and 1 minute later during recovery period after stopping of exercise. HRR after exercise stress is due to withdrawal of sympathetic nervous system and the reactivation of parasympathetic nervous system. Parasympathetic nervous system is altered in obese individuals therefore leading to poor HRR after exercise. Aerobic training not only can reduce the body composition but also improves the autonomic cardiovascular control. There is limited literature support for any study which shows that potential of 4 weeks aerobic training can influence the heart rate recovery in sedentary healthy adults. Most of studies conducted were using minimum of 6 to 8 weeks of aerobic training. The potential of 4 weeks of aerobic training in improving the autonomic nervous system among sedentary adults is still unclear. Therefore, we hypothesized in our study that there will be effect of 4 weeks of aerobic training on