Additive benefits of physical activity and exercise
Epidemiologic evidence suggests that individuals who meet daily physical activity guidelines but who accumulate high volumes of sitting time throughout the remainder of their day outside their bouts of physical activity have greater mortality risk than individuals who meet physical activity guidelines and have low volumes of daily sitting time[68]. These findings suggest that being physical active throughout the course of a day coupled with structured daily exercise has potentially additive effects. In 2012, investigators from the Dose Response to Exercise in Women (DREW) trial evaluated the effects of habitual physical activity level in combination with aerobic exercise training on BP among 325 post-menopausal women[69]. It was reported that changes in BP with aerobic exercise training were not significantly different across tertiles of habitual physical activity. These findings were consistent with a previous study of 34 postmenopausal women in whom no differences in BP were observed between women who decreased spontaneous activity during exercise training and women who maintained or increased their physical activity outside of training[70]. Thus, there is no present evidence to suggest that habitual physical activity provides any additive benefits to a structured exercise training program for lowering BP