Aerobic capacities and blood pressure responses of five different groups in North Sumatra and Aceh at different workloads.

In five different groups consisting of athletes (TPG), high school students, men and women (HS), rural group (Arun), and a professional football group (Galatama), the VO2max was determined indirectly, using the cycle ergometer exercise test and Astrand's nomogram. Systolic and diastolic blood pressure was determined using a sphygnomanometer and measured after steady state was reached at each load. The aerobic capacities of the group below 20 years differ significantly between the TPG and all the other groups compared (P less than 0.01). Between the other groups there is a difference in VO2max, though significant differences were only found between the HS (men), Arun group and the HS (women) (P less than 0.01). In the group above 20 years the TPG group have the highest VO2max, and the differences when compared with the HS (men) and Arun groups were significant (P less than 0.01). In the Arun group above 30 years, though a lower values was found in the older age group, significant differences in VO2max were only found between the 30-39 years and the 40-49 years age group (P less than 0.01). Blood pressure responses to different workloads successfully confirmed the results reported by Astrand and Rodahl (1970) and Barnard et al. (1973), but no consistent relationship was found between aerobic capacities and systolic blood pressures.