A physical fitness program for health professionals and students

During the last decades, there have been an increasing interest in exercise as a tool for maintaining good health status. The goal of this study was to measure physiologic response to exercise and level of fitness before and after 8 weeks exercise training program, three sessions per week. The participants, a group of fourteen male employees and students at the Medical Sciences Campus, U.P.R. School of Medicine, followed an exercise prescription which included a warm up session (5-10 mins), aerobic training for 20 minutes at intensity of 60-80% of heart rate maximum, progressive resistive strength training and cool down period (5-10 mins.). They evidenced decrease in resting heart rate and resting systolic blood pressure, improvement in estimated aerobic capacity, increase in hand grip strength and decrease in percent of body fat. These results were found to be in accordance with reviewed literature.