Exercise hypertension refers to an increase in blood pressure during dynamic exercise in excess of the limits in normotensive persons or those with borderline hypertension at rest as well as a disproportionately excessive increase in pressure in hypertensive persons in whom otherwise the increase in exercise pressure is shifted parallel to that of normotensive persons. There is no consensus for the absolute definition of exercise hypertension but traditionally, in sports medicine, systolic blood pressure values of 200 mmHg and more at a workload of 100 watts are considered abnormal. On the basis of the results of a study we performed in 2972 individuals, norms for exercise arterial blood pressure were constructed and found to be related to workload intensity as well as age. In contrast, there was no relationship between exercise blood pressure and exercise capacity or sex. In this regard, indirectly measured diastolic blood pressure is not reliably indicative of the actual prevailing pressure, particularly at higher workloads; it is, therefore, not considered to be useful in detection of exercise hypertension. In agreement with other studies, we found that up to one-third of all patients with normal blood pressure at rest but exercise hypertension eventually developed hypertension at rest. The incidence tended to increase with increasing age. Accordingly, exercise hypertension may be regarded as a precursor to established hypertension at rest.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)