Objective: The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of regular physical activity on the haemodynamic response to public speaking and to evaluate the long-term effect of exercise on development of hypertension. Participants: We assessed 75 sedentary and 44 active participants screened for stage 1 hypertension with consistent activity habits and 63 normotensive individuals as control. Methods: The blood pressure (BP) response to public speaking was assessed with beat-to-beat noninvasive recording. Definition of incident hypertension was based either on clinic or 24-h BP measurement. Results: The BP response to public speaking was greater in the hypertensive than the normotensive participants (P = 0.018/0.009). Among the former, sedentary participants showed increased BP reactivity to the speech test (45.2 +/- 22.6/22.2 +/- 11.5 mmHg, P