The purpose of this study was to determine if alpha 1-adrenergic receptor blockade alters the hemodynamic response to exercise in young (less than 25 yr) male borderline hypertensives differently than in young normotensives. Five hypertensive (HTN, MAP greater than 105 mmHg) and 7 normotensive (NTN, MAP less than 95 mmHg) college-age males underwent two 30 min bouts of cycle ergometry exercise at 50% VO2pk in a warm (25 degrees C, 50% rh) environment; one following alpha 1-receptor blockade with prazosin (PRAZ) and the other following placebo administration (PLAC). During resting PLAC and compared to NTN, HTN exhibited an elevated cardiac index (CI, p = .002), similar HR and elevated total peripheral resistance index (TPRI, p = .015). During resting PRAZ, CI and TPRI were similar but HR was higher (p = .013) in HTN than NTN. While reduced during PRAZ, resting MAP was higher in HTN than NTN (p = .007) for both trials. With exercise and PLAC, CI was higher (p = .029) while HR and TPRI were similar for HTN compared to NTN. With PRAZ, the exercise CI, TPRI and HR responses were similar for both groups. Exercise MAP was blunted in both groups with PRAZ. While not differing significantly between groups for each treatment, MAP was stable for NTN while it declined after 10 min of exercise in HTN. The elevated CI seen in exercising HTN with PLAC was removed with PRAZ; the exercise response was otherwise unaltered by alpha 1-blockade. Consequently, these data suggest that young male hypertensives have an elevated blood pressure due to an elevated CI incompletely offset by a reduced TPRI. While alpha 1-blockade lowers MAP by lowering CI, the MAP response to exercise remains unaltered.