Physical activity is known to have beneficial effects on prevention of cardiovascular disease and on microcirculation. The aim of our study was to compare the carotid-radial pulse transit time as a measure of small artery compliance being under strong sympathetic control and the pulse arrival time to the capillary bed of the finger tip as a measure of the state of the microvasculature in young and middle aged healthy subjects before and 20 minutes after aerobic exercise.Experiments were performed on 9 young (group Y; age 20,8±0,2) and 9 middle aged (group A, age 47,5±7,2) healthy males. We measured ECG, arterial blood pressure using Finapres Ohmeda, laser Doppler skin blood flow on the finger pulp of the pointer finger of the right hand and carotid or radial pulse with a tonometer (Millar). After 5 minutes supine rest subjects mounted the cycloergometer and their right arm was fixed on an armrest. They rested in sitting position for additional 5 minutes, than they started a graded exercise at the workload of 40 W. The workload increased in steps of 50W lasting 3 minutes each until 85% of the estimated maximal heart rate was reached. After ceasing exercising, the parameters were measured for subsequent 25 minutes. Carotid-radial pulse transit time (c-rtT) and pulse arrival time to the capillary bed (PATc) using pulse arrival time to the radial artery on the same hand as a reference were calculated.Our results revealed that c-rtT was longer in group Y compared to group A and exhibited no statistically significant differences before and 20 minutes after exercise in both groups (group Y: 111,3 ±4,1ms and 109,7 ±3,5ms, group A: 100,8 ±3,1ms and 99,3 ±2,0ms, p<0.05). PATc remained significantly longer 20 minutes after exercise then at rest in both groups with no significant difference with respect to age (group Y: 130,3 ±8,1ms and 120,7 ±5,5ms, group A: 126,0 ±9,2ms and 116,7 ±5,2ms). The heart rate 20 minutes after exercise was still significantly higher then at rest in both groups (Group Y: 89,6 ±5,5 bpm and 60,2 ±2,0 bpm, group A 82,4 ±1,5 bpm and 62,8 ±1,3 bpm), while arterial blood pressure returned to control values short after the cessation of exercise. We conclude that c-rtT decreases with age as a consequence of age-reduced arterial compliance. During exercise increased sympathetic tone, independent on age, is the main reason for increasing c-rtT, but other mechanisms should contribute to the regulation of the finger tip skin microcirculation, where termoregulation plays a major role. Further experiments are needed to elucidate the age dependant mechanisms involved in the small artery and microvasculature regulation at rest and after exercise.