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Resting heart rate variability and heart rate recovery after submaximal exercise

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Abstract

Purpose

Aerobic training accelerates Heart Rate Recovery after exercise in healthy subjects and in patients with coronary disease. As shown by pharmacological autonomic blockade, HRR early after exercise is dependent primarily on parasympathetic reactivation. Thus, accelerated HRR early after exercise in endurance-trained athletes may be attributed to augmented parasympathetic reactivation. In the present study, we tested the hypothesis that the HRR early after submaximal exercise is related to the pre-exercise parasympathetic modulation.

Methods

Thirty endurance-trained athletes (20 males, 50 ± 7 years) and thirty control subjects (20 males, 52 ± 6 years) performed a submaximal exercise on a cyclo-ergometer. Pre-exercise resting short-term heart rate variability (HRV) parameters in time and frequency-domains were correlated with HRR during the first 30 s, 1 and 2 min after cessation of exercise.

Results

We found that HRR was statistically significantly faster in athletes than in controls at all examination time points (p < 0.05). HF, SDNN and RMSSD were statistically significantly higher in athletes than in controls (p < 0.05), but other resting HRV parameters were not statistically different between groups. After 30 s, 1 and 2 min of recovery, HRR correlation with total power, HF, HFnu and RMSSD was positive, while the correlation with LF/HF was negative for small and positive for larger values. The opposite was true for SDNN.

Conclusions

These findings support the hypothesis that HRR early after submaximal exercise is related to resting parasympathetic modulation in the middle-aged subjects. In addition, they suggested an optimal range of HRV for maximal HRR after exercise.

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Conflict of interest

On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurology, University Medical Centre, Zaloška 2, 1000, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Aljoša Danieli, Bernard Meglič & Fajko F. Bajrović

  2. Barsos Medical Centre, Gregorčičeva 11, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Aljoša Danieli

  3. Medical Faculty, Institute of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics, University of Ljubljana, Vrazov trg 2, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Lara Lusa

  4. Medical Faculty, Institute of Physiology, University of Ljubljana, Zaloška 4, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Nejka Potočnik

  5. General Hospital Izola, Polje 40, Izola, Slovenia

    Anton Grad

  6. Medical Faculty, Institute of Pathophysiology, University of Ljubljana, Zaloška 4, Ljubljana, Slovenia

    Fajko F. Bajrović

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  1. Aljoša Danieli
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  2. Lara Lusa
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  3. Nejka Potočnik
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  4. Bernard Meglič
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aljoša Danieli.

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Danieli, A., Lusa, L., Potočnik, N. et al. Resting heart rate variability and heart rate recovery after submaximal exercise. Clin Auton Res 24, 53–61 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-014-0225-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10286-014-0225-2

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