Heart rate and ventilatory recovery in young sportsmen - Abstract

Introduction and objectives. Cardiovascular diseases constitute the fi rst cause of death and hospitalization in Spain. This study aimed to analyze the evolution of various recovery indicators (heart rate, ventilation and lactate concentration) during the 20 minutes following an incremental exercise protocol, using an equation that measures recovery by percentage in regards to the individual functional capacity.

Methods. Thirty-two young sportsmen performed an incremental test until exhaustion on a cycloergometer. The variables were recorded from the warm-up period until completing the test for 20 minutes postexercise. A two-way repeated measures analysis of the variance (ANOVA) was used.

Results. At fi ve minutes of recovery, ventilation was at 85.1 (± 4.6) % of its maximum reserve, while the heart had regained 65.7 (± 6.1) % of the cardiac reserve and the lactate concentration reached values of 15.4% (± 12.9) % of the lactic reserve. After 20 minutes, subjects showed a ventilatory recovery close to 100%, while the heart rate values and, above all, lactate concentration, remained distant from the at rest line values.

Conclusion. There is dissociation in the post-exercise recovery patterns after the fi rst 20 minutes of a maximum exercise test. However more studies in the unhealthy population are needed to verify the usefulness of this equation for evaluating patient outcomes in cardiac rehabilitation.