This document discusses how heart rate measures can be used in sport and exercise science to estimate energy expenditure during exercise, cardiorespiratory fitness based on submaximal heart rate response, training status of athletes, and cardiac health status in clinical populations. It also describes how heart rate variability may reflect lactate and ventilatory thresholds during incremental exercise testing.

1. Dr Roger Ramsbottom
Department of Sport and Health Sciences
Oxford Brookes University
United Kingdom
11th Congress of Sport and Physical Education
Pontevedra, Espaňa, 6-9 May, 2015.
THE UTILITY OF HEART RATE
MEASURES IN SPORT AND EXERCISE
SCIENCE

2. EXERCISE SCIENCE

3. ESTIMATION OF CARDIORESPIRATORY
FITNESS FROM THE SUBMAXIMAL HEART
RATE RESPONSE

4. ESTIMATION OF CARDIORESPIRATORY
FITNESS FROM THE SUBMAXIMAL HEART
RATE RESPONSE
Heart rate (b min-1)
Oxygenuptake(Lmin-1)
VO2max*
y = mx + c
r = 0.998
*Aerobic fitness = maximal aerobic power (or VO2max)
VO2 Heart rate
1.10 109
1.35 123
1.55 140
2.20 156

5. ESTIMATION OF ENERGY
EXPENDITURE FROM THE
SUBMAXIMAL HEART RATE
Heart rate (b min-1)
Oxygenuptake(Lmin-1)
y = mx + c
r = 0.998
*kJ 1.0 L O2 = 21 kJ energy
With an individual
relationship between
oxygen uptake and heart
rate – the rate of energy
expenditure can be
estimated*.

7. MOUNT SNOWDON, WALES (1085-M)
ESTIMATED ENERGY EXPENDITURE
Distance 25.51 km
Mean HR 126 b min-1
EE 4,976 kcal (20.8 MJ)
Duration 9 hrs 29 min

8. MOUNT SNOWDON, WALES (1085-M)
HEART RATE RESPONSE AND WALK
PROFILE

9. THE HEART: CARDIAC CONDUCTION
SYSTEM
SA node ~ 60-100 bpm - sets the pace of the heartbeat
AV node ~ 50 bpm - delays the transmission of action potentials
70-80/min
40-60/min
20-40/min
Intrinsic
autorhymicity is
influenced by
parasympatheic
and sympathetic
neural input

10. PARASYMPATHETIC AND SYMPATHETIC
INNERVATION OF THE HEART

11. PARASYMPATHETIC AND
SYMPATHETIC INNERVATION OF THE
HEART

12. HEART RATE VARIABILITY (HRV)
Different Heart Rate
Variability (ms) in two
individuals with similar
Heart Rate (b min-1)
R-R Interval

13. TIME DOMAIN FREQUENCY DOMAIN
ANALYSIS
SDNN:
Standard deviation of
the R-R interval in
milliseconds.
Long-term control of
HRV
RMSSD:
Square root of the
mean of the squares of
successive R-R interval
differences
Short-term control of
HRV
High Frequency:
Vagal activity
Low Frequency:
Baroreceptor reflex
activity
Very Low Frequency:
e.g. Renin-angiotensin
Autoregression analysis

14. POINCARÉ PLOTS
Quantitative measures:
SD1: Short-term HRV
(SD of plot data along axis A)
SD2: Long-term HRV
(SD of plot data along axis B)
SD12 : (Poincaré dimension)
Quantitative description of
entire plot
A B
SD1 Measure of
instantaneous beat-to-beat
variability
SD2 Quantifies complex, long-term variability

15. STUDY I: SUBJECTS
Activity
level
n Mean Supine
Heart Rate
(b min-1)
Age
(years)
Body Mass
(kg)
Height
(m)
Moderate 20 73
(s=10)
26.1
(s=6.8)
67.5
(s=15.9)
1.66
(s=0.08)
High 20 59**
(s=5)
23.8
(s=4.9)
63.4
(s=7.7)
1.66
(s=0.05)
**P<0.01
Gilder and Ramsbottom (2008a) Measures of cardiac autonomic control in women with differing volumes of physical activity J.
Sports Sciences, 26 (7): 781-786.

16. METHOD: MEASUREMENT OF HEART
RATE VARIABILITY (HRV)
Polar S810i
Supine rest:
20 minutes
of R-R
collection
Standing:
5 minutes
of R-R
collection
R-R data:
HRV
Analysis
Time Domain:
SDNN
RMSSD
Frequency Domain:
(Autoregression analysis)
LF & HF
LF/HF ratio (%)
Poincaré:
SD1, SD2

17. RESULTS: HRV - MODERATE VERSUS
HIGH PHYSICAL ACTIVITY GROUPS
Group
Moderate
High
RRI
827
1011**
SDNN
42.6
71.8**
RMSSD
42.1
82.2**
HF
230
515*
SD1
29.8
58.3*
SD1/SD2 ratio
0.39
0.49*
* P<0.05, **P<0.01

18. Each Poincaré plot shows
1000 R-R intervals
Participant A: Physical activity
> 3 sessions per week, > 60
min; SD1 47.0 ms, SD2 87 ms,
SD1/SD2 0.54
Participant B: Physical activity
1 session per week, > 30 min;
SD1 11.9 ms, SD2 62.1 ms,
SD1/SD2 0.19

19. POINCARÉ PLOTS: OVERTRAINING
Altered Poincaré plot shape in overtrained athletes (Mourot et al. 2004)
Trained Overtrained 1 Overtrained 2
R-R
Mourot et al. (2004) Decrease in heart rate variability with overtraining: assessment by the Poincaré plot analysis. Clin Physio
Funct Imaging 24: 10-18

20. POINCARÉ PLOTS: CONGESTIVE
HEART FAILURE
Plot shape indicates cardiac health status (Woo et al., 1994)
Normal Congestive Heart Failure
NA: 244 pg mL-1 NA: 750 pg mL-1
Plasma NA:
Normal range:
150-300 pg mL-1

21. STUDY 2: HRV MAY INDICATE THE
LACTATE AND VENTILATORY
THRESHOLDS
Di Michele et al. (2012) Estimation of the anaerobic threshold
from the heart rate variability threshold in an incremental
swimming test J. Strength & Cond. Res. 26 (11): 3059-3066.
James et al. (1989) Determination of anaerobic threshold by
ventilatory frequency Int. J. Sports Med. 10 (3): 192-196.
Karapetian et al. (2008) Use of heart rate variability to estimate
LT and VT Int. J. Sports Med. 29: 652-657.
Sales et al. (2011) Noninvasive method to estimate anaerobic
threshold in individuals with type 2 diabetes Diabetology &
Metabolic Syndrome 3: 1

22. HOW IS HRV DETERMINED?
Karapetian et al. (2008) Visual inspection
…’point at which there was no further
decline in HRV, thus indicating vagal
withdrawal. Thus, this HRV deflection
point was defined as the HRVT’.
Sales et al. (2011) ‘For the determination
of the HRVT, a stabilization point lower
than 3 milliseconds (ms) was adopted for
the vagal activity indices (SD1 and
RMSSD) plotted against the absolute
workload’.

23. DATA FROM INCREMENTAL CYCLE
ERGOMETRY
Work rate
(W)
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
210
240
57.1
27.8
12.5
10.8
5.8
4.2
2.6
2.7
3.4
RMSSD
(ms)
Blood lactate
(mmol L-1)
VO2
(L min-1)
VCO2
(L min-1)
SD1
(ms)
40.9
19.9
9
7.8
4.2
3
1.9
2
2.5
1.6
1.4
1.6
1.2
1.7
2.3
4.1
6.2
12.4
0.31
0.84
1.07
1.39
1.67
2.11
2.37
2.66
3.03
0.28
0.71
0.92
1.28
1.52
2.04
2.40
2.89
3.41

24. LACTATE THRESHOLD (0.4 MMOL L-1
ABOVE BASELINE)
0.0
2.0
4.0
6.0
8.0
10.0
12.0
14.0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
BloodLactateConcentration
(mmol/L)
Work rate (w)
Blood lactate
(mmol L-1)
1.6
1.4
1.6
1.2
1.7
2.3
4.1
6.2
12.4
LT - 0.4 mmol L-1 sustained increase above baseline
LT at 120 W
rest
move away from baseline lactate
concentration >0.4 mmol L-1

25. VENTILATORY THRESHOLD VT1 (VCO2
PLOTTED AGAINST VO2)
y = 0.9928x - 0.1239
R² = 0.9981
y = 1.5028x - 1.133
R² = 0.998
0.00
0.50
1.00
1.50
2.00
2.50
3.00
3.50
4.00
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50
VO2
(L min-1)
VCO2
(L min-1)
0.31
0.84
1.07
1.39
1.67
2.11
2.37
2.66
3.03
0.28
0.71
0.92
1.28
1.52
2.04
2.40
2.89
3.41
rest
VT1 breakpoint at 120 W
VT1 at 120 W

26. HRV THRESHOLD
(RMSSD VERSUS WORK RATE)
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
RMSSD(ms)
Work Rate (W)
RMSSD versus Work Rate
HRVT stabilization below 3 ms is at 2.6 ms
HRVT at 180 W
RMSSD
(ms)
57.1
27.8
12.5
10.8
5.8
4.2
2.6
2.7
3.4
rest

27. HRV THRESHOLD
(SD1 VERSUS WORK RATE)
0
5
10
15
20
25
0 50 100 150 200 250 300
SD1(ms)
Work Rate (w)
SD1 versus Work Rate
SD1
(ms)
40.9
19.9
9.0
7.8
4.2
3.0
1.9
2.0
2.5
HRVT stabilization below 3 ms is at 1.9 ms
HRVT at 180 W
rest

28. VENTILATORY THRESHOLD VT2
RESPIRATORY COMPENSATION POINT (VE
PLOTTED AGAINST VCO2)
y = 17.512x + 6.477
R² = 0.9956
y = 32.827x - 29.28
R² = 0.9975
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
0.00 0.50 1.00 1.50 2.00 2.50 3.00 3.50 4.00
VE
VCO2
VT2 breakpoint at 180 W
VT2 at 180 W
VCO2
(L min-1)
0.28
0.71
0.92
1.28
1.52
2.04
2.40
2.89
3.41
9.6
18.7
22.8
29.6
32.3
42.3
50.0
64.7
83.3
VE
(L min-1)
Work rate
(W)
0
30
60
90
120
150
180
210
240

29. SUMMARY
HEART RATE MEASURES CAN:
Estimate energy expenditure (kJ) during steady-rate
submaximal exercise.
Estimate cardiorespiratory fitness (VO2max) based on the
submaximal heart rate response.
Indicate the training status of an athlete.
Indicate cardiac autonomic health status in clinical
populations.
May reflect the lactate and ventilatory thresholds during
incremental exercise.