Effect of Arm and Leg Exercise on Heart Autonomic Function in Children

Purpose: The ability of the human organism to recover its autonomic balance soon after physical exercise cessation has an important impact on the individual's health status. Heart rate variability widely used as a non-invasive technique at rest, during and after exercise for the assessment of the autonomic nervous system activity on the heart and the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. Thus, the purpose of the present study was to investigate the dynamics of HRV response during or the time course of HRV recovery following the arm crank and cycle ergometer protocols in active children. Materials and Methods: Twelve active children volunteered to participate in this study and HRV was assessed from calculation of the mean R-R interval measured on ECG at each phases of exercise and recovery period. We analyzed the overall effect of training on HRV at rest and in the recovery period for each protocol separately by ANOVA with repeated measures. Also, we tested whether values at different time intervals by means of a Tukey’s post hoc test. A paired ttest was use to assess the differences between arm crank and cycle ergometer protocols. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05 Results: HRV significantly decreased during and immediately after arm crank and cycle ergometers protocols. Moreover, HRV was significantly higher in the arm ergometer than leg ergometer protocols. Conclusions: These results suggest that vagal reactivation and that restoration of autonomic HR control is faster in arm exercise than leg exercise.