Cardiovascular functional limitations for sprint-type tasks in health promotion sessions = : Limitations fonctionnelles cardiovasculaires pour les tâches de type sprint au cours des sessions de promotion de la santé

Abstract

Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the effects of aerobic + interval exercise (AI) and aerobic exercise (AE) on the cardiovascular functional state in a female cohort. Equipment and methods Seventeen healthy adult females from the same health sport club participated in this study. An orthostatic manoeuvre was used to determine the state of the cardiovascular system before and 40 min after completion. During the procedure, a 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) was recorded for later analysis of heart rate (HR), ST-segment depression and arterial blood pressure (ABP). Results Comparing HR, ABP and ST-segment depression results before and after AE and AI, we found no significant differences for HR and ABP averaged data (P > 0.05) but ST-segment depression was significant higher in nine out of 37 ECG after the AI session (P < 0.05). Changes in the values of the cardiovascular indices HR and ABP in response to the orthostatic manoeuvre indicate that both types of training session build up significant fatigue (P < 0.05). In four out of 17 participants, ST-segment depression increased sharply after AI. Conclusion Serious ischaemic episodes in the myocardium during the orthostatic manoeuvre highlight the atypical physiological response of some participants to the high-intensity sprint-type workloads of the AI session. The orthostatic manoeuvre also revealed individual limitations for the high-intensity sprint-type tasks in the AI session.