Heart rate response to exercise in normal women

: Heart rate is known to increase under the influence of increased sympathetic stimulation rates during exertion or stress. Few data are available regarding the rate response to exercise near the fatigue limit, for normal women. The effects on heart rate were studied of fatigue limiting exercise in 87 asymptomatic, normal female subjects employing a bicycle ergometer exercise protocol. The heart rate response to imposed exercise power closely followed a monotonic increasing, negative exponential function. Different age groups followed the same form of function but differed in parameter values. Group fitting was useful to develop parameters with which one group may be compared to another, establish referent ranges, and gain insight into cardiovascular models of exercise physiology.