Influence of exercise modality on cardiac parasympathetic and sympathetic indices during post-exercise recovery

Abstract Objectives This study investigated indirect measures of post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation (using heart-rate-variability, HRV) and sympathetic withdrawal (using systolic-time-intervals, STI) following upper- and lower-body exercise. Design Randomized, counter-balanced, crossover. Methods 13 males (age 26.4 ± 4.7 years) performed maximal arm-cranking (MAX-ARM) and leg-cycling (MAX-LEG). Subsequently, participants undertook separate 8-min bouts of submaximal HR-matched exercise of each mode (ARM and LEG). HRV (including natural-logarithm of root-mean-square-of-successive-differences, Ln-RMSSD) and STI (including pre-ejection-period, PEP) were assessed throughout 10-min seated recovery. Results Peak-HR was higher (p = 0.001) during MAX-LEG (182 ± 7 beats min −1 ) compared with MAX-ARM (171 ± 12 beats min −1 ), while HR (p  −1 (LEG) (p = 0.139). Recovery of HR and Ln-RMSSD was also similar between submaximal modalities, remaining below baseline throughout recovery (p  Conclusions Compared with submaximal lower-body exercise, HR-matched upper-body exercise elicited a similar recovery of HR and HRV indices of parasympathetic reactivation, but delayed recovery of PEP (reflecting sympathetic withdrawal). Exercise modality appears to influence post-exercise parasympathetic reactivation and sympathetic withdrawal in an intensity-dependent manner. These results highlight the need for test standardization and may be relevant to multi-discipline athletes and in clinical applications with varying modes of exercise testing.