Effects of pedaling on the high frequency components of HRV during exercise

The aim of our study was to prove the existence of a spectral peak at the pedaling frequency in the heart rate spectra, during exercise test on the cycloergometer, and to describe its characteristics. This was done by studying four young healthy volunteers (2M/2F, 18-22 yrs) while pedaling on a cycloergometer with incremental workloads, by mean of a 3-lead ECG and a 7 TV-camera optoelectronic device for recording pedal movements and respiratory movements of the thorax. A clear spectral peak in the HRV spectrum at the pedaling frequency appeared for certain workloads in all subjects. The power of this peak represented a significant fraction of the power of the respiratory peak. Since the overall displacement of the chest was the same regardless of the work load, we can exclude that the spectral peak at the pedaling frequency is due to a motion artifact, and we can rather hypothesize that it is related to the muscle pump mechanism.