Pre-Exercise Subjective Estimation of Heart Rate in Different Physical Activities among Physical Education Students

Yoav Meckel,Sharon Tsuk,Aya Ekshtein,Alon Eliakim

doi:10.4236/ape.2019.91004

Abstract

Physical education teachers should be able to evaluate exercise intensity objectively as well as subjectively in order to implement the appropriate load during activity sessions. Whereas measuring oxygen uptake or blood lactate level during exercise may be a complicated task in field conditions, monitoring heart rate (HR) values can be a relatively simple procedure when performed outdoors. The aim of this study was to examine the subjective estimation accuracy of HR in different exercises among physical education students. Pre-exercise estimations of HR were collected from 180 students prior to a multi-task activity session. The estimated HR values were then compared with true HR values, which were monitored throughout the session using a portable HR monitor system. A mean significant difference of 13.4% was found between the estimated and actual HRs for all activities. A majority of the students (70%) estimated HR values to be lower than the true values. The most accurate HR estimations were found in extremely easy or in extremely difficult activities, whereas the least accurate estimations were found in moderate-level activities. No significant differences were found in HR estimation accuracy between males and females or between individuals with higher and with lower aerobic fitness. The results indicated that physical education students can estimate their HR responses to a reasonable degree of accuracy, but with most underestimating them compared to the actual values.

Highlights

The results indicated that physical education students can estimate their heart rate (HR) responses to a reasonable degree of accuracy, but with most underestimating them compared to the actual values
The findings may point out the importance of using a portable HR monitoring device as a tool for assessing exercise intensity, among untrained individuals but among the relatively trained as well (Achten, & Jeukendrup, 2003; Alexander et al, 2012). It seems that physical education students can estimate HR responses to a reasonable degree of accuracy for different types of exercises
It is apparent that most physical education students estimate their HR responses to be lower than their actual values for different physical activities

Summary

Introduction

It should be noted that some factors might interfere with or influence HR responses during physical activity Among these factors are environmental conditions, emotions, previous food intake, body position, sex, age, muscle group exercised, if the exercise is continuous or intermittent, and whether the muscles act statically or dynamically (McArdle, Magel, & Kyvallos, 1971; Meijer, Westerterp, Koper, & ten Hoor, 1989). HR in aerobic dance will exceed the HR during treadmill running at the same VO2 level (see, Parker, Hurley, Hanlon, & Vaccaro, 1989) Consistent with this finding, higher HR was measured in upper-body exercise or when muscles act statically in straining-type exercise than in dynamic leg exercise at any sub-maximal level (Mostardi, Gandee, & Norris, 1981; Rotstein & Meckel, 2000). HR for a given exercise load will be lower for trained compared to untrained individuals, mainly due to the higher stroke volume of trained individuals (Warburton et al, 2002)

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