Validity of certified trainer-palpated and exercise-palpated post-exercise heart rate

Document Type

Article

Journal/Book Title/Conference

Journal of Exercise Physiologyonline

Volume

16

Issue

6

Publisher

American Society of Exercise Physiologists

Publication Date

12-1-2013

First Page

31

Last Page

38

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the ability of certified fitness trainers and exercisers to accurately palpate post-exercise heart rate (HR). Immediately after completing a 3-min step test, 20 trainers (29.4 ± 5.7 yrs; 8 males, 12 females) palpated the radial artery of 20 exercisers (31.8 ± 9.6 yrs; 10 males, 10 females) who simultaneously palpated their carotid artery. The post-exercise HR obtained by the trainers (134.0 ± 38.1 beats·min-1) and the exercisers (140.2 ± 25.2 beats·min-1) were not significantly different (P = 0.224) from the HR monitor (149.7 ± 18.5 beats·min-1). While the post-exercise HR palpated by both the certified fitness trainers and the exercisers were close to the monitored values, the trainers were no more accurate than the exercisers. Moreover, there was substantial variability in accuracy for both the trainers and the exercisers. Due to the large variability in determining HR, the ability of both the certified fitness trainers and the exercisers to accurately assess post-exercise HR is questionable. Thus, we suggest that a HR monitor or an ECG recording should be used when the HR measurement is of paramount importance.

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