The use of isometric exercise as a means of evaluating the parasympathetic contribution to the tachycardia induced by dynamic exercise in normal man.

Fourteen normal subjects were submitted to isometric exercise (IE), dynamic exercise (DE) and a combination of the two (IE + DE). The main purpose of the present study was to use IE as a means of evaluating the mechanism of the heart rate (HR) increase induced by DE. To this end, the magnitude of the IE (handgrip) was standardized so as to cause an elevation of HR almost exclusively by vagal withdrawal: IE was performed using a dynamometer strain-gauge system with a linear response at 75% of maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) for 10 s, repeated at 1 min intervals. The change in HR evoked by IE under control conditions was compared with that evoked during DE, and during the corresponding recovery period. DE was performed by the legs, with the subject in the seated position for 4 min, at workloads of 55 and 105 watts, separated by a rest period. In the combined protocol, IE was performed at the beginning of DE, as well as at 1, 2 and 3 min during DE, and at 0, 1, 2, 3 and 5 min during recovery period. The following results were obtained: (1) IE associated with DE always induced smaller increase in heart rate than IE alone, and this effect was more marked at 105 than at 55 W; this finding suggested a workload-dependent vagal withdrawal at the very beginning of DE that was sustained until the end of effort.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)