Cardiorespiratory responses to exercise distributed between the upper and lower body.

The present study examined the influence that distributing exercise between upper (arm crank exercise) and lower (cycle exercise) body muscle groups had on cardiorespiratory responses to constant power output (PO) exercise. Six male volunteers completed five submaximal exercise bouts of 7-min duration at both 76 and 109 W. The arm PO/total PO (% arm) for these bouts was approximately 0, 20, 40, 60, and 100%. At 76 W, O2 uptake (VO2) did not change (P greater than 0.05) from 0 to approximately 20% arm (approximately 1.30 1 x min-1) but increased with increasing percent arm values up to 100% (1.58 1 x min-1). At 109 W, VO2 increased throughout the range of 0 (1.70 1 x min-1) to 100% arm (2.33 1 x min-1). In general, minute ventilation (VE) and respiratory exchange ratio (R) increased with increased percent arm values at 76 and 109 W. The heart rate (HR) responses remained unchanged from 0 to 60% arm at both 76 and 109 W; however, between 60 and 100% arm, a 26-beats x min-1 increase was observed at 76 W (143 beats x min-1 at 100% arm) and a 45-beats x min-1 increase at 109 W (174 beats x min-1 at 100% arm). These data suggested that during upper body exercise, the increased VO2 associated with increased percent arm values was not accompanied by an elevated HR response when at least 40% of the PO was performed by the lower body. This might be attributed to a facilitated venous return and/or a decreased total peripheral resistance when the lower body was involved in the exercise.