CHRONOTROPIC AND CARDIAC AUTONOMIC RESPONSES IN SPEED MOTORCYCLING. A CASE STUDY
Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to analyze the chronotropic and cardiac autonomic response of a motorcyclist during the 7th race week of the FIM-CEV Repsol Moto2 European Championship through heart rate (HRAVG) and sympathetic-parasympathetic ratio (RS-Ps). The effect and relationships of sessions, laps and track segments were analyzed by MANOVA test with Bonferroni post-hoc and Pearson’s r. A low effect of the segments in RS-Ps (p<.01; wp2=0.03), and high effect of the sessions (p<.01; wp2=0.72), laps (p<.01; wp2=0.95) and the interaction between sessions and laps (p<.01; wp2=0.62) in HRAVG were found. Also, a tendency of increasing HRAVG was found with sessions (r=.315; p<0.01) and laps (r=.280; p<0.01). No significant correlations were found with RS-Ps. While HRAVG can be used as a fatigue index during motorcycling competition, RS-Ps indicates the significant rider’s stress at specific segments of the track, being important both variables for improving the riders’ performance.