J Syst Sci Complex (2013) 26: 104116

HEART RATE VARIABILITY DURING HIGH-INTENSITY EXERCISE

SARMIENTO Samuel GARC IA-MANSO Juan Manuel MART IN-GONZALEZ Juan Manuel VAAMONDE Diana Javier DA SILVA-GRIGOLETTO Marzo Edir CALDERON

DOI: 10.1007/s11424-013-2287-y Received: 10 January 2012 c The Editorial Oce of JSSC & Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013 Abstract The aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the behaviour of heart rate variability (HRV) during constant-load, high-intensity exercise using a time frequency analysis (Wavelet Transform). Eleven elite cyclists took part in the study (age: 18.63.0 years; VO2 max : 4.880.61 litresmin1 ). Initially, all subjects performed an incremental cycloergometer test to determine load power in a constant load-test (379.5536.02 W; 89.0%). HRV declined dramatically from the start of testing (p <0.05). The behaviour of power spectral density within the LF band mirrored that of total energy, recording a signicant decrease from the outset LF peaks fell rapidly thereafter, remaining stable until the end of the test. HF-VHF fell sharply in the rst 20 to 30 seconds. The relative weighting (%) of HF-VHF was inverted with the onset of fatigue, [1.6% at the start, 7.1 (p <0.05) at the end of the rst phase, and 43.1% (p <0.05) at the end of the test]. HF-VHFpeak displayed three phases: a moderate initial increase, followed by a slight fall, thereafter increasing to the end of the test. The LF/HF-VHF ratio increased at the start, later falling progressively until the end of the rst phase and remaining around minimal values until the end of the test. Key words Cycling, heart rate variability, wavelet.

1 Introduction
The cardiovascular system at rest is mostly controlled by higher brain centres and cardiovascular control areas in the brain through the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches of the autonomic nervous system (ANS). Eerent sympathetic and vagal activities directed to the sinus node are characterised by discharges largely synchronous with each cardiac cycle, which can be modulated by central and peripheral oscillators. These mechanisms generate rhythmic
SARMIENTO Samuel GARC IA-MANSO Juan Manuel Department of Physical Education, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. MART IN-GONZALEZ Juan Manuel Physics Department, University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain. VAAMONDE Diana Department of Morphological Sciences, School of Medicine, University of C ordoba, Spain. Javier CALDERON Physical Activity Sciences Faculty, Polytechnic University of Madrid, Spain. DA SILVA-GRIGOLETTO Marzo Edir Andalusian Centre of Sports Medicine, C ordoba, Spain. Email: pit researcher@yahoo.es. This paper was recommended for publication by Editors FENG Dexing and HAN Jing.

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uctuations in eerent neural discharge which manifest as short and long-term oscillations in the heart period. It is commonly accepted that heart rate variability (HRV) analysis is a non-invasive technique for assessing autonomic inuences on the heart[14] . Evaluation criteria have been established by the Task Force and accepted by the Board of the European Society of Cardiology and the North American Society of Pacing, and Electrophysiology[5]. However, the criteria used in dierent HRV series obtained during exercise vary slightly. With physical activity, cardiovascular responses depend on the type, intensity, and volume of exercise. The behaviour of HRV has been analysed in dierent types of endurance activity: steady-state intensity[69] and incremental exercise[1012]. During moderate exercise, HR is regulated initially by the ANS, with increased sympathetic modulation and withdrawal of parasympathetic activity[4,1315] . These changes are associated with local chemical factors and hemodynamic changes that are dependent on exercise intensity[7,16,17] and accelerated breathing rates. Changes in breathing aect HR control in dierent ways. Breathing and heart rate respond to a process involving both systems, known as respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). The eect of respiratory oscillation on blood pressure can be ascribed to the cyclic variation in intrathoracic pressure, with breathing mechanically perturbing venous return, cardiac output, and blood pressure. Such changes are detected by baroreceptors, which cause changes in autonomic HR control[10,18,19]. During heavy exercise, the responses described above are exacerbated. Some studies indicate that the ANS is no longer eective with these workloads[7,2022] and that there are other mechanisms, either mechanical[9,23,24] or functional[25] , which govern the cardiac response. Such mechanisms imply the reex baroreceptor action and the reex neuronal feedback provoked by muscle contraction[26]. We hypothesize that the nature of these mechanisms is observed when the subject reaches a high level of fatigue and demands the organism an important eort in order to perform an exercise. HRV is an especially sensitive indicator for minimal changes in the organisms response to workloads and, consequently, is an accurate indicator of how the organism reacts to fatigue in exercises of dierent intensities giving us information on the response capacity, fatigue level, and performance capacity. Thus, the aim of the present study was to describe and analyse the behaviour of heart rate variability (HRV) during constant-load, high-intensity (HI) exercise using a time frequency analysis (Wavelet Transform) of the time intervals between beats.

2 Methods
2.1 Participants Eleven elite cyclists (descriptive anthropometric and physiological characteristics for the sample are shown in Table 1) took part in this study. All subjects were informed of the nature of the study, which complied with the ethical guidelines of the Declaration of Helsinki, and all gave their informed written consent to be included. The study protocol was approved by the Ethics Committee of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. 2.2 Protocol All subjects performed a preliminary incremental test to characterise the sample and determine the workload for the HI exercise. Tests were performed using a cycloergometer with an electromagnetic braking system (Jaeger ER800, Erich Jaeger, Germany). Before starting the incremental load test, subjects spent 2 min at rest on the cycloergometer to determine

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baseline values. After a warm-up period of 10 min (5 min at 50 W and 5 min at 100 W), all subjects pedalled at between 8090 rpm with load increases of 5 W every 12 s (25 min1 ) until exhaustion. One week later, the subjects performed a six-minute constant load-test (89.0% of the maximum intensity obtained in the incremental test). This load was higher than the VT2 (second ventilatory threshold) load and lower than the maximum aerobic speed (379.5536.02 W; 5.610.73 WKg1 ).
Table 1 Subjects characteristics (n = 11). Mean and standard deviation Age (years) 18.6 3.0 Height (centimetres) 174.1 6.2 Body mass (kg) 68.3 7.4 Percentage fat (%) 8.7 1.5 Relative workload (WKg1 ) 5.61 0.73 Percentage workload 88.95 4.79 % 52.55 8.34 Rest Heart Rate (beats min 1 ) 185.09 6.06 Maximal Heart Rate (beats min1 ) Maximal Oxygen Uptake (litres min 1 ) 4.88 0.61

2.3 Measurement of Ventilatory Parameters and O2 Consumption Subjects breathed normal air through a low-resistance valve using a mask of known dead volume. The composition and volume of the expired air ware determined using a Jaeger Oxicon Pro analyser (Erich Jaeger, Germany); this adheres to the standards of the American Thoracic Society and the European Communities Chemistry Council. Gaseous exchange data were processed breath-by-breath using LabManager v.4.53 software (Erich Jaeger, Germany). Prior to each test, the equipment was calibrated using a gas with the following composition: 16% O2 , 5% CO2 , and 79% N2 . 2.4 Measurement of R-R Intervals HR was monitored beat-by-beat using a Polar S810i RR cardiotachometer (Polar Electro, Oy, Finland) and a Jaeger ECG surface electrocardiograph (Viasys Healthcare, Erich Jaeger, Germany). The cardiotachometric recording of HR is a validated method[27,28] . Cardiac data were processed using Polar Precision Performance SW software v.3.00 (Polar Electro, Oy, Finland). The obtained data were analysed in terms of two phases determined by the inection point in a double-logarithmic (log-log) plot of HR values vs. time. Values were analysed at the following points: start, end of the rst phase and minutes 23, 34, 45, and 56 after the rst phase, until completion of four one-minute intervals (second phase). 2.5 Time-Frequency Analysis of Heart Rate Variability The cardiac signal was examined by analysing the intervals between beats; this provided a measurement of HRV Wavelet transform (WT) provides a general signal processing technique that can be used in HRV analysis[29,30]. WT utilises short windows at high frequencies and long windows at low frequencies and can be successfully applied to non-stationary signals for analysis and processing. It indicates which frequencies occur at what time, showing good time resolution at high frequencies and good frequency resolution at low frequencies. The wavelets are families of functions, dened both spatially and temporally, which are generated by the scaling and translation of a function called mother wavelet or base function[31] . a,b (t) = |a|1/2 tb , a (1)

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where is the mother wavelet, and the scaling and translation parameters a and b vary continuously with regard to the group of real numbers (R) as long as a does not equal 0 (a = 0). The value of the scale enables dilatation and compression of the mother wavelet, while the parameter of scale a corresponds to frequency information. The translation parameter b locates the wavelet function in time along the length of the signal. Further mathematical details on this procedure can be found in [32]. A discrete wavelet transform (DWT), with a Daubechies (Db8) type base function, was initially used to eliminate the trend of the signal over time. A linear interpolation was then applied to the remaining signal in order to obtain a uniform sampling. Finally, the digital RR signal was subjected to continuous wavelet transform (CWT) using a Morlet-type base function with = 6 and =20, which provided good quality time and frequency resolution, where is a dimensionless frequency which denes the number of cycles of the Morlet wavelet. Large values for are associated with improved frequency resolution, though at the expense of poorer time resolution. For this reason, several values of the parameter were used, and it was found that = 20 best tted our purposes. The value of power spectral density at each moment of the test was based on the sum of the coecient wavelets at each moment. The properties of a time series at dierent scales can be summarized by discrete wavelet variance, which breaks down the variance of a time series on a scale-by-scale basis. However, the number of wavelet coecients at each scale, obtained by the DWT, decreases by a factor of 2 for each increasing level of the transform, limiting the ability to carry out statistical analyses on the coecients. This limitation can be overcome if the downsampling in the DWT is avoided by using the maximal overlap discrete wavelet transform. The analysis was performed using Matlab software (Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA, USA). The frequency ranges for the bands were: VLF < 0.04 Hz; LF 0.04 Hz to 0.15 Hz; HF 0.15 Hz to 0.4 Hz; VHF > 0.4 Hz. 2.6 Statistical Analysis Standard statistical methods were used for the calculation of means and standard deviations. Normal Gaussian distribution of the data was veried by the Shapiro-Wilk test. All variables were compared by repeated-measures ANOVA followed by a Bonferroni post-hoc test. Statistical signicance was set at p <0.05. The statistical package SPSS 12.0.1 for Windows was used for all calculations.

3 Results
HR and VO2 increased from the outset until the end of HI (Table 2). Their behaviour displayed two clearly-dierentiated phases: an initial phase (92.341.7seconds) with a rapid increase in HR (=35.9%; p <0.001) and VO2 (=121.5%; p <0.001); and a second phase of slow increase in HR (=10.7%; p <0.001) and VO2 (=14.1%; p <0.006), which lasted until the end of the test (6 min). After the third minute of the second phase, increases in HR were signicant with regards the initial measurement (start) but not with regards the immediately prior measurement. Changes in cardiorespiratory response were accompanied by a signicant drop in HRV (Table 3) in both frequency bands (LF and HF), and in VO2 (Table 2).

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Table 2 Means and standard deviation of HR and VO2 max during both phases of the protocol Phases First phase (n = 11) Variables HR(beat min1 ) VO2 (1 min1 ) Phases Start 127.2 6.9 1.95 0.1 End 169.9 8.6# 4.32 0.5# Second phase (n = 11)

Variables Phase 1 + 1min Phase 1 + 2min Phase 1 + 3min Phase 1 + 4min 181.2 4.3# 184.7 4.7 188.1 7.0 HR(beat min1 ) 176.2 6.0# 1 # # VO2 (1 min ) 4.75 0.4 4.90 0.5 4.90 0.6 4.92 0.6 Denotes signicant dierence (p <0.05) using repeated-measures ANOVA with respect to the start measurement. # Denotes signicant dierence (p <0.05) using repeated- measures ANOVA with respect to the immediately previous measurement. Table 3 Average values and standard deviation (%) of changes in Total Power (TP), Low Frequency (LF), and High Frequency (HF) in the two phases of the test TP(%)a 100 24.421.4 10.712.1 4.29.1 4.29.1 3.38.0 b LF(%) 98.41.4 92.917.9 95.77.0 90.38.6 73.826.4 56.920.2 HF(%)b 1.61.4 7.117.9 4.37.0 9.78.6 26.226.4 43.120.2 a b Represents the relative value (%) with respect to PT at the start of the test. Represents the relative value (%) with respect to PT at each moment of the test. Denotes signicant dierence (p <0.05) using repeated-measures ANOVA.

The behaviour of the HRV frequency spectrum over the course of the test can be seen in Figure 1, where the spectrogram (CWT) is shown with the weighting of frequencies (in greyscale) of one of the subjects during the test. As well as changes in power spectral density for each frequency, the graph also shows the pattern displayed by the peaks of the two bands (HF>0.15 Hz; LF<0.15 Hz), represented by the line corresponding to the DWT (Daubechies base function = 8) applied to the HF-VHF band. However, the DWT did not detect the appreciable changes recorded for HF-VHF peaks at the start of the test.
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Frequency spectrum (CWT Morlet base function with = 6 in greyscale and outline mode of four levels) of HRV. Shows the changes in frequency components (Hz) plotted against time (s). Superimposed is the DWT (Daubechies base function = 8) with peaks of maximum energy in the HF-VHF band shown in Hz by the solid black line. The X axis shows the time of the test (Start: 720 s) and the Y axis shows the frequencies (Hz)

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Figure 2 shows the typical pattern, represented by one of the sample subjects, of values for PT (upper left), HF-VHF (upper right), LF (lower left), and the LF/HF ratio (lower right). This pattern, with individual idiosyncrasies, was observed in all subjects under evaluation.
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Typical pattern observed for PT values (upper left), HF-VHF values (upper right), LF values (lower left), and the LF/HF ratio values (lower right). This pattern, with individual idiosyncrasies, was observed in all subjects under evaluation

Figure 3 shows the relationship between the frequency spectrum of the HF-VHF band, expressed by the total of the wavelet coecients, and heart rate (top) and respiratory frequency (bottom) for one of the sample subjects. It should be noted how there is a drastic change in spectral density with regards to functional parameters; that is, from a certain cardiorespiratory level (HR > 178 and over 40 breaths/minute), drastic changes (fall in spectral density) in the high frequency band are observed.

4 Discussion
The data obtained conrmed that WTs are an accurate and highly-sensitive method of detecting small changes in the HRV signal due to exercise, enabling a more detailed examination of certain specic aspects of the acute response to intense, medium-duration endurance exercise (3 to 19 min) which are not perceptible using other evaluation instruments.

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At the outset of abrupt high-intensity exercise, HR increases rapidly in proportion with work rate. The initial increases were rapid and intense (Start: 127.26.9beat min1 ; Phase-Iend: 169.98.6 beat min1 ; p <0.001), reaching values greater than 90% of HRmax at the end of the rst phase. The subjects started the test with a relatively high HR after warm-up (Table 2). During the second phase, HR continued to show a slight, but statistically-signicant increase until the end of the test (Table 2).
HFVHF vs. HR 2000 Figure A 1800 High & Very High Frecuency (P.S.D.) 1600 1400 1200 1000 800 178 beats/min1 600 400 200 0 120 130 140 150 160 170 Heart Rate (beats/min1) HFVHF vs. BF Figure B 5000 High & Very High Frecuency (P.S.D.) 180 190

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4.2 Eect of High-Intensity Exercise on HRV HRV, expressed in terms of total power spectral density (PT) and determined on the basis of wavelet coecients, decreased dramatically after the rst few seconds after starting tests. At the end of the rst phase PT fell by 75.621.4% (p <0.05) compared to baseline values. At the end of the rst phase (90.630.5 seconds), parasympathetic control may have disappeared, or fallen to minimal levels, whilst sympathetic activity may also have been seriously compromised; the changes observed in HRV would depend very directly on other mechanical and functional variables. With strenuous exercise, ANS initially increases mainly due to the muscle chemoreex, whereas central command increases HR and cardiac output through vagal withdrawal[13]. Consequently, HRV decreases in total power and in the two major frequency bands: low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF)[4,1315] . This response initially involves parasympathetic withdrawal and augmented sympathetic activity[4,1315] . The reason for the increased sympathetic activity at the start of exercise is not fully understood at present. While a number of authors, including V ctor, et al.[33] , Rotto, et al.[34] , [35] and Sinoway, et al. link metabolic acidosis to increased sympathetic activity, Vissinget, et al.[36] suggested that no parallel exists between the functional responses. Nevertheless, plasma epinephrine levels increase sharply at around 60% VO2 max [3739] . Some researchers believe that sympathetic activity remains unchanged up to 100% of ventilatory threshold and increases abruptly at 110%[40] and that total parasympathetic withdrawal does not occur even during high-intensity exercise[21,41] . Retention of parasympathetic tone during exercise could be a benecial response for the organism, allowing it to respond rapidly to changes in blood pressure[42]. However, Rowell & OLeary[21] suggest that, during progressive exercise, sympathetic activity does not increase until parasympathetic restraint is exhausted. These changes in autonomic tone have been associated with changes in central command baroreex and activation of muscle aerents[43,44] . Other authors suggest that parasympathetic activity only decreases signicantly at 50% VO2 max while sympathetic activity increases slightly at lower intensities (50%60% VO2 max ) and more markedly when the intensity is moderate[45,46] . Here, intensity was pronounced, causing signicant changes in the athletes organisms. During heavy exercise, eliciting increases in sympathetic activity, marked functional parasympathetic tone exists[42,45] . 4.3 Eect of High-Intensity Exercise in LF From the start of the test, the absolute values of LF fell rapidly (77.822.6%), in a manner similar to that of PT. However, in the rst few moments, LF continued to account for most of the total HRV power spectral density (98.32.3%). This fall in LF was accompanied by a progressive reduction in peaks in this frequency band. During the second phase, the power spectral density continued to fall throughout the test, reaching nal values of <4% of total baseline variability. The reduction in LF (ms2 ) values with medium- and high-intensity loads has been reported in other studies[18,47] . Only one published study recorded increases in LF values during a ramp test[48] , but it should be noted that VLF (0.000.004 Hz) values were included within the LF band. 4.4 Eect of High Intensity-Exercise in HF-VHF HF-VHF data are valuable in this type of test, in that they are closely linked to respiratory response and to the mechanical characteristics of the activity. In all the assessed subjects, the

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pattern of spectral density divided into three phases: an initial sharp fall (20 to 30 seconds); a period of minimal values lasting for part of the second phase of the test; and a progressive increase when levels of fatigue become pronounced (170 beat min1 ). This nal increase in spectral density was almost three times the minimum value observed throughout the duration of the test (second minute) and was accompanied by greater instability in values. The relative weight (%) of the two frequency bands (LF and HF-VHF) varied with exercise in proportion to the intensity of eort and the duration of the test. Despite the continuous decrease in total power spectral density, the greater weight of variability was always observed in the LF band. With fatigue, however, the relative weight (%) of HF-VHF increased, while that of LF fell, thus modifying the LF/HF ratio. Detection of the intensity or timing HF-VHF weighting increases could provide a means of controlling the training load and assessing athletes. Fatigue and the accompanying mechanisms exert a mechanical eect on the sinus node through forced hyperventilation, prompting a progressive increase in HFpeak . The HF-VHF peaks tend to behave in a similar manner to respiratory frequency[11,12,49] . In the HI tests, the HFpeak behaved idiosyncratically in the rst phase (Figure 1), exhibiting two distinct patterns in this period. Over the course of the rst seconds, (30 ) peaks tended to increase slightly, continuing to increase until the end of the phase. Later, during the second phase, HF-VHF peaks increased progressively until eort ceased. It should be recalled that the HFpeak is strongly associated with breathing. However, it must be noted that there is no consensus, up-to-date, on the mechanisms aecting at these intensities the observed changes, especially with regards to low-frequency band when the subject reaches a level of cardiorespiratory response that is close to the anaerobic threshold. The increase in HF in high-intensity physical eort has also been reported in [7, 9, 1012, 49, 50], and is almost always linked to increases in respiratory frequency and amplitude. Increased hyperventilation can exert mechanical eects on the sinus node that manifest themselves in increased values for HF-VHF (peak and absolute values).This increase in HF may be attributable to the critical situation undergone by the cardiac system in extreme states of fatigue. This seems to indicate that, at extremely intense levels of eort, HR is not modulated by the vegetative system, but rather that it responds to non-neural eects such as muscular mechanisms and the intense forced respiratory dynamic. It is also worth noting that during the second part of the test, VE and breathing frequency (BF) maintained consistently high values, and the ventilatory parameter that took longest to reach its maximum values was VE (247.3679.91 seconds). The tidal volume (TV) very soon reached its maximum value (157.7362.65 seconds), while BF continued rising until virtually the end of the test (272.3691.10 seconds). Figure 3 shows that the increase in the power spectral density of HF-VHF occurred at 133 seconds into the test. The HR at this point was 176177 beatsmin1 while BF was 4748 respmin1 . VC had already reached its maximum level and VO2 was around its maximum response level. In this particular subject, however, BF was still at 60% of its maximum value, while VE was at 70%. This conrms that the increase in respiratory rhythm is especially important for the HRV response in the HF-VHF band. The pattern conrms the close relationship existing between cardiac response and ventilatory response (RSA). The number of beats per breath at this point was signicantly lower than baseline. The gure of ve to eight beats normally found at the start of the test fell to three beats per breath, or fewer, in the moments leading up to the conclusion of the test. Cottin, et al.[7] also found a lower number of beats per breath during intense exercise, adding that working at an intensity of > VT2 did not alter cardiorespiratory synchronisation. It should also be mentioned that, at the end of the test, the subjects frequently tried to keep up the work rate using anomalous movements in mechanical response (force applied to the

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pedal and cadence) and forced functional responses (cardiorespiratory and muscular responses). Sumi, et al.[9] , Blain, et al.[51] , and Lunt, et al.[52] linked oscillations at the end of the test with the subjects pedal cadence during this phase. The authors emphasise that there is a high correlation coecient between the peak of HF and the pedalling frequency, demonstrating that the work rate manifests itself in HRV and specically with the development of the HF spectrum. 4.5 LF/HF Ratio Analysis The LF/HF ratio increased sharply during the rst minute of the test (20 40 , but subsequently declined, reaching minimum values when the value of VO2 stabilised. Similar ndings are reported in studies using an intensity > VT2[40,46,53] . In summary, this means a proportional increase in the weight of VHF and HF bands with regards to the total variability of the signal which, as explained in previous paragraphs, coincide with a signicant decrease of vegetative control and a coupling of the signals in the highfrequency bands with the mechanical workload that the athlete performs during the pedaling action.

5 Conclusion
A basic problem in HRV analysis is non-stationarity of the heart rate signal, which holds particularly true for exercise conditions. Standard spectral HRV analysis (i.e., FFT) should not be applied to exercise conditions. The use of WTs analyses shows much promise in this area. The use of WT allows for the detailed assessment of the evolution of the cardiac response enabling us to individually establish the moments in which the organism establishes functional modications in order to respond to the impact of the intensity load. With wavelet transforms, changes in HRV signal of energy (total, LF, and HF-VHF) and the evolution of peaks of the two assessed bands (LFpeak and HF-VHFpeak ) may be used for instantaneous and continuous control of the organisms functional response, enabling us to detect minimal adaptive changes in the organism as a response to exercises of dierent intensity and duration. It can be stated, overall, that the relative weight (%) of the two frequency bands (LF and HF-VHF) varied with regards to exercise in proportion to the intensity of the eort and the duration of the test. Despite the continuous decrease in total power spectral density, the greater weight of variability was always observed in the LF band. With fatigue, however, the relative weight (%) of HF-VHF increased, while that of LF fell, thus modifying the LF/HF ratio. Most of the studies on HRV and exercise justify these changes from the modication to the vegetative response as eect of fatigue and its inuence on the cardiac rhythm. Special attention is given to the marked decrease of HRV with workload increase and to the decrease in vagal withdrawal. Yet, part of the changes that take place in HRV, specially when fatigue is elevated, are directly related with the type of activity and the eect the mechanical work has on respiratory rhythm, ventilation, hemodynamic changes, and cardiac response. In our study, the use of TW allows us to observe how HRV indices are very directly inuenced by both cycling cadence and power output at the end of exercise. This cardiolocomotor coupling has been proposed to optimize blood ow to contracting muscles and minimize the energy cost of cardiac muscle contraction[54] .

6 Practical Applications
Being able to assess the HRV prole for each moment of an exercise, independently from

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work intensity, enables the sports technician to establish the individual evolution of fatigue during the execution of an eort. From a functional standpoint, this methodology enables us to perform a very precise analysis as to how the cardiorespiratory system instantaneously adjusts to the exercise demands showing specic responses of the frequency spectrum when fatigue starts to compromise the mechanical response. References

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