AUTHOR=Bellenger Clint R. , Thomson Rebecca L. , Davison Kade , Robertson Eileen Y. , Buckley Jonathan D. TITLE=The Impact of Functional Overreaching on Post-exercise Parasympathetic Reactivation in Runners JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physiology VOLUME=11 YEAR=2021 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physiology/articles/10.3389/fphys.2020.614765 DOI=10.3389/fphys.2020.614765 ISSN=1664-042X ABSTRACT=
While post-exercise heart rate (HR) variability (HRV) has been shown to increase in response to training leading to improvements in performance, the effect of training leading to decrements in performance (i.e., overreaching) on this parameter has been largely ignored. This study evaluated the effect of heavy training leading to performance decrements on sub-maximal post-exercise HRV. Running performance [5 km treadmill time-trial (5TTT)], post-exercise HRV [root-mean-square difference of successive normal R-R intervals (RMSSD)] and measures of subjective training tolerance (Daily Analysis of Life Demands for Athletes “worse than normal” scores) were assessed in 11 male runners following 1 week of light training (LT), 2 weeks of heavy training (HT) and a 10 day taper (T). Post-exercise RMSSD was assessed following 5 min of running exercise at an individualised speed eliciting 85% of peak HR. Time to complete 5TTT likely increased following HT (