New Perspectives and Insights on Heart Rate Variability in Exercise and Sports

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Background

During the current decade, sports science has been actively seeking innovative tools and strategies for effectively monitoring the training load and physiological responses of athletes and physical practitioners. In this domain, achieving proper recovery after training, guided by physiological markers, is synonymous with achieving success in performance. Understanding the variation in the physiological internal load experienced during exercise, as indicated by factors such as blood lactate concentration and oxygen consumption (both during and after exercise), can provide insights into the body's readiness for subsequent physical challenges following specific exercise or training loads. However, obtaining such information typically requires the use of complex and costly equipment, which makes it challenging for the broader public, including experts, coaches, and practitioners, to make informed recovery decisions.

In this context, heart rate variability (HRV) has emerged as a prominent method for monitoring recovery status due to its cost-effectiveness, ease of data acquisition, analysis, and reporting. Additionally, its capability to reliably estimate the balance between the sympathetic and vagal branches of the autonomic nervous system, yielding various data outputs in both time and frequency domains, has established HRV as a significant component of contemporary sports physiology. While HRV has been accepted as a representation of sympathetic and parasympathetic branches, it's important to note that time and frequency domain methods may have limitations concerning the type, period, and duration of these measures, as well as their representation of each nervous system branch (e.g., time domain associated with parasympathetic estimation and frequency domain partially related to both branches). Despite these nuances, HRV results generally reflect the natural reactivation of the parasympathetic system combined with the deactivation of the sympathetic system following exercise cessation, leading to a decrease in sympathovagal balance. This behavior can be instantly assessed during the heart rate's decline, commonly referred to as heart rate recovery (HRR), which is linked to the later recovery observed when the signal reaches a steady state (HRV).

In theory, as the mind and body approach equilibrium, with a reduction in sympathetic tone and an increase in parasympathetic activity after a training session or exercise, the likelihood of optimizing performance in subsequent physical efforts increases, resulting in improved short- and long-term outcomes.

This special edition research topic seeks original studies that evaluate HRR and HRV responses following exercise to provide better insights into optimal recovery from an autonomic nervous system perspective. The focus of these studies may encompass various exercise types, intensities, and volumes as responses to single exercise sessions or long-term training effects. The selected articles aim to clarify, advise, and guide researchers in both theoretical and practical contexts.

Original research papers, reviews, and meta-analyses are encouraged to address diverse recovery strategies within and between training sessions. These contributions will enhance our understanding of the autonomic nervous system's role as a tool for controlling training prescriptions.

Keywords: Heart rate variability, HRV, exercise, sports, recovery, response

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

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