Identificação do limiar anaeróbico através da variabilidade da frequência cardíaca durante a realização de exercício progressivo

Abstract

The anaerobic threshold is the point from which physical activity begins to overload the cardiorespiratory system. The detection of anaerobic threshold using heart rate variability is investigated as an alternative to ergoespirometry test (currently considered the gold standard) for prescribing physical activity by a health care professional. The main objective of this study was to develop a technique based on mathematical tools to identify the anaerobic threshold from heart rate variability duringprogressive physical exercise in ramp. Based on the detection theory, a detector has been developed allowing an objective identification of the anaerobic threshold and using less resources comparing to the gold standard technique. The validation of the detector had been done by the correlation between the anaerobic threshold identified by the detector and the threshold identified by the gold standard. A correlation of 95% has been achieved which suggests that the methodology is promising tosolve the problem. The usage of this detector provides an alternative method more accessible to the professional health care to prescribe physical activity for each individual so that risks are mitigated and the benefits are maximized.