Heart rate and gas exchange dynamic responses to multiple brief exercise bouts (MBEB) in early‐ and late‐pubertal boys and girls

Natural patterns of physical activity in youth are characterized by brief periods of exercise of varying intensity interspersed with rest. To better understand systemic physiologic response mechanisms in children and adolescents, we examined five responses [heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR), oxygen uptake (V̇O(2)), carbon dioxide production (V̇CO(2)), and minute ventilation (V̇E), measured breath‐by‐breath] to multiple brief exercise bouts (MBEB). Two groups of healthy participants (early pubertal: 17 female, 20 male; late‐pubertal: 23 female, 21 male) performed five consecutive 2‐min bouts of constant work rate cycle‐ergometer exercise interspersed with 1‐min of rest during separate sessions of low‐ or high‐intensity (~40% or 80% peak work, respectively). For each 2‐min on‐transient and 1‐min off‐transient we calculated the average value of each cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) variable (Y̅). There were significant MBEB changes in 67 of 80 on‐ and off‐transients. Y̅ increased bout‐to‐bout for all CPET variables, and the magnitude of increase was greater in the high‐intensity exercise. We measured the metabolic cost of MBEB, scaled to work performed, for the entire 15 min and found significantly higher V̇O(2), V̇CO(2), and V̇E costs in the early‐pubertal participants for both low‐ and high‐intensity MBEB. To reduce breath‐by‐breath variability in estimation of CPET variable kinetics, we time‐interpolated (second‐by‐second), superimposed, and averaged responses. Reasonable estimates of τ (<20% coefficient of variation) were found only for on‐transients of HR and V̇O(2). There was a remarkable reduction in τHR following the first exercise bout in all groups. Natural patterns of physical activity shape cardiorespiratory responses in healthy children and adolescents. Protocols that measure the effect of a previous bout on the kinetics of subsequent bouts may aid in the clinical utility of CPET.