A 5-Minute Rest Period Weakens the Phenomenon of History Dependence of Freely Chosen Pedalling Cadence and Entails a Borderland Observation

Abstract

Background: It was recently reported that the freely chosen cadence at the end of a bout of pedalling depended on relatively high and low preset cadences applied at the beginning of the bout. This was denoted as a phenomenon of motor behavioural history dependence. Objective: The present study aimed at expanding that recent finding by testing whether the described history dependence occurred if 5-min rest was incorporated between the initial pedalling at preset cadence and the final pedalling at freely chosen cadence. Methods: Twenty-six participants performed three separate sequences of submaximal ergometer pedalling. In sequence A, pedalling at 50 rpm was followed by 5-min rest and pedalling at freely chosen cadence. In sequence B, pedalling at 90 rpm was followed by 5-min rest and pedalling at freely chosen cadence. In sequence C (denoted reference), the cadence was freely chosen throughout all pedalling. Behavioural (cadence), biomechanical (tangential pedal force), and physiological (heart rate) responses were measured. Results: Initial pedalling at 90 rpm caused the subsequent freely chosen cadence (74.5 ± 3.3 rpm) to be about 6% higher (p = 0.001) than the reference freely chosen cadence at the end of sequence C (70.8 ± 3.2 rpm). A similar difference did not occur between sequences A and C. Conclusions: These divergent findings, combined with previous reports of clear history dependence in pedalling sequences (performed similarly to here, only without incorporated rest periods), overall suggest that the present observations reflected a borderland of motor behavioural history dependence. Further, the 5-min incorporated rest apparently weakened the history dependence phenomenon.

Competitive Cyclists’ Freely Chosen Cadence Is History Dependent

“…In another study, also performed on recreationally active individuals, it was shown that 5-min rest applied between initial pedalling at a low preset target (50 rpm) cadence and subsequent pedalling at freely chosen cadence caused the history dependence phenomenon to be averted. This was interpreted as a weakening of the history dependence phenomenon (Sheikulislami et al, 2022). In these previous studies, participants were healthy and recreationally active individuals and, thus, not competitive cyclists who are accustomed to a considerable amount of cycling, as in the present study.…”

Maximal accelerations for twelve weeks elicit improvement in a single out of a collection of cycling performance indicators in trained cyclists

“…Mean values from the left and the right pedal were calculated for each of these values, before further analysis. This procedure of analysis has previously been applied ( 18 , 19 ). For examples of a tangential and radial pedal force profiles, the reader is referred to previous publications ( 19 , 20 ).…”