Reproducibility of heart rate and perceptual demands of game-based training drills in handball players

Abstract

-Game-based training are popular in team-sports; however there is a lack of research specific to team handball. The aim of this study was to assess i) the test-retest reliability of heart rate (HR), time spent in HR zone intensities and rating of perceived exertion of a novel small-sided game, ii) and whether it is comparable to that of generic intermittent shuttle running and match play with team handball players. Fourteen elite male handball players completed each exercise comprising two periods of 10min interspersed with 2min recovery in separate occasions and repeated them one week apart. Exercises consisted of intermittent 30s-30s shuttle running (ISR), intermittent 30s-30s small-sided game (with 3-a-side field players, 3vs3) and match play (with 6-a-side field players, 6vs6). Mean HR demonstrated high level of reproducibility for the three drills (r = 0.86-0.89, TEM = 2.21-2.63 bpm, CV = 1.23-1.55%). For time spent in heart rate zones TEMs reached up 1.12, 1.40 and 2.48 min for ISR, 6vs6 and 3vs3, respectively. Specifically for HR zone higher than 90% of HRmax, CVs showed wide extent of scores with 9.73 (ISR), 27.39 (6vs6) and 108.29% (3vs3). Mean HR results suggest that physiological response was consistent between sessions. Because of the poor reproducibility for time spent in the target zone higher than 90% of HRmax, the efficiency of both 3vs3 and 6vs6 in improving aerobic power should be analysed with caution. The present results suggest that reproducibility of physiological demand of ball-drills should be considered before prescribing them as conditioning training.Key words: Heart rate; Intensity; Perception; Reliability. (r = 0,89; TEM = 2,63 bpm; CV = 1,55% Resumo -O treino através do jogo é popular quando se trata de esportes coletivos. Contudo, constata-se uma falta de estudos específicos sobre a prática do handball. Objetivou-se testar a reprodutibilidade de um jogo com equipe reduzida através da análise da frequência cardíaca (HR), do tempo decorrido nas diversas faixas de intensidade de HR e da percepção do esforço. A reprodutibilidade do jogo com equipe reduzida foi comparada àquelas de um exercício padrão de corrida e de um jogo de handball. Quatorze jogadores de handball masculino nível elite realizaram um mesmo exercício em duas ocasiões com uma semana de intervalo entre elas. Cada exercício foi realizado em dois períodos de 10 minutos com dois minutos de intervalo entre cada um. Os diferentes exercícios consistiram numa corrida intermitente de 30s-30s, realizadas em ida e volta (ISR); um jogo com equipe reduzida intermitente de 30s-30s (com três jogadores em cada equipe, 3vs3); e um jogo de handball (com 6 jogadores em cada equipe, 6vs6). A HR média demonstrou um nível avançado de reprodutibilidade dos três exercícios

Comparison of anaerobic speed reserve and maximal aerobic speed methods to prescribe short format high‐intensity interval training

“…Namely, the intersubject variability of HR peak and mean responses were already quite low and further reductions caused by prescription method choice for a HIIT session that was only 10 min long are basically unrealistic. Even though the intertrial reliability of high‐intensity intermittent exercise HR is very high, with TE being as low as 1.2%, 27 and although CVs of only 2.3% for % HR reserve have already been obtained in other studies, 28 the results obtained in this study suggest that prescription method choice will hardly make a practically significant difference. On the contrary, TE for VO 2 was found to be 1.02% 29 during maximal and between 2.4% 30 and 2.8% 31 during submaximal exercise, suggesting that intersubject variability reduction from 9.3 to 7.5% in VO 2peak could be close to practically meaningful change.…”

“…Similarly, the residuals in RPE were smaller for Δ15% ASR in comparison to 110% vVO 2max session without significantly different mean values. Although this difference in residuals did not reach statistical significance ( p = 0.26), its practical meaningfulness should not be discounted even though reported TEs for RPE following HIIT sessions were 9.8% 27 . Namely, much lower TEs of 2.9% following speed endurance drills were also found in the literature 32 …”

“…Both these variables have large interindividual variability with differences between Δ15% ASR and 110% vVO 2max sessions being rather small. However, the intertrial reliability of the variables during intermittent exercise protocols was found to be rather low with TEs being 24.5% 26 and 9.7% 27 for t ≥ 90% VO 2max /HR max , respectively. As TE of t ≥ 90% VO 2max is 24.5%, the reduction in almost half the variable's CV was necessary to reach practical significance.…”

Physiological and affective responses of 30s‒30s intermittent small-sided game in elite handball players: A new alternative to intermittent running

“…Mean HR (HRmean, absolute and relatively to HRpeak) and time spent in the HR zone (expressed as % of the total time) for three intensity zones (<80%, 80-90%, and 90-100% of HRpeak) were determined individually for ISR, 3v3 and 6v6. Measures of reliability for the three experimental exercises were previously provided (Ravier, Hassenfratz, & Bouzigon, 2017). Based on test-retest analyses, the 3v3, ISR, and 6v6 demonstrated a high level of reproducibility for HRmean (correlation coefficient = 0.9, typical error of measurement = 2.2-2.6 bpm and coefficient of variation = 1.2-1.5%).…”