Low intensity static stretching does not modulate heart rate variability in trained men

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the acute effect of static stretching on heart rate variability in trained men. METHODS: Eight subjects were randomly submitted to two situations, as follows: a static stretch protocol and 20 minutes at rest. The stretch protocol consisted of two sets of 30 seconds of static stretch of the chest muscles with a 40 second of interval between them. After 48 hours, the procedures were reversed so that all the subjects should were submitted to the two situations. The values of heart rate variability were measured before and after the experimental and control situation (stretch vs. rest). We registered the following cardiac variables: root mean square of standard deviation (rMSSD), the number of pairs of successive beats that differ by more than 50 ms (pNN50), low frequency (LF) and high frequency (HF). The Shapiro-Wilk and the paired Student's test were used for statistical analysis; a critical level of significance of p < 0.05 was adopted. RESULTS: No significant differences (p > 0.05) were found (stretching vs. control) to the RMSSD, pNN50, LF and HF indices. However, although no statistical differences were observed, the figures show large changes on mean values, suggesting an unclear effect on the sympathetic-vagal modulation. CONCLUSION: The present results suggest that a low intensity (motion range until discomfort point) and volume (1 minute) of static stretching does not significantly affect the acute sympathetic-vagal control in trained men. Because the protocol did not show differences regarding the studied variables, we suggest that there is not a sufficient level of physiological basis to perform this type of exercise in a traditional pre-exercise setting, if the purpose is obtain gains in physical performance.

Effects of Acute Stretching Exercise and Training on Heart Rate Variability: A Review

“…Contrary to the previously mentioned findings, Silva et al (38) reported no significant changes in HR or HRV indices 10 minutes after ASTE in young trained men. A possible explanation for the discrepancy is that the volume of work completed during this ST intervention was not sufficient to produce significant changes in autonomic function at 10 minutes after intervention.…”

“…Thus, higher volume active ST protocols might elicit greater cardiovagal increases after intervention. Another potential reason for the contrasting findings by Silva et al (38) may be the study population, as young trained individuals may require a significant higher volume of ST to elicit significant autonomic changes when compared with other untrained populations used on previous ST studies (11,18). Nevertheless, this notion is somewhat speculatory because HRV responses to a higher volume ASTE in trained individuals have not been evaluated to date.…”

“…A possible explanation for the discrepancy is that the volume of work completed during this ST intervention was not sufficient to produce significant changes in autonomic function at 10 minutes after intervention. This notion is supported by the difference in ST exercises and sets per exercise (1 ST exercise, 2 sets of 30 seconds in length) in the study by Silva et al (38) compared with other studies (Table 1) (11,18). Thus, higher volume active ST protocols might elicit greater cardiovagal increases after intervention.…”

The Effects of Different Recovery Methods on Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Variability in Hearing Impaired Athletes

“…In young men with low flexibility, SDNN and RMSSD were significantly increased 30 minutes after exercise consisting of 3 active static stretching movements (3 sets x 30s) involving the trunk and hamstring region (Farinatti et al, 2011). In another study, it was reported that there was no significant difference in the HRV parameters of the 20-minute static stretching of the chest area, consisting of 2x30 seconds, performed with trained men compared to the control group (Silva et al, 2016). Different results have been revealed in the applied stretching methods.…”

“…In many studies, it is stated that both recovery methods have positive effects, but there is no study on which recovery method is more effective (Griefahn et al, 2017;Kalén et al, 2017;Lastova et al, 2018). In addition, there are studies examining the effect of static stretching exercise on HRV in the literature (Farinatti, Brandão, Soares, & Duarte, 2011;Silva et al, 2016), but as far as we know, there is no study on how DS exercise affects HRV during recovery. Therefore, determining the possible changes in blood pressure (BP) and HRV of different recovery exercises will enable us to understand better the exercise programs that hearing-impaired athletes will follow during the next training or post-competition recovery process.…”