title: Postexercise heart rates and pulse palpation as a means of determining exercising intensity in an aerobic dance class.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the accuracy of the traditional method of measuring the intensity of exercise in aerobic dance classes, that is, intermittent pulse palpation performed during a brief cessation of activity.
  
  
  METHODS
  A short wave telemetry system was used to record heart rates during a class in a group of 12 healthy women aged 26 (SD 6) years. Subjects palpated their pulses for 10 s following high and low intensity exercise [78(8)% and 69(9)% of mean predicted maximum heart rate respectively]. Recorded exercising heart rates, averaged over 60 s preceding pulse palpation [ExHR(rec)], were compared with the recorded postexercise heart rates averaged over the 10 s palpation period [PostExHR(rec)] and with the palpated counts (PalpHR). Differences were assessed using Student's t test and Wilcoxon signed rank test.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Differences between ExHR(rec) and PostExHR(rec) following high and low intensity exercise [3(6) beats.min-1 and 5(7) beats.min-1 respectively] were not significant. However, the wide variation between subjects means that a postexercise heart rate is unreliable as a measure of individual exercise intensity. PalpHR was significantly lower than ExHR(rec) (P < 0.01). Every individually palpated count underestimated the exercising heart rate (range 9 to 95 beats.min-1).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  While postexercise heart rate adequately represents the exercise heart rate for a group, the individual variation is too wide for this to be a useful measurement.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Medical School, Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bell
authors.forename: E J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Bassey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003615:Dancing / Q000502:physiology*; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D011674:Pulse; D015203:Reproducibility of Results