COMPARISON OF PHYSIOLOGICAL AND PERCEPTUAL RESPONSES BETWEEN STATIONARY UPRIGHT AND RECUMBENT CYCLING:

Few studies have explored the perceptual and physiological responses to riding at different cadences and resistance settings on stationary upright and recumbent cycles. PURPOSE To compare the effects of cycling at three different cadences and three different workloads on a stationary upright and stationary recumbent cycle. METHODS 18 subjects completed 18 conditions in random order. The conditions consisted of riding a stationary upright cycle and stationary recumbent cycle at 60, 70, or 90 RPMs, and at three workloads 65, 89, or 121W. Each condition lasted five minutes. A steady state was achieved approximately 3 min. into each exercise condition. During each condition, HR, relative VO2, RQ, RPE-L and RPE-O were recorded. A repeated measures ANOVA was used to determine differences. RESULTS A significant (p £ .05) difference occurred for all physiological and perceptual variables for workload x bike. At 65W, HR (bpm) (131±5 vs. 118±4), percent of max HR (68.5±2.7 vs. 61.5±2), VO2 (ml.kg-1.min-1) (21.2±0.7 vs. 16.7±0.5), percent of max VO2 (44.4±2.3 vs. 35.1±1.9), absolute energy cost (kcal.min-1)(7±0.2 vs. 5.5±0.2), RPE-L (7.8±0.2 vs. 7.7±0.3) and RPE-O (7.9±0.2 vs. 7.6±0.2) were greater cycle. At 89W and 121W, all physiological and perceptual variables were greater (p < .05) on the recumbent cycle. At 89W, HR (144±5 vs. 147±5), percent of max HR (75.4±2.8 vs. 76.8±2.9), VO2 (25±0.8 vs. 25.5±0.9), percent of max VO2 (52.8±3.1 vs. 53.8±3.2), absolute energy cost (8.2±0.2 vs. 8.4±0.2), RPE-L (9.7±0.4 vs. 11.2±0.5) and RPE-O (9.5±0.4 vs. 11.1±0.5) were greater on the recumbent cycle. Likewise, at 121W, HR (152±6 vs. 158±6), percent of max HR (79.6±2.9 vs. 82.5±2.9), VO2 (30.4±1.3 vs. 31.7±1.2), percent of max VO2 (64.3±4.3 vs. 67.1±4.2), absolute energy cost (10±0.2 vs. 10.5±0.2), RPE-L (11.2±0.5 vs. 13.1±0.6) and RPE-O (10.8±0.5 vs. 12.6±0.6) were greater on the recumbent cycle. CONCLUSION A significant effect for all variables for workload x bike could be due to rider inexperience (recumbent bike) and mechanical inefficiencies