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The 45th Conference of The Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society
La Société Canadienne de Génie Biomédical
Can Heart-Rate Monitors Predict Muscle
Anaerobic Threshold during Intense Exercise?
Justin K. M. Wyss 1,2,3,4, Aaron J. Mah 1,5, Mehdi Nouri Zadeh 1,5,6, Jordan Johnson 3,
Stefan Lazarevik 3, Babak Shadgan 1,3,5,6
1International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD), The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
2Advanced Materials Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL), The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
3School of Biomedical Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
4Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
5Department of Pathology & Laboratory Medicine, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
6Department of Orthopaedics, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada
I. INTRODUCTION
The point at which lactic acid starts to build up in the
muscle during intense anaerobic exercise is known as the an-
aerobic (AT) or lactic threshold (LT). The goal for many ath-
letes is to increase this threshold, allowing them to perform
longer at high intensity by training at or slightly above the
AT. Heart-rate monitors and fitness trackers, which have a
projected global market size of USD 114 billion in 20281 , are
used to guide athletes during their training programs to im-
prove their anaerobic capacity.
II. STUDY OBJECTIVE & PROTOCOL
The objective of this study was to investigate the efficacy
of heart-rate monitoring in predicting muscle AT during in-
tense exercise in relation to the respiratory exchange ratio
(RER) and relative body oxygen consumption (VO2) and to
investigate new techniques for sports monitoring. Twenty
healthy and abled-body adults with moderately to high fitness
levels participated in an incremental exercise protocol con-
sisting of 5-minute intervals on a stationary spin bike. An
electrocardiogram (ECG) chest sensor was used to measure
and monitor the heart rate, while a metabolic cart was used
to measure and monitor RER and VO2. RER > 1.0 was used
to determine the AT, which was compared to the heart rate
data.
III. RESULTS
It was observed that there was no indication of a con-
sistent anaerobic heart rate zone to determine AT for all par-
ticipants (p > 0.05). In Figure 1, a comparison and common
trend is shown between RER and heart rate, where the heart
rate displays a linear trajectory despite RER indicating AT at
Step 42..
IV. CONCLUSION
This suggests that heart rate monitoring is an insufficient
means for predicting AT and that there is a need for more
advanced wearable monitoring technologies that can monitor
and detect changes in exercising muscle metabolism that are
associated with AT.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was supported by Own the Podium and
MITACS Accelerate program.
REFERENCES
1. Fortune Business Insights: Fitness Tracker Market Size.
https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/fitness-tracker-mar-
ket-103358
2. Francis, K.T., et al. (1989). The relationship between anaerobic
threshold and heart rate linearity during cycle ergometry. Euro-
pean journal of applied physiology and occupational physiology,
59(4), 273-277.
Fig. 1. RER vs. Heart Rate – representative results in one of the
participants.
