Cardiac parasympathetic reactivation after small-sided soccer games and repeated sprints in untrained healthy adolescents

It has been shown that recreational soccer was a highly motivating and social activity which produces large improvements in health-related indices in sedentary healthy and unhealthy subjects. The purpose of this study was to compare the acute parasympathetic reactivation after small-sided soccer games (SSG) and repeated sprints training (RST) sessions. Eight post-pubertal untrained adolescents (age 15.8±0.6 years, body mass 59.1±3.7 kg, height 1.7±0.1 m) performed a RST, SSG and a control session in a counterbalanced order. Heart rate variability (HRV) indices in time and frequency domain, heart rate recovery and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) were evaluated. RPE was significantly lower after SSG compared with RST (P=0.02, ES=1.1). There was a significant decrease in mean R-R intervals after RST (difference: -19.6%, P