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Abstract
There is still a lot of interrogations regarding the mechanisms underlying the resting cardiac function
adaptations of endurance athletes. High intensity interval training (HIIT) seems to be the new trend in this
population. The impact of this training method on resting cardiac function in endurance athletes is still
unknown. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of six weeks of HIIT on the cardiac function
at rest, ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) and heart rate variability (HRV) in endurance athletes.
Following six weeks of HIIT, no sign of ventricular dilatation nor hypertrophy in the left ventricle (LV) were
observed. Diastolic and systolic functions were preserved following training. HIIT decreased ABPM, reflected
by a lowered systolic (SBP), mean (MAP) and pulse (PP) pressures. HRV remained at baseline level. These
results suggest that six weeks of HIIT does not affect cardiac function at rest, nor HRV, but reduces ABP.