Background: Although maximal heart rate (HR)max is used widely to assess exercise intensity in sport training and particularly in various team sports, there are limited data with regards to the use of age-based prediction equations of HRmax in sport populations. The aim of this study was to compare the measured-HRmax with three prediction equations (Fox-HRmax = 220-age and Tanaka-HRmax = 208-0.7×age and Nikolaidis-HRmax = 223-1.44×age) in young team sport athletes.
Materials and methods: Athletes of soccer, futsal, basketball and water polo, classified into three age groups (u-12, 9-12 years, n = 50; u-15, 12-15 years, n = 40; u-18, 15-18 years, n = 57), all members of competitive clubs, voluntarily performed a graded exercise field test (20 m shuttle run endurance test) to assess HRmax.
Results: Fox-HRmax and Nikolaidis-HRmax overestimated measured-HRmax, while Tanaka-HRmax underestimated it (P < 0.001). However, this trend was not consistent when examining each group separately; measured-HRmax was similar with Tanaka-HRmax in u-12 and u-15, while it was similar with Nikolaidis-HRmax in u-18.
Conclusion: The results of this study failed to validate two widely used and one recently developed prediction equations in a large sample of young athletes, indicating the need for specific equation in different age groups. Therefore, coaches and fitness trainers should prefer Tanaka-HRmax when desiring to avoid overtraining, while Fox-HRmax and Nikolaidis-HRmax should be their choice in order to ensure adequate exercise intensity.
Keywords: Age groups; athletes; cardiac rate; graded exercise test; prediction equations.