The purpose of this study was to
analyze the relationships between musical cadence and the
physiologic adaptations to basic head-out aquatic exercises.
Fifteen young and clinically healthy women performed, immersed
to the breast, a cardiovascular aquatic exercise called
the ‘‘rocking horse.’’ The study design included an intermittent
and progressive protocol starting at a 90 b min21 rhythm and
increasing every 6 minutes, by 15 b min21, up to 195 b min21 or
exhaustion. The rating of perceived effort (RPE) at the maximal
heart rate achieved during each bout (HRmax), the percentage
of the maximal theoretical heart rate estimated (%HRmax), and
the blood lactate concentration ([La-]) were evaluated. The
musical cadence was also calculated at 4 mmol L21 of blood
lactate (R4), the RPE at R4 (RPE@R4), the HR at R4 (HR@R4),
and the %HRmax at R4 (%HRmax@R4). Strong relationships
were verified between the musical cadence and the RPE
(R2 = 0.85; p , 0.01), the HRmax (R2 = 0.66; p , 0.01), the
%HRmax (R2 = 0.61; p , 0.01), and the [La-] (R2 = 0.54;
p , 0.01). The R4 was 148.13 6 17.53 b min21, the RPE@R4
was 14.53 6 2.53, the HR@R4 was 169.33 6 12.06 b min21,
and the %HRmax@R4 was 85.53 6 5.72%. The main conclusion
is that increasing musical cadence created an increase
in the physiologic response. Therefore, instructors must choose
musical cadences according to the goals of the session they
are conducting to achieve the desired intensity.
