[Training pulse recording--useful or superfluous?].
PROBLEM: The setting of an exercise pulse rate has become established in particular in the field of post-infarction rehabilitation. The conditions associated with its establishment, however, vary considerably. As a rule, no differentiation is made for the variations in the muscular work done. OWN STUDIES: Follow-up examinations in 29 post-infarction patients showed that the recommended exercise pulse rate was an average of 10 to 20 beats lower than that established in our office under ergometric conditions. Loading-control via respiration, monitored by lactate measurement, in contrast, has proved superior in our patients, since the respiration is perceived continuously and directly by the patient himself, and is largely independent of the type of exercise involved. CONCLUSIONS: Control of physical exercise (loading) via the respiration would appear superior to that by the measurement of the pulse rate. The setting of an exercise pulse rate only if it can be monitored reliably and continuously with the aid of a measuring device.