Accepted for publication

Key words autonomic nervous system; exercise intensity; heart rate recovery; heart rate variability Purpose: Postexercise HRR (heart rate recovery) and HRV (heart rate variability) are commonly used to asses non-invasive cardiac autonomic regulation and more par-ticularly reactivation parasympathetic function. Unfortunately, the reliability of postexercise HRR and HRV remains poorly quantified and is still lacking. The aim of this study was to examine absolute and relative reliability of HRR and HRV indices used to assess postexercise cardiac parasympathetic reactivation. Methods: We studied 30 healthy men, who underwent 10-minute heart rate recording after cessation of maximal and submaximal intensity exercises. Each condition of testing was repeated twice within 5 ± 2 days after the first one. Standard indexes of HRR and HRV were computed from heart rate and RR inter-vals. Results: We found no significant bias between repeated measures. Relative reliabil