GENDER DIFFERENCES IN HEART RATE RESPONSES TO DIFFERENT TYPES OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN PHYSICAL EDUCATION CLASSES

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in children’s physical activity levels during physical education (PE) classes. Specific attention was paid to differences between genders in the heart rate responses to different types of activities in PE classes. Activity levels were assessed by monitoring continuous heart rates, with results indicating that girls were significantly more active during PE than boys. Team sports in both sexes, and tennis in the case of the girls, fulfil the recommendations to occupy at least 50 % of PE class time doing moderate and vigorous physical activities (MVPA). The results suggest that structured PE classes may provide different amounts of physical activity for both genders. Key Words: adolescent, health promotion, moderate and vigorous activity. RESUMEN El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar las diferencias de género en los niveles de actividad física (AF) de una muestra de adolescentes, durante las clases de educación física (EF), prestando especial atención en las diferentes respuestas de la frecuencia cardíaca, en relación con diferentes tipos de actividades du-rante las clases de EF. Los niveles de AF fueron evaluados mediante la monitorización de la frecuencia cardiaca, obteniendo unos resultados en los que las chicas fueron significativamente más activas durant