Copyright © 2026 Authors retain the copyright of this article. This article is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

@article{209333,
        author = {Dr Amar Damle and Sakshi Dubey},
        title = {Standard Heart Rate Recovery Metrics After Chester Step Test in Sedentary Youth: A Cross-Sectional Study},
        journal = {International Journal of Innovative Research in Technology},
        year = {2026},
        volume = {13},
        number = {5},
        pages = {1427-1435},
        issn = {2349-6002},
        url = {https://ijirt.org/article?manuscript=209333},
        abstract = {Heart rate recovery (HRR) after exercise is a simple, non-invasive indicator of cardiac autonomic recovery, but reference data following the Chester Step Test (CST) in sedentary young adults are limited. This cross-sectional study at Ojas College of Physiotherapy, Jalna, India, recruited 351 sedentary adults aged 18–29 years (181 males, 170 females; mean age 20.9 ± 1.7 years) by convenience sampling; all had low physical activity on the International Physical Activity Questionnaire–Short Form (IPAQ-SF). Participants performed a 30-cm, metronome-paced CST starting at 15 steps/min and increasing by 5 steps/min every 2 min. HRR was calculated as peak post-exercise heart rate minus heart rate at 30 s and at 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 min. Mean heart rate rose from 74.2 ± 4.5 to 166.1 ± 7.1 bpm. Mean HRR was 7.3 ± 2.0 bpm at 30 s, 17.5 ± 3.4 bpm at 1 min, 41.3 ± 5.0 bpm at 3 min, 88.3 ± 9.2 bpm at 6 min, 91.5 ± 8.4 bpm at 9 min and 91.9 ± 8.3 bpm at 12 min, indicating rapid early recovery and a plateau by about 6 min. Fifteen participants (4.3%) had a 1-min HRR below 12 bpm, and heart rate returned to baseline in a mean of 6.5 ± 1.6 min. HRR did not differ significantly by gender and was not significantly correlated with body mass index, age or physical activity. These preliminary, protocol-specific values support multi-point HRR monitoring in cardiopulmonary physiotherapy and need validation in larger multi-centre samples.},
        keywords = {Autonomic nervous system, Cardiopulmonary physiotherapy, Chester Step Test, Heart rate recovery, Sedentary behaviour, young adults.},
        month = {October},
        }