Introducing external perturbations during isometric stability exercises raises heart rate significantly compared to stationary cycling.
"You have a friend, you have somebody tapping, that sort of feedback on any of your exercises you're doing, yeah, instant heart rate 20% higher, yeah, right? It's just is just so much more effective at sitting on your bicycle." (said at 0:22:31)
A systematic search found no published studies directly comparing heart rate responses during perturbation-augmented isometric stability exercises against stationary cycling. While laboratory studies show that postural perturbations trigger transient reflexive heart rate increases (e.g., PMID: 37458232), comparative evidence demonstrating a significantly higher heart rate elevation relative to stationary cycling was not located.
- context: Cardiovascular response to anticipatory and reactionary postural perturbations in young ad… (Experimental physiology 2023)
"The results indicated that HR was significantly elevated in the higher intensity perturbations [Step vs. No Step, at 0.56-1.32 s (P < 0.0001) and 1.92-3.44 s (P < 0.0001) post-perturbation], while there were no differences in HR between perturbation types (anticipatory vs. reactionary) or in SBP between perturbation types and intensity levels." (abstract, results)
pubmedfull study (doi)