Dynamics of changes in the vegetative index in athletes during vestibular load

Summary. The autonomic nervous system plays a significant role in the body's adaptation processes. To assess its function, in particular, athletes often use the Kerdo index, which is calculated on the basis of separately taken indicators that integrate almost all vital functions of the organism. To solve this problem, such a method is necessary, which would allow registering even relatively small changes in vegetative activity with the help of a simple, quick approach, without affecting in any way the activity of the organism itself.  The Kerdo index and the vegetative index are most suitable for achieving this purpose. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to study the changes in the autonomic index in athletes of different ages in response to the vestibular load created by multidirectional linear accelerations. The conducted studies revealed significant differences in the initial indicators of the autonomic index – as the age of athletes increases, the role of the sympathetic component of autonomic regulation decreases, and in people of the first mature age, sympathetic regulation begins to play a leading role (the vegetative index in teenagers is equal to 52.3 um.units, in young men – 13.7 um.units, in athletes of the first mature age – it turns to negative values ​​and is –1.6 um.units). It was proved that under the influence of active vestibular load, the value of the autonomic index in adolescents almost halved (by 46.2%), in young men it was not accompanied by reliable changes in the autonomic index, in persons of the first mature age there was a switching of autonomic influences from mainly parasympathetic to sympathetic (autonomic the index grew almost 10 times). Such dynamics of changes are opposite to the existing vegetative regulation in a state of rest of the organism. The conducted analysis and proposed assumptions indicate that the autonomic index is a reliable indicator of the state of autonomic regulation of hemodynamics, is available and simple enough to determine, and can be used in planning the training process.