Long-term adaptation of cardiovascular system in response to regular physical activity depends not only on its type, intensity and volume, but on arterial blood pressure (ABP) during exercise as well. Although it is proved haemodynamic load is not the only factor responsible for the shaping of athlete's myocardium, both the extent and the type of cardiac remodelling are influenced greatly by the degree of pressure overload during exercise training. The aim of our study was to compare myocardium loading conditions during veloergometric and treadmill interval tests. Methods. Distance runners (all males, n = 16) served as subjects. Their age was 23.6 ± 5.5 yrs, body mass – 70.7 ± 4.7 kg, body mass index – 21.7 ± 1.9 kg/m2, training experience – 8.7 ± 5.6 yrs. Interval tests were applied on separate days. Each of them consisted of increasing intensity exercise interspaced with passive resting period (in seated position) of 4 min in duration. Heart rate (HR) was recorded throughout both tests while ABP was measured during recovery period between treadmill stages. Tests were continued till HR reached 90 percent of age-predicted maximum. Results. Systolic ABP, HR and double product were higher (p<0.05) after the discontinuation of veloergometric workload as compared with treadmill load requiring similar oxygen consumption. Runners' systolic ABP response was bigger to veloergometry as compared with treadmill running eliciting the same HR (p<0.05). Significant correlation was found... [to full text]