Heart rate variability, salivary cortisol and competitive state anxiety responses during pre-competition and pre-training moments

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate physiological and psychological states prior to competition and prior to training in three different demanding activities. Eighteen canoe athletes, 18 street runners and 18 jiu-jitsu fighters were included in this study (n=54). The Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2), salivary cortisol and heart rate variability (HRV) were measured at two time points (pre-training and pre-competition). Somatic anxiety (F 1,42 = 15.29, p = 0.0003), HRV (F 1,42 = 23.24, p 0.05). In conclusion, the results indicated that both emotional indices and psychophysiological indices of stress are higher before competition than before training, with differences between emotional states between these sports. Although correlations between emotional states and psycho-physiological states before competition and before training were largely non significant, these findings reinforce the importance of psychological monitoring of athletes in association with traditional physiological markers such as cortisol and HRV in sportive training programmes as complementary resources to improve both competition performance and the training routine.

Keywords

• salivary cortisol
• test anxiety scale
• hrv analysis
• rehabilitation
• athlete monitoring