Anxiety and Psycho-Physiological Stress Response to Competitive Sport Exercise

Abstract

Introduction: Sport is recognized as beneficial for health. In certain situation of practice, it nevertheless appears likely to induce a stress response. Anxiety is a stress response-modulating factor. Our objective is to characterize the role of anxiety in the stress response induced by a selective physical exercise.Method: Sixty-three young male military conducted a selective sporting running event (a 8-km commando-walk) and were recorded the day before, the day of the race, and the day after. The variables were psychometric [personality questionnaires, coping and anxious/stress state, and physiological (nocturnal heart rate variability and actigraphy)]. The subjects were classified, using scores on anxiety questionnaires at baseline, into two groups according to their anxious (G ANX) or non-anxious (G N-ANX).Results: Before the race, the G ANX was characterized by a lower level of self-esteem, higher scores in dysfunctional coping and a greater perceived stress compared to the G N-ANX. Compared to G N-ANX, the stress response to the exercise was higher in G ANX: G ANX exhibited (Selye, 1950) in immediate post-exercise, greater level in activation markers, and mental fatigue associated with a same level of physical fatigue and (Kim et al., 2018) in nocturnal post-exercise, an increase in sympathetic activation associated with a higher sleep fragmentation.Conclusion: A competition selection sport exercise causes a stress response, particularly for anxious subjects. Anxious status could be involved in the risk of emergence of overtraining in sport practice. These results must be taken into account when sport practice is used for anxiety management.

Associations between (sub) clinical stress- and anxiety symptoms in mentally healthy individuals and in major depression: a cross-sectional clinical study

“…Even though grasping stress severity seems to indicate anxiety levels too, the observations of the present cross-sectional study do not establish any straightforward causal effect of stress on the development of anxiety symptoms, especially in the light of the catalytic effects of anxiety personality trait on expression of higher levels of perceived stress for exposure to the same stressor and on development of stress-induced psychopathological changes (e.g. depression, sleep fragmentation, anxiety) [17,27]. Α causal relationship can only be established through longitudinal experimental studies aiming to elucidate the impact of stress reduction on anxiety levels.…”

“…They embody a reaction to a stimulus related to real or perceived threat [7,16]. The term perceived threat refers to stimuli, that are realistically not threating, harmful or uncontrollable and their nature, depth and duration do not justify anxious responses [17]. Anxiety disorders, such as panic disorder or generalized anxiety disorder, embody a crucial clinical issue, warranting therapeutic intervention, since in these cases anxiety feelings are in their quality and/or intensity so severe that they impair occupational and social functioning [18].…”

Factors Affecting Health-Promoting Behaviors in Patients with Cardiovascular Disease

“…Depression is also associated with non-adherence to medication and healthcare provider recommendations, and poor adherence behavior to cardiac rehabilitation, which may result in a worse long-term prognosis, problems during recovery, or death [ 3 , 10 , 11 ]. Anxiety is a body’s stress response, which, if persistent or generalized, may contribute to cardiac attack; however, if anxiety prompts an individual to engage more in treatment (e.g., nonsmoking status, healthy diet, exercising regularly, adhering to medications, and health care utilization) [ 12 , 13 ] it may be beneficial [ 14 ]. On the other hand, it might be more likely to attribute anxiety to medication non-adherence [ 15 ].…”

Factor protector de las estrategias de afrontamiento y la cohesión de grupo sobre el bienestar psicológico ante situaciones de ansiedad competitiva en futbolistas

“…Conviene también diferenciar entre ansiedad rasgo y ansiedad estado. La ansiedad rasgo se refiere a la predisposición a responder con ansiedad ante una gran variedad de circunstancias que, objetivamente pueden no suponer una amenaza física o psicológica (Tanguy et al, 2018). Por su parte, la ansiedad estado se refiere a aquellas circunstancias específicas para las que el deportista responde con ansiedad, como, por ejemplo, el trascurso de la competición (Weinberg y Gould, 2018).…”