Female Volleyball Players Are More Prone to Cortisol Anticipatory Stress Response than Sedentary Women

Abstract

Background and Objectives: Top-level sports performance places heavy physical and psychological demands on elite-level athletes, which can be a source of increased levels of stress. Therefore, high-level volleyball players may present altered cardiovascular and endocrinological stress response during stressful events. Although many previous studies have examined the response to stress on athletes, most of them regarded only males, while the impact of the female menstrual cycle has rarely been taken into account. We aimed to study psychophysiological response to anticipatory stressor through analysis of heart rate, self-reported anxiety level, and salivary cortisol in healthy young female athletes by minimalizing the effect of confounders. Materials and Methods: A total of 55 females (25 members of the best league for female volleyball players in Poland and 30 sedentary-lifestyle control subjects) in the follicular phase of their menstrual cycle were exposed to mental arithmetic tasks as an experimental imitation of the stressor. Volleyball players were significantly taller than sedentary individuals (177.1 ± 3.4 cm vs. 173.3 ± 3.4 cm, respectively, p = 0.034), but did not differ in weight (73.6 ± 5.2 kg vs. 70 ± 4.23 kg, respectively, p = 0.081), body mass index (BMI) (23.5 ± 1.13 vs. 24.1 ± 1.45, respectively, p = 0.060), and age (22 ± 1.11 vs. 23 ± 1.14 years, respectively, p = 0.2). Their stress responses were assessed through self-reported anxiety levels and physiological measurements of salivary cortisol concentrations and heart rate (HR). Results: For HR, significant effects of time (F(2,120) = 21.34, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.26) were found, but not for training status (F(1,60) = 2.69, p = 0.106, η2 = 0.04). For cortisol levels, the analysis showed the main effects of time (F(3,180) = 11.73, p < 0.001, η2 = 0.16) and training status (F(1,60) = 4.69, p = 0.034, η2 = 0.07) and a significant interaction between training status and time (F(3,180) = 3.07, p = 0.029, η2 = 0.05). Post-hoc analyses showed higher cortisol concentrations among volleyball players following the math task (all p < 0.001), as well as higher cortisol concentrations in S2, S3, and S4 compared to S1 in volleyball players (all p < 0.001). We observed also a significant increase in state anxiety in both groups (all p < 0.001), but no differences in state anxiety levels between groups. Conclusion: Female volleyball players may not differ in subjective graduation of stressors; however, exposure to training-based stressors seems to promote cortisol response to the anticipated stressor.

Effect of High Blood Cortisol Concentration on the Spectroscopically Determined Secondary Structure of Proteins and Lipid Balance on the Example of Elite Women Volleyball Players

“…Depending on the level of physical effort or competition, changes in the concentration of hormones in the body may also vary, but they always occur in female volleyball players' bodies [2][3][4] . The higher the level of sports advancement of the female players, the higher the changes in cortisol levels can be observed, which proves that the body responds to the level of training load 5 . The very precise mechanism of cortisol's activity is not fully explained because at the cellular level it has got an anabolic character (stabilization of lysosomal membranes and reduction of the activity of protein-digesting enzymes), while in relation to muscles, it possesses a catabolic character (it stimulates, inter alia, myostatin synthesis) [6][7] .…”

Estresse mental em atletas de elite: Uma revisão sistemática

“…Houve relação entre aumento do estresse e, atletas de elite, verificado inclusive em estudos controlados com a população de não atletas (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Vannuccini et al, 2020). Houve grande variação do método de medição do estresse mental, a medição ocorreu em dados subjetivos como em escalas (Belz et al, 2018;Codonhato et al, 2018;Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;Vannuccini et al, 2020) e exames bioquímicos como a medição de saliva no cortisol (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017). Nesse sentindo impossibilitou a realização de uma metaanálise, como mencionado na metodologia, mesmo com dados apresentados serem quantitativos.…”

“…Essas diferenças podem ser verificadas até mesmo entre mesmas medidas de mensuração, como por exemplo o uso do Questionário de estresse de recuperação para atletas (Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes -RESTQ), cujo objetivo é avaliar o estresse de recuperação atual do indivíduo (Belz et al, 2018;Codonhato et al, 2018 Outro método utilizado foi a análise de cortisol pela, importante também em detecção de estresse em diferentes áreas da saúde e recorrente investigado em desportos (Siart et al, 2017), o cortisol é um hormônio glicocorticoide liberado pelas glândulas adrenais em resposta ao estresse psicológico e fisiológico Quatros estudos dessa revisão (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017) verificaram o cortisol para medidas de desfechos de estresse, nessas pesquisas o cortisol esteve elevado conforme carga de treinamento ou intensificação de treinamento para competições. Belz et al (2018) observou que os níveis de cortisol, aumentaram entre 24 horas antes da competição, esse aumento do cortisol em momento tão curto, indica que uma competição é um estressor fisiológico grave.…”

“…No entanto nenhuma diferença de gênero foi encontrada em relação ao estresse nos estudos em que população era composta por atletas do sexo masculino e feminino (Belz et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017). Belz et al (2019) verificou ainda que houve diferenças em relação à idade, no qual atletas com menos de 18 anos apresentaram menor estresse socioemocional e maior bem-estar psicológico sendo do que atletas mais velhos, nas outras pesquisas não indicaram essa relação idade, é importante ressaltar que a amostra dos outros estudos era composta por jovens adultos (Codonhato et al, 2018;Dziembowska et al, 2019;Horta et al, 2019;O'donnell et al, 2018;Siart et al, 2017;Vannuccini et al, 2020), uma análise em blocos com atletas de elite adoslecentes, jovens e sênior é necessário no futuro.…”

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“…Furthermore, the state anxiety is proven to be predicted by the emotion-oriented stress response (Endler, Kantor & Parker, 1994). In addition, the choice of coping is significantly related to age, gender, and type of sport (Dziembowska et al, 2019;Case et al, 2016).…”