Physiological and Psychological Changes at the End of the Soccer Season in Elite Female Athletes

Abstract

This study compares and describes relationships among stress-recovery indices, the heart rate variability index, and the Cooper and Yo-Yo IR1 tests among female soccer players during the last six weeks of the competitive season. Sixteen female soccer players engaged in a pre-test of all of the variables. After having their training monitored for six weeks, a post-test was administered. The results revealed significant (p < 0.05) differences in the specific stress-recovery scales of the RESTQ-sport and in the frequency-domain variables of the HRV, although there were no significant differences in the general stress or general recovery scales. The Yo-Yo IR1 test, the Cooper test scores, and the means of the time-domain HRV variables did not exhibit any significant differences between the pre- and the post-test. The RMSSD variations exhibited very large and large correlations with the performance test and the RESTQ-sport variables, respectively. The variations in the HRV frequency-domain variables exhibited significant moderate and large correlations among the variations of the RESTQ-sport scales. Monitoring athletes at the end of the season may reveal contradictions between some variables. To help with the interpretation of these scales, some external aspects, such as athlete strain and monotony of training, should be considered.

HRV-Based Training for Improving VO2max in Endurance Athletes. A Systematic Review with Meta-Analysis

“…Bellenger et al [21], in a recent systematic review with meta-analysis, highlighted the need to use monitoring systems that accurately reflect the athletes' adaptations to the training stimulus. Although there have been numerous research studies using the HRV measure to check wellness and training adaptation in athletes [22,23], these have not focused on performance improvement based on HRV-guided training but have followed training interventions based on a traditional and nonindividualized methodology.…”

Effects of training on the heart rate variability of competitive soccer players: A systematic review with meta-analysis

“…Seven studies were included in the quantitative analysis. 15,29,31,33–36 The random effects model results revealed that training had small and nonsignificant effect on HRV of competitive soccer players (ES = 0.143, Standard Error (SE) = .108, p = .186, 95% CI [−0.69, 0.355]) and a significant amount of heterogeneity ( Q (26) = 86.758, p < .001, I 2 = 70.032%), as shown in Figure 3.…”

“…Most studies measured HRV with a HR monitor, 29–31,34–36,39 two used a smartphone app plus a HR monitor, 15,32 and one used a smartphone app plus a pulse wave finger sensor. 40…”

The Role of Veracity on the Load Monitoring of Professional Soccer Players: A Systematic Review in the Face of the Big Data Era

“…Only one study had a high risk of bias, with a score ≤4 (see Table S1). There were 88 observational studies (i.e., 94%), with 82 prospective cohort studies [41,[43][44][45][46][47][48][49]51,52,[54][55][56][59][60][61][86][87][88]90,[92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103][104][105][106][107][108][109][111][112][113][114][116][117][118][119][120][121][122][123]…”