Relationships between weekly changes in salivary hormonal responses and load measures during the pre-season phase in professional male basketball players

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the relationships between weekly changes in external and internal load considered separately and jointly and salivary hormonal responses during the pre-season phase in professional male basketball players. Twenty-one professional male basketball players (mean ± standard deviation, age: 26.2 ± 4.9 years; height: 198.7 ± 6.7 cm; body mass: 93.2 ± 10.0 kg) were assessed during 5 weeks of the pre-season phase. External load was measured using microsensors and reported as PlayerLoad (PL) and PL/ min. Internal load was calculated using the session rating of perceived exertion scale (sRPE-load), summated heart rate zones (SHRZ) and percentage of maximal heart rate (%HR max ). Salivary hormone responses were monitored weekly by measuring testosterone (T), cortisol (C), and their ratio (T:C). The relationships between weekly changes in load measures considered separately and jointly and hormonal responses were assessed using linear mixed model analysis. No significant (p > 0.05) relationships were evident between weekly changes in T, C or T:C with external and internal load measures considered separately (R 2 -conditional = < 0.001–0.027) or jointly (R 2 -conditional = 0.028–0.075). Factors other than measured loads might be responsible for weekly changes in hormonal responses and therefore external and internal load measures cannot be used to anticipate weekly hormonal responses during the pre-season phase in professional basketball players.

Differences in Weekly Training Load, Well-Being, and Hormonal Responses between European- and National-Level Professional Male Basketball Players during the Pre-Season Phase

“…The data for this observational study was collected during the 5-week of the 2020/21 pre-season phase (European-level team: 10 August–13 September 2020; national-level team: 11 August–15 September 2020). This study investigates a new research question, but it should be noted that part of this dataset (i.e., data of European-level team) was previously examined in another investigation with different research questions [ 9 ]. During the monitoring period, players’ training load was collected across 37 training sessions and 5 pre-season matches (3 wins by 35.3 ± 18.2 points; 2 losses by 13.0 ± 15.6 points) for the European-level team and across 42 training sessions and 5 pre-season matches (3 wins by 22.7 ± 19.1 points, 2 losses by 23.0 ± 7.1 points) for the national-level team ( Table 2 ).…”

“…A member of the research team collected saliva samples weekly across the pre-season phase (i.e., 5 sample collections), prior to the first training session of the week, at the same time of the day (17:00), to avoid variation due to circadian rhythm [ 15 ]. Players were instructed not to eat, brush their teeth, and drink only still water in the 90min prior to saliva collection [ 6 , 9 ]. Successively, players were required to mouth rinsing with distilled water and remove all saliva from the mouth.…”

“…Successively, players were required to mouth rinsing with distilled water and remove all saliva from the mouth. Then, they were asked to remove all saliva again after 30 s, to wait in a seated position for 10 min, and to provide the saliva specimen into 15-mL SaliCap tubes through a polypropylene straw (IBL International, Germany [ 6 , 9 ]. The collected samples were stored in a laboratory at −20 °C for subsequent analysis.…”

“…Post-hoc analysis with Bonferroni correction was used in case of significant differences. All LMMs were analyzed using Jamovi software (the Jamovi project, version 2.3.3, 2022, Sydney, Australia, which was previously used in basketball research [ 9 , 16 ]. Available online: ).…”

“…Overall, monitoring these parameters can provide a better understanding of players’ training and recovery process [ 8 ]. Despite the importance of monitoring these measures during the pre-season phase, only a few studies previously provided indications about the well-being and C and T levels encountered by professional male basketball players during the pre-season phase [ 9 , 10 ]. Although these studies provide important information regarding the fluctuation of these parameters across the pre-season period, no information is available on the changes in these measures in professional male basketball teams competing at European- or national-level.…”