The Workout Responses of Salivary-Free Testosterone and Cortisol Concentrations and Their Association With the Subsequent Competition Outcomes in Professional Rugby League

Abstract

This study assessed the responses of salivary-free testosterone (T) and cortisol (C) concentrations across selected training workouts and their association with the subsequent competition outcomes in professional rugby league. Thirteen rugby league players were assessed for salivary-free T and C concentrations across 5 training workouts performed 3-4 days before a competitive game. The game outcomes included wins and losses and game-ranked performance (1-5) based on the number of points scored, the points differential, and a coach rating. Data were pooled across the winning (n = 3) and losing (n = 2) outcomes. Pooled free T concentrations (absolute and relative changes) were significantly (p < 0.01) elevated across those workouts that preceded winning games, but not the losses, and the relative (percent) T changes were significantly (p < 0.05) higher before winning (30.9%) than before losing (3.4%). Both outcomes were associated with workout decreases in pooled free C concentrations and the relative C changes were not significantly different between wins (-22.9%) and losses (-25.6%). In conclusion, the free T responses to selected training workouts showed some association with subsequent winning (being elevated) and losing (no change) during a limited number of competitive games in professional rugby league. Speculatively, the free T responses to a midweek workout might provide an early sign of team readiness to compete or to recovery state, thereby providing a novel format for implementing training or management strategies to improve the competition outcomes.

Exercise-Induced Responses in Salivary Testosterone, Cortisol, and Their Ratios in Men: A Meta-Analysis

“…This raises an important methodological consideration and suggests an anticipatory effect on sal-T and sal-C. Investigators may be unaware of this phenomenon, as the majority of investigations solely collect samples immediately prior to exercise rather than in addition to a control day [3,4,7,15,22,23,29,32,41,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55]. Therefore, care should be taken when comparing exercise-induced acute changes in sal-T and sal-C with regards to the timing of baseline measurement.…”

“…Salivary hormones have been measured in response to psychological stress, illness and in behavioral experiments (for a review, see Groschl [2]). Recently, salivary testosterone (sal-T), in unison with cortisol (sal-C), has been reported as a marker of anabolic status [6,7], overtraining [8][9][10][11][12], training response [13][14][15][16][17][18] and training motivation [19,20].…”

“…Conversely, Beaven et al [14] reported a lack of change between 85, 70, 55 and 40 % of one repetition maximum (1-RM) for acute sal-T response. As the acute sal-T and sal-C response to exercise may influence long-term adaptations [7,[13][14][15], it is important to definitively determine the influence of acute exercise on sal-T and sal-C. Therefore, pooled analysis of previous investigations is warranted.…”

“…Of the 21 studies included, two were RCTs [46,47], 18 were UCTs [3,4,7,15,22,23,29,32,34,41,[48][49][50][51][52][53][54][55] and one was a CT [18] (Tables 1, 2, 3). Where a study had multiple conditions, they were treated separately.…”

“…Studies incorporating hypertrophy-style resistance training resulted in the greatest increase in sal-T [22,47,52]. Studies incorporating complex training [53], small muscle groups [3], middle-aged men [51] and training preceding a loss [7] all resulted in no effect of exercise on sal-T. It is suggested that these factors influence the sal-T response to exercise.…”