To optimize performance, coaches and athletes are always looking for the right balance between training load and recovery. Therefore, closely monitoring of athletes is important. Heart rate recovery (HRR) after standardized sub maximal exercise has been proposed as a useful variable to monitor (Lamberts et al., 2004). However, it is well known that heart rate, next to biological variability, is influenced by several factors such as training load and psychosocial stress. So, the purpose was to look at individual variability in HRR from one week to another using the heart rate interval monitoring system (HIMS). Methods Eight elite Dutch female indoor hockey players (age: 23.9±3.91yr, length: 155.0±7.01cm, weight: 56.6±6.16kg) completed the HIMS two weeks in a row (Lamberts et al., 2004). The heart rate at the end of the last stage (HRend) was determined and the HRR was calculated one minute after the end of the last stage. Furthermore, training load and psychosocial stress and recovery were monitored using the Foster-method (1998) and the RESTQ-Sport (Nederhof et al., 2008), respectively. Results A strong correlation was found between the HRend from one week to the other (r=0.984 p.
Physical and psychosocial stress and recovery are important performance determinants. A holistic approach that monitors these performance determinants over a longer period of time is lacking. Therefore this study aims to investigate the effect of a player’s physical and psychosocial stress and recovery on field-test performance. In a prospective non-experimental cohort design 10 female Dutch floorball players were monitored over 6 months. To monitor physical and psychosocial stress and recovery, daily training-logs and three-weekly the Recovery-Stress Questionnaire for Athletes (RESTQ-Sport) were filled out respectively. To determine field-test performance 6 Heart rate Interval Monitoring System (HIMS) and 4 Repeated Modified Agility T-test (RMAT) measurements were performed. Multilevel prediction models were applied to account for within-players and between-players field-test performance changes. The results show that more psychosocial stress and less psychosocial recovery over 3 to 6 weeks before testing decrease HIMS performance (p≤0.05). More physical stress over 6 weeks before testing improves RMAT performance (p≤0.05). In conclusion, physical and psychosocial stress and recovery affect submaximal interval-based running performance and agility up to 6 weeks before testing. Therefore both physical and psychosocial stress and recovery should be monitored in daily routines to optimize performance.
LINK
Introduction Indoor team sport players have a high injury risk (Theisen et al., 2013). It is assumed that psychosocial stress and recovery have an impact on this risk (Jung, 2000). The aim of this study is to investigate if changes in psychosocial stress and recovery during the course of a season are related to injury occurrence. Methods During the 2011-2012 competitive season 66 male and female indoor team sport players (age:22.2±3.4yr, lenght:189.2±10.7cm, weight:82.9±13.0kg) participated in this study. To assess psychosocial stress and recovery the players completed the Dutch version of the RESTQ-Sport (Nederhof et al., 2008) every three weeks. Difference scores were calculated for each three-week period for the 19 subscales of the RESTQ-Sport. Injuries were registered during the course of the season by the medical staff of the team according to the FIFA registration system (Fuller et al., 2006). Comparisons were made between injured and non-injured players for the mean difference (Mdiff) scores on the 19 subscales of psychosocial stress and recovery. The mean difference was taken over the two 3 week periods before the injury for the injured players and the mean difference over all remaining periods was taken for the non-injured players. Results Fifty-three injuries (80%) were reported, resulting in an average of 15.6 days of medical attention and 16.7 days of time loss.
