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A multi-factorial assessment of elite paratriathletes’ response to two weeks of intensified training

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posted on 2018-12-11, 10:06 authored by Ben T. Stephenson, Christof LeichtChristof Leicht, Keith TolfreyKeith Tolfrey, Vicky Goosey-TolfreyVicky Goosey-Tolfrey
Purpose: In able-bodied athletes, several hormonal, immunological and psychological parameters are commonly assessed in response to intensified training due to their potential relationship to acute fatigue and training/non-training stress. This has yet to be studied in Paralympic athletes. Methods: Ten elite paratriathletes were studied for five weeks around a 14-day overseas training camp whereby training load was 137% of pre-camp levels. Athletes provided: six saliva samples (one pre-camp, four during camp, one post-camp) for cortisol, testosterone and secretory immunoglobulin A; weekly psychological questionnaires (POMS and RESTQ-S); daily resting heart rate and subjective wellness measures including sleep quality and quantity. Results: There was no significant change in salivary cortisol, testosterone, cortisol:testosterone ratio or secretory immunoglobulin A during intensified training (p≥0.090). Likewise, there was no meaningful change in resting heart rate or subjective wellness measures (p≥0.079). Subjective sleep quality and quantity increased during intensified training (p≤0.003). There was no significant effect on any POMS subscale other than lower anger (p=0.049) whilst there was greater general recovery and lower sport and general stress from RESTQ-S (p≤0.015). Conclusions: There was little to no change in parameters commonly associated with the fatigued state which may relate to the training camp setting minimising external life stresses and the careful management of training loads from coaches. This is the first evidence of such responses in Paralympic athletes.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance

Volume

14

Issue

7

Pages

911 - 917

Citation

STEPHENSON, B.T. ... et al, 2018. A multi-factorial assessment of elite paratriathletes’ response to two weeks of intensified training. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 14 (7), pp.911-917.

Publisher

© Human Kinetics, Inc.

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2018-12-04

Publication date

2019-08-01

Notes

Accepted author manuscript version reprinted, by permission, from International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, 2018, 14 (7): pp.911-917, https://doi.org/10.1123/ijspp.2018-0838. © Human Kinetics, Inc.

ISSN

1555-0265

eISSN

1555-0273

Language

  • en

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