Psychology News
Researchers at the Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain, studied how sports training affects our mood and heart rate. The study is published in the journal PeerJ.
The Study
In the first phase of the study, 5 amateur road cyclists answered a questionnaire about the physical stress they endured during training. Then, they collected 123 recordings of morning heart rate variability (HRV) and morning mood, and 66 recordings of training power and rate of perceived exertion (RPE). Once completed, they again responded to a series of questionnaires about sports training and related stress.
One of the lead researchers, Carla Alfonso, elaborated that “the objective of the research was to explore the relation among three aspects: [athletic] training, heart rate variability, and mood”.
The Findings
The researchers measured changes in mood and HRV with the HFnu (normalized high-frequency band) parameter. The results revealed that rigorous sports training affects our mood and heart rate. It was seen that with more intense training, the participants experienced lower moods and lower HRV. In sharp contrast, moderate training was associated with an improvement in athletes’ mood and HRV.
The research team was enthusiastic that the study could help set up a monitoring system that took into account both internal and external loads in athletic training.
To Know More You May Refer To
Alfonso, C., & Capdevila, L. (2022). Heart rate variability, mood and performance: a pilot study on the interrelation of these variables in amateur road cyclists. PeerJ, 10, e13094. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.13094