Heart rate variability and psychometric responses to overload and tapering in collegiate sprint-swimmers

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to evaluate cardiac-parasympathetic and psychometric responses to competition preparation in collegiate sprint-swimmers. Additionally, we aimed to determine the relationship between average vagal activity and its daily fluctuation during each training phase. Design: Observational. Methods: Ten Division-1 collegiate sprint-swimmers performed heart rate variability recordings (i.e., log transformed root mean square of successive RR intervals, InRMSSD) and completed a brief wellness questionnaire with a smartphone application daily after waking. Mean values for psychometrics and InRMSSD (InRMSSDmean) as well as the coefficient of variation (InRMSSDCV) were calculated from 1 week of baseline (BL) followed by 2 weeks of overload (OL) and 2 weeks of tapering (TP) leading up to a championship competition. Results: Competition preparation resulted in improved race times (p <0.01). Moderate decreases in InRMSSDmean, and Large to Very Large increases in InRMSSDCV, perceived fatigue and soreness were observed during the OL and returned to BL levels or peaked during TP (p < 0.05). Inverse correlations between InRMSSDmean and InRMSSDCV were Very Large at BL and OL (p < 0.05) but only Moderate at TP (p > 0.05). Conclusions: OL training is associated with a reduction and greater daily fluctuation in vagal activity compared with BL, concurrent with decrements in perceived fatigue and muscle soreness. These effects are reversed during TP where these values returned to baseline or peaked leading into successful competition. The strong inverse relationship between average vagal activity and its daily fluctuation weakened during TP. (C) 2016 Sports Medicine Australia. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.