(64) A MULTIFACTORIAL ANALYSIS OF PHYSICAL STRESS, RECOVERY, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL READINESS ACROSS A COMPETITIVE SEASON IN FEMALE COLLEGIATE SOCCER ATHLETES.

Previous research investigating student athlete workload, psychological readiness, and recovery has historically considered each in isolation, over the course of a small period of time and or in a limited number of athletes.

Purpose: The purpose of the present study was to explore multifactorial relationships between daily measures of workload, recovery, and psychological readiness, recovery across an entire competitive season.

Methods: Thirty-three female NCAA division 1 collegiate soccer athletes (age: 20 ± 0.8 yr) participated. A prospective longitudinal cohort study design was utilized to collect daily measures of physical stress (active time, total distance, GPS load, RPE), recovery (sleep duration, sleep quality, soreness) and psychological readiness (stress, mental fatigue, mood) across a total of 90 training sessions. Multiple linear mixed-effects models were used to measure the interactions between each of the component outcomes of physical stress, recovery and psychological readiness and the effect of time. Perceived exertion, soreness, and sleep duration were investigated using separate linear mixed-effects models with day, load, RPE, distance, active time, mental fatigue, stress, mood, soreness, sleep duration, and sleep quality as fixed effects. For each separate model, any variable that was also an outcome was not included as a fixed effect. To account for the complex interplay of these variables across time, an interaction of all factors by day was included in the models, while participants were included as a random intercept using Z-scores to illustrate the relationship of all variables on a uniform scale over time as shown in Figure 1.

Results: Athlete load(p=< 0.001), distance(p=.006), and stress (p=< 0.001) had a significant effect on RPE (R² =.70), while distance(p=.036), active time(p=0.014), mental fatigue(0.010), stress(< 0.001),  and sleep quality(p=.004) all interact significantly with day to affect RPE. Athlete load(p=< 0.001), distance< 0.001, active time(< 0.001), mental fatigue(< 0.001), stress(< 0.001), mood(< 0.023), and sleep duration(< 0.001) had a significant effect on soreness (R² =.55), while load, distance, and sleep duration all interact significantly with day to affect soreness across time. Athlete load(p=< 0.001), fatigue(p=< 0.001), soreness(p=< 0.001), stress(p=0.014), and sleep quality(p=< 0.001),  had a significant effect on sleep duration (R²=0.65).

Conclusions: Time had a significant effect on the relationships between physical stress, recovery and psychological readiness, suggesting that despite being strongly correlated, the strength of the relationship between physical stress, recovery, and psychological readiness fluctuate on a near daily basis. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: Daily fluctuations in psychological readiness and recovery affect how an athlete’s body responds to subsequent physical demand and should be considered as part of a holistic approach to exercise prescription and programing.

Acknowledgements: none