Relationship between external load and cortisol concentrations during the competitive microcycle in international soccer players

Abstract

Objective: The hormone cortisol participates in situations of physiological responses and is affected by the demand for training load submitted to the body, in this way it is intended to know the correlation between the cortisol concentrations measured at the end of the competitive microcycle with the load demands external in 20 international players.

Method: During the 2018 Fédération Internationale de Football Association in Russia, a participating national team chose to analyze the cortisol concentrations of the players in order to establish relationships between the accumulated external load in each microcycle (total distance, distance between 14-19 km / h, distance between 19-24 km / h, Distance> 24 km / h, average meters / min and average maximum speed) measured with Global Positioning System devices, during four complete microcycles, and cortisol levels in the day before match and on game day.

Results: Among the results obtained, a moderate negative correlation is observed between the cortisol concentrations measured in the day before match and match day with total accumulated distance in the microcycle (r = -0.44 and -0.36 respectively), as well as moderate negative correlations between cortisol in day before match with the cumulative distance covered between 14-19 km / h. (r = -0.32)

Conclusions: In light of the results, it can be seen how the external training load covered during the microcycle may influence the accumulated cortisol concentrations at the end of it, with special emphasis on the total accumulated distance.