Psychological Intervention Based on Mental Relaxation to Manage Stress in Female Junior Elite Soccer Team: Improvement in Cardiac Autonomic Control, Perception of Stress and Overall Health

HEBE project: Healthy aging versus inflamm-aging: The role of physical exercise in modulating the biomarkers of age-associated and environmentally determined chronic diseases, study protocol

Inflamm-aging refers to the chronic low-grade inflammation that occurs with aging and cellular senescence, and it is linked to various diseases. Understanding the markers involved in inflammation and aging, as well as their interaction with environmental factors and bodily control mechanisms, can provide crucial tools for assessing the resilience (i.e. the ability to adapt and improve) of the human body, particularly in the presence of chronic degenerative conditions or vulnerable life stages, that place the individual and the community to which he belongs in a state of potential fragility. HEBE focuses on physical exercise, along with nutritional and lifestyle recommendations, to reduce systemic inflammation and promote healthy aging. HEBE encompasses multiple research lines (LR). In the ongoing LR1 ("proof of concept"), healthy lifestyle recommendations were provided to University of Milan employees, and changes in quality of life and well-being were assessed using a specialized questionnaire. The first 100 eligible subjects, who expressed their willingness to participate, underwent a personalized physical exercise protocol based on clinical and objective assessments. Biomedical samples were collected at baseline (T0) and follow-up (T1) to establish a shared biobank and identify non-invasive biomarkers that monitor the impact of physical exercise on individual characteristics such as cardiovascular and metabolic health. Subsequently (LR2-LR10), the proof of concept findings will be expanded to include various conditions of vulnerability such as obesity, cancer, endocrine disorders, cardiovascular diseases, infertility, functional syndromes, respiratory disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, and autoimmune conditions. The research lines will leverage the expertise of the 94 participating investigators to form a collaborative network that maximizes the potential for investigation and knowledge exchange. This approach fosters a culture of health promotion and disease prevention. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT05815732.

Analysis of the Sports Psychological Profile, Competitive Anxiety, Self-Confidence and Flow State in Young Football Players

The objective of this study was to analyse the correlations among the sports psychological profile, competitive anxiety, self-confidence and the flow state of young football players. Additionally, potential distinctions based on age category, competitive level and field position were explored. This study included 328 participants divided into two groups: Group 1, 14-15 year olds, and Group 2, 16-18 year olds (M = 15.85; SD = 1.44). Data were collected by using the Psychological Inventory of Sports Execution (IPED), the Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2 (CSAI-2R) and the Flow State Scale (FSS). The findings revealed positive associations between the sports psychological profile and self-confidence, as well as with the flow state. Conversely, competitive anxiety demonstrated negative relationships with the sports psychological profile, self-confidence and the state of flow. Moreover, superior scores were observed in the analysed variables for the older age category and higher competitive level, with no notable disparities based on field positions. These results underscore the interplay of psychological factors in the performance of football players and underline distinctions among players according to their category (age and level). This emphasises the importance of scrutinising these variables in athletes to comprehend their profiles and enable targeted interventions aimed at enhancing their psychological resources for competitive scenarios.

Assessing the cardiac autonomic response to bicycle exercise in Olympic athletes with different loads of endurance training: new insights from statistical indicators based on multilevel exploratory factor analysis

Aim: The mechanisms governing the organism's response to exercise are complex and difficult to study. Spectral analysis of heart rate variability (HRV) could represent a convenient methodology for studying humans' autonomic nervous system (ANS). However, difficulties in interpreting the multitude of correlated HRV-derived indices, mainly when computed over different time segments, may represent a barrier to its usage. This preliminary investigation addressed to elite athletes proposes a novel method describing the cardiac autonomic response to exercise based on multilevel exploratory factor analysis (MEFA), which reduces the multitude of HRV-derived indices to fewer uncorrelated ANS indicators capable of accounting for their interrelationships and overcoming the above difficulties. Methods: The study involved 30 Italian Olympic athletes, divided into 15 cyclists (prevalent high-intensity endurance training) and 15 shooters (prevalent technical training with low-intensity endurance component). All athletes underwent a complete test of a dynamic protocol, constituted by a rest-stand test followed by a stepwise bicycle stress test subdivided into a single bout of progressive endurance (from aerobic to anaerobic) exercise and recovery. Then, by spectral analysis, values of 12 ANS proxies were computed at each time segment (9 epochs in all) of the complete test. Results: We obtained two global ANS indicators (amplitude and frequency), expressing the athletes' overall autonomic response to the complete test, and three dynamic ANS indicators (amplitude, signal self-similarity, and oscillatory), describing the principal dynamics over time of the variability of RR interval (RRV). Globally, cyclists have significantly higher amplitude levels (median ± MAD: cyclists 69.9 ± 20.5; shooters 37.2 ± 19.4) and lower frequency levels (median ± MAD: cyclists 37.4 ± 14.8; shooters 78.2 ± 10.2) than shooters, i.e., a parasympathetic predominance compared to shooters. Regarding the RRV dynamics, the signal self-similarity and oscillatory indicators have the strongest sensitivity in detecting the rest-stand change; the amplitude indicator is highly effective in detecting the athletes' autonomic changes in the exercise fraction; the amplitude and oscillatory indicators present significant differences between cyclists and shooters in specific test epochs. Conclusion: This MEFA application permits a more straightforward representation of the complexity characterizing ANS modulation during exercise, simplifying the interpretation of the HRV-derived indices and facilitating the possible real-life use of this non-invasive methodology.