Autonomic Nervous System, Fatigue and Intolerance to Physical Training, and Overtraining in High-Level Athletes

Completed

• Conditions: Fatigue; Training; Athletes
• Interventions: Device: ANS activity

• Registration Number: NCT01463761
• Lead Sponsor: Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Saint Etienne

Brief Summary

Sports training aims to enhance an athlete's performance (overcompensation). To do that, the athlete must go through periods of fatigue and lower performance (overreaching). When the training plan is balanced, this fatigue is short and reversible.If the training load is too heavy or if recuperation periods are too short, it can lead to persistence fatigue that may only be reversible in the long term. This state of fatigue is part of the broader clinical picture of overtraining, which includes stark changes in performance as well as mood and sleep disorders. Many prediction and characterization methods based on biological markers have been evaluated, but they have not been put into practice in sports training due to obstacles such as reliability, interindividual variability and high costs. This study aims to evaluate a new approach based on the variability of an individual's heart rate (RR variability), which is a way of measuring autonomic nervous system (ASN) activity. It is non-invasive, low-cost, and has already proven useful in athlete health monitoring.

Detailed Description

The investigators propose to describe the variation of these ANS regulation factors over a full year, in a population of high-level athletes, in order to measure changes in regulation which may be predictive of potential fatigue and intolerance to physical training, if such a syndrome came to be observed among the study group.

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2010-07
• Study First Submitted: 2011-10-31
• Study First Submitted QC: 2011-11-01
• Study First Posted: 2011-11-02
• Primary Completion: 2012-12
• Study Completion: 2012-12
• Status Verified: 2013-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2013-03-05
• Last Update Posted: 2013-03-06

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: COMPLETED
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 131

Inclusion Criteria

• High-level athlete, enrolled in a Ministry-recognized Pôle
• Participant signed the informed consent form

Exclusion Criteria

• Confirmed current overtraining syndrome
• Known pregnancy on inclusion
• Athlete using cardio-inhibitor or cardio-accelerator drugs

Study & Design

• Study Type: OBSERVATIONAL
• Study Design: Not specified

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
high-level athletes	ANS activity	High-level athlete, enrolled in a Ministry-recognized Pôle

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Fatigue and physical training	One year	Fatigue and physical training potetially due to overtraining, suspected based on a very significant, long-term worsening in performance
Autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity	One year	This ANS is mesured during the night using a spectral analysis of nocturnal heart rate variability.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
orthostasis test	Every 15 days (from inclusion to one year)	ANS activity measurements (RR variability) during active orthostasis transition on waking up in the morning
kinetic of the ANS activity	Every 15 days (from the iclusion to one year)	ANS is mesured during the night using a spectral analysis of nocturnal heart rate variability
POMS (Profile of Mood States) questionnaire	Every 3 months (from inclusion to inclusion)
French Society of Sports Medicine questionnaire	Every 15 days (from inclusion to one year)	The questionnaire was designed to detect early signs of overtraining. It includes 54 yes/no questions. Subjects who answer "yes" to more than 20 questions are considered at risk for overtraining.
Sleep quality questionnaire	Every 3 months (from inclusion to one year)	The questionnaire is self-administered. It includes two parts. The first part consists of several questions regarding sleep during the previous night. The second part aims to evaluate the physical exertion load during the previous day's training session(s). Participants will fill one questionnaire/day for a whole week. Each questionnaire period must coincide with a training period (interseason, volume, intensity, or competition.)

Trial Locations

Locations (8)

CHU de Grenoble; 🇫🇷 Grenoble, France

CHU de Pointe à Pitre; 🇫🇷 Pointe A Pitre, France

CHU de Besançon; 🇫🇷 Besancon, France

Université Paris XIII; 🇫🇷 Bobigny, France

CH Albertville Moutiers; 🇫🇷 Albertville, France

CNSN Centre médical de Prémanon; 🇫🇷 Premanon, France

CHU de Saint-Etienne; 🇫🇷 Saint-Etienne, France

CREPS Toulouse Midi Pyrénées; 🇫🇷 Toulouse, France