Association between Pressure Pain Sensitivity, Performance stability and Overall Performance in Olympic Sailors

Background: During sports competitions, the performance of athletes may be negatively affected by persistent stress and autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysfunction, both of which can be assessed by pressure pain sensitivity (PPS) at the chest bone. Objectives: To test the association between PPS and sports performance; does a reduction of an elevated PPS improve performance stability and overall performance in Olympic sailors? Methods: The case study included two male athletes during eight months of observation prior to and during Olympic sailing. The daily PPS self-measurements served as feedback guide for persistent stress and ANS dysfunction. Performance stability, overall performance and PPS measure were assessed at three intervals. Results: At baseline, the median PPS was 81, the performance stability was inferior to the mean top 10 competitors, and the overall performance was rank eight. During the observation period, PPS, performance stability and overall performance improved incrementally and significantly. This eventually led the sailors to achieve an Olympic Gold. The PPS, performance stability, and overall performance were all internally closely associated (correlation coefficients: r > 0.70; p < 0.001). Conclusion: The study may suggest a link between persistent stress and ANS dysfunction as assessed by PPS on one side and performance stability and overall performance on the other side. *Corresponding author: Soeren Ballegaard MD, Senior Scientist, Department of Endocrinology, Herlev University Hospital, 2730 Herlev, Denmark, Tel: +45 40192645; E-mail: [email protected] Received November 28, 2015; Accepted March 28, 2016; Published April 05, 2016 Citation: Ballegaard S, Petersen PB, Harboe GS, Gyntelberg F, Faber J (2016) Association between Pressure Pain Sensitivity, Performance stability and Overall Performance in Olympic Sailors. J Sports Med Doping Stud 6: 177. doi:10.4172/2161-0673.1000177 Copyright: © 2016 Ballegaard S, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.