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[Effect of golf on sinus rate variability]
B Brembilla-Perrot1, T Piccoli, Y Juillière
1Service de cardiologie, CHU Brabois, hôpital d'adultes, rue du Morvan, 54500 Vandaeuvre, France.
Insights
Golf significantly impacts heart rate variability (HRV) from the start of a competition, likely due to stress. These physiological changes persist for hours after the game concludes.
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular Physiology
- Sports Science
- Autonomic Nervous System Function
Context:
- Limited research exists on golf's physiological effects, particularly on heart rate variability (HRV).
- Understanding golf's impact on autonomic function is crucial for athletes and sports science.
- High-level golfers (n=6, aged 25-40) without cardiac conditions participated.
Purpose:
- To investigate the acute effects of playing golf on heart rate variability (HRV) parameters.
- To analyze HRV changes before, during, and after a golf competition.
Summary:
- HRV was monitored throughout 12 golf games, including mean heart rate (HR), SDNN, rMSSD, pNN50, LF, HF, and LF/HF ratio.
- Significant variations in all HRV parameters were observed at the game's onset, persisting throughout and for three hours post-competition.
- Findings indicate increased HR, decreased total HRV, and reduced parasympathetic activity markers (pNN50, rMSSD).
Impact:
- Golf competition induces significant physiological stress, demonstrably affecting autonomic nervous system function.
- These stress-induced HRV alterations remain measurable hours after golf play ceases.
- Highlights the need for further research into the psychophysiological demands of precision sports like golf.
Abstract:
There are no or very few studies in the literature on the effects of golf on heart rate and its parameters. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of a precision sport, golf, on heart rate variability (HRV). The study population consisted of six high-level golfers aged 25 to 40 years, without cardiac disease. HRV was studied three hours before a golf competition, during the four hours of the competition and three hours after the match was over. The following parameters of HRV were calculated during 12 games of golf: mean heart rate (HR), standard deviation of the mean RR intervals (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences in RR intervals among consecutive normal beats (rMSSD), percent differences between normal RR intervals that are greater than 50 ms computed over the entire 24-hour recording (pNN50), low-frequency amplitude (LF), high-frequency amplitude (HF) and LF/HF ratio: ratio of low-to-high frequency power. Analysis of the results indicates significant variations of all parameters which occur just at the beginning of the game, persist throughout the match and remain three hours after its completion: heart rate is increased; total HRV is decreased but parameters reflect parasympathetic activity; pNN50, rMSSD and 1-117 are principally decreased. In conclusion, golf significantly affects HRV just at the beginning of golf competition, probably because of stress. These changes progressively decrease but they are still significant three hours after the end of the competition.
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