Not All Competitions Come to Harm! Competitive Biofeedback to Increase Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia in Managers

Despite the positive impact on achievement, competition has been associated with elevated psychophysiological activation, potentially leading to a greater risk of cardiovascular diseases. Competitive biofeedback (BF) can be used to highlight the effects of competition on the same physiological responses that are going to be controlled through BF. However, it is still unknown whether competition could enhance the effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA)-BF training in improving cardiac vagal control. The present study explored whether competitive RSA-BF could be more effective than non-competitive RSA-BF in increasing RSA in executive managers, who are at higher cardiovascular risk of being commonly exposed to highly competitive conditions. Thirty managers leading outstanding private or public companies were randomly assigned to either a Competition (n = 14) or a Control (n = 16) RSA-BF training lasting five weekly sessions. Managers in the Competition group underwent the RSA-BF in couples and each participant was requested to produce a better performance (i.e., higher RSA) than the paired challenger. After the training, results showed that managers in the Competition group succeeded in increasing cardiac vagal control, as supported by the specific increase in RSA (p < 0.001), the standard deviation of R-R wave intervals (SDNN; p < 0.001), and root mean square of the successive differences between adjacent heartbeats (rMSSD; p < 0.001). A significant increase in the percentage of successive normal sinus beat to beat intervals more than 50 ms (pNN50; p = 0.023; η² = 0.17), low frequency (p = ≤ 0.001; η² = 0.44), and high frequency power (p = 0.005; η² = 0.25) emerged independently from the competitive condition. Intriguingly, managers who compete showed the same reduction in resting heart rate (HR; p = 0.003, η² = 0.28), systolic blood pressure (SBP; p = 0.013, η² = 0.20), respiration rate (p < 0.001; η² = 0.46), and skin conductance level (SCL; p = 0.001, η² = 0.32) as non-competitive participants. Also, the same reduction in social anxiety (p = 0.005; η² = 0.25), state (p = 0.038, η² = 0.14) and trait anxiety (p = 0.001, η² = 0.31), and depressive symptoms (p = 0.023, η² = 0.17) emerged in the two groups. The present results showed that managers competing for increasing RSA showed a greater improvement in their parasympathetic modulation than non-competing managers. Most importantly, competition did not lead to the classic pattern of increased psychophysiological activation under competitive RSA-BF. Therefore, competition could facilitate the use of self-regulation strategies, especially in highly competitive individuals, to promote adaptive responses to psychological stress.