The Coronavirus Covid 19 pandemic has produced terrible effects in the world economy and is shaking social and political stability around the world. The world of sport has obviously been severely affected by the pandemic, as authorities progressively canceled all level of competitions, including the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. In Spain, the initial government-lockdown closed the Sports High-performance Centers, and many other sports facilities. In order to support athlete's health and performance at crises like these, an online questionnaire named (...) RECOVID-19, was designed to assess how athletes were living their lives during such periods of home confinement. The main purpose of the questionnaire was to assess the impact of prolongued confinement on athlete's psychological, emotional, and behavioral performance. One thousand, two hundred forty-eight athletes participated in the survey. They had the fllowing characteristics:, who compete at National and International level. Results showed that during the confinement period, those athletes who lacked motivation reported a higher level of stressful thoughts, more behavioral problems, and greater emotional upheaval. However, those athletes who accepted confinement measures as necessary, and were in favor of respecting the rules of social isolation, fostered positive emotional states such as feelings of friendship. In addition, the availability of some sport equipment together with the ability to continue some training, were protective factors against emotional stress, lack of motivation and behavioral problems; and they were associated with greater respect for, and adherence to, confinement rules. Gender differences, tested by multigroup analysis, revealed that coping activities were more often associated to negative emotional states among women, whereas the ongoing availability of training information and future conditions were equally protective factors for both genders. This study also showed that receiving coaching, support and completing frequent training routines seem to be valuable tools to prevent or reduce some of the harmful effects of isolation on athlete's emotional well-being. The conclusions derived from this research would possibly help sport authorities to design supporting policies and plans to support athletes and trainers in future disruptive health crises. (shrink)

Objective: This study aimed to compare the effects of two intervention programs, high-intensity interval training and moderate-intensity training, on anxiety, depression, stress, and resilience during the confinement caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 in healthy adults.Methods: A total of 67 adults who participated were randomly assigned to two groups: HIIT and MIT groups. The MIT group had to perform a home-based intervention based on aerobic exercises, whereas the HIIT group had to perform a home-based intervention based on HIIT exercises. The (...) two groups had to complete the same physical exercise volume, 40 min per session during the confinement period. Depression, anxiety, stress, and resilience were assessed before and after the intervention.Results: Results showed that HIIT and MIT significantly reduced the stress, anxiety, and depression as well as increase the resilience. Moreover, the improvements obtained in the HIIT group seem to be greater than those of the MIT group in depression.Conclusions: HIIT and MIT decreased anxiety, stress, and depression as well as increased resilience during the COVID-19 confinement. In addition, the HIIT intervention seemed to be more beneficial to reduce depression than the MIT intervention. (shrink)

The present study aimed to verify the quarantine’s effects during a serious viral outbreak on the cardiovascular and performance associated with the Yo-Yo test in a sample of professional soccer players. 20 high-level soccer players participated in this study. The intermittent Yo-Yo test was performed pre- and post- COVID-19 quarantine in a random order. During each test, the soccer players’ running performance outcomes were monitored using a portable 5-Hz GPS with a 100 Hz accelerometer and a paired t-test was conducted (...) at a p-value of ≤ 0.05. The main results demonstrated significant differences between pre- versus post-COVID-19 quarantine in the following variables: relative distance, maximal speed, acceleration, deceleration, sprints > 19 km/h [0.8 % >0.5 %], and in high intensity running distance [16.48 m > 0.827 m]. We concluded that COVID-19-related restrictions and quarantine COVID-19 demonstrated adverse effects on professional soccer players’ Yo-Yo tests performance. (shrink)