TY - JOUR
T1 - Influence of Respiratory Frequency of Slow-Paced Breathing on Vagally-Mediated Heart Rate Variability
AU - You, Min
AU - Laborde, Sylvain
AU - Ackermann, Stefan
AU - Borges, Uirassu
AU - Dosseville, Fabrice
AU - Mosley, Emma
N1 - © 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.
PY - 2023/12/8
Y1 - 2023/12/8
N2 - Breathing techniques, particularly slow-paced breathing (SPB), have gained popularity among athletes due to their potential to enhance performance by increasing cardiac vagal activity (CVA), which in turn can help manage stress and regulate emotions. However, it is still unclear whether the frequency of SPB affects its effectiveness in increasing CVA. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of a brief SPB intervention (i.e., 5 min) on CVA using heart rate variability (HRV) measurement as an index. A total of 75 athletes (22 female; Mage = 22.32; age range = 19-31) participated in the study, attending one lab session where they performed six breathing exercises, including SPB at different frequencies (5 cycles per minute (cpm), 5.5 cpm, 6 cpm, 6.5 cpm, 7 cpm), and a control condition of spontaneous breathing. The study found that CVA was significantly higher in all SPB conditions compared to the control condition, as indexed by both root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) and low-frequency HRV (LF-HRVms2). Interestingly, LF-HRVms2 was more sensitive in differentiating the respiratory frequencies than RMSSD. These results suggest that SPB at a range of 5 cpm to 7 cpm can be an effective method to increase CVA and potentially improve stress management and emotion regulation in athletes. This short SPB exercise can be a simple yet useful tool for athletes to use during competitive scenarios and short breaks in competitions. Overall, these findings highlight the potential benefits of incorporating SPB into athletes' training and competition routines.
AB - Breathing techniques, particularly slow-paced breathing (SPB), have gained popularity among athletes due to their potential to enhance performance by increasing cardiac vagal activity (CVA), which in turn can help manage stress and regulate emotions. However, it is still unclear whether the frequency of SPB affects its effectiveness in increasing CVA. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the effects of a brief SPB intervention (i.e., 5 min) on CVA using heart rate variability (HRV) measurement as an index. A total of 75 athletes (22 female; Mage = 22.32; age range = 19-31) participated in the study, attending one lab session where they performed six breathing exercises, including SPB at different frequencies (5 cycles per minute (cpm), 5.5 cpm, 6 cpm, 6.5 cpm, 7 cpm), and a control condition of spontaneous breathing. The study found that CVA was significantly higher in all SPB conditions compared to the control condition, as indexed by both root mean square of the successive differences (RMSSD) and low-frequency HRV (LF-HRVms2). Interestingly, LF-HRVms2 was more sensitive in differentiating the respiratory frequencies than RMSSD. These results suggest that SPB at a range of 5 cpm to 7 cpm can be an effective method to increase CVA and potentially improve stress management and emotion regulation in athletes. This short SPB exercise can be a simple yet useful tool for athletes to use during competitive scenarios and short breaks in competitions. Overall, these findings highlight the potential benefits of incorporating SPB into athletes' training and competition routines.
KW - Cardiac coherence
KW - Deep breathing
KW - Heart rate variability
KW - RMSSD
KW - Respiration
UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/1ea3f741-0999-3ca0-b404-3f9d8ccdb9c7/
U2 - 10.1007/s10484-023-09605-2
DO - 10.1007/s10484-023-09605-2
M3 - Journal articles
C2 - 38063977
SN - 1090-0586
JO - APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK
JF - APPLIED PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY AND BIOFEEDBACK
ER -