Heidelberg Risk Sport-Specific Stress Test: A Paradigm to Investigate the Risk Sport-Specific Psycho-Physiological Arousal

Abstract

In risk sports with medium to high risks of injury (e.g., surfing, free solo climbing, wingsuit flying), athletes frequently find themselves in unexpected and threatening situations. Elevated psycho-physiological stress responses to these situations might have tremendous consequences for their performance as well as for their long-term health. To gain a better understanding of the psycho-physiological response to such events, innovative, externally valid and standardized stress induction protocols are needed. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to introduce and evaluate a risk sport-specific stress protocol, i.e., the Heidelberg Risk Sport-Specific Stress Test (HRSST), which utilizes fear of falling as the stressful event. Climbing novices were asked to climb up a 12 m high wall. Then, participants were requested to “jump into the rope”, leading to a secured fall of about 3 m. This imposed physical danger assumed to elicit psycho-physiological responses. Self-reported state anxiety, salivary cortisol, and heart rate/heart rate variability were measured before, during, and after the HRSST. Results of four independent studies that investigated the psycho-physiological response to the HRSST in 214 participants were analyzed, leading to conclusions about the stressor’s effectiveness. Results showed that self-reported state anxiety consistently increased after the HRSST in all four experiments (moderate to large effects). The results of the physiological indicators were inconclusive. Salivary cortisol significantly increased after the HRSST in one of four experiments (small effect sizes). Although heart rate significantly increased during the “jump in the rope” in experiment 1, heart rate variability significantly decreased after the HRSST in only one of three experiments (small effect sizes). Findings suggest that the HRSST is a valid method to induce risk sport-specific emotional stress, but effects on physiological stress markers were rather minor. To sum up, in case of appropriate sports climbing facilities, the HRSST appears to be a cost-efficient and promising stress induction protocol: It offers the possibility to investigate risk sport-specific stress responses and their underlying mechanisms in climbing novices. These findings may also find application in professions in which individuals are exposed to risky situations, such as police officers, medical first responders, firefighters and military personnel.

Slow-Paced Breathing: Influence of Inhalation/Exhalation Ratio and of Respiratory Pauses on Cardiac Vagal Activity

“…For example, morning resting measurements have been used to monitor the effects of training loads, to adjust training loads, and to predict subsequent performance [33][34][35]. Additionally, CVA has been linked to executive cognitive performance in athletes [36][37][38][39][40], to their coping effectiveness with stress and pressure [37,[41][42][43][44][45][46], and to sport performance, such as shooting [47,48] and dart throwing performance [49]. Consequently, increasing CVA can be considered an appropriate aim for athletes.…”

Mindful Sensation Seeking: An Examination of the Protective Influence of Selected Personality Traits on Risk Sport-Specific Stress

“…This study is embedded in a bigger between-within-subject-design-study (Experiment 3 of Frenkel, 2018). In this study, participants were randomly assigned to an ego depletion vs. control group, while their stress parameters were assessed multiple times in the course of the investigation (see Figure 1).…”

“…They were also instructed to copy the text as fast and error-free as possible. Effects of the ego depletion are presented elsewhere (Frenkel, 2018). The analyses were conducted with both the experimental and the control group and the authors controlled for the influence of the experimental condition (see below).…”

“…In this study, the psychological and physiological responses to a sport-specific stressor were tested at six measurement points (for an overview see Figure 1). To adequately represent the situational demands in risk sports, we conducted the HRSST (Frenkel et al, in press), which has been introduced as an innovative, externally valid and standardized stress induction protocol. This protocol uses a climbing task with a subsequent “jump into the rope” that leads to a fall of about 3 m to induce stress.…”

High Risk Sports, Psychology and Virtual Reality- “Living on the Edge”

“…The resultsshowed a significant difference between High-and Low sensation seekers with regard to their cortisol response. Moreover Frenkel et al[25] developed the Heidelberg Risk-Sport specific stressor test (HRSST) to measure the influence of sensation seeking and mindfulness on stress response to a specific stressor.…”