ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STRESS IN CORTISOL RECOVERY FROM EXHAUSTIVE EXERCISE AMONG ELITE ATHLETES

Life-event stress (LES) was used to classify elite athletes (n = 39) into high- and low-LES groups. A repeated measures analysis of variance revealed higher cortisol concentration after a graded exercise test among the high-LES group relative to the low-LES group, which was maintained for up to 20 hr. Subsequent prospective analyses further indicated that high-LES athletes were more likely to be symptomatic than low-LES athletes and that elevated cortisol level was positively correlated with symptomatology. To the extent that cortisol is a marker of exercise recovery in competitive athletes, our results suggest that chronic stress prolongs the recovery process, which may potentially widen a window of susceptibility for illness and injury among competitive athletes.