The Effect of the Weight Reduction on the Salivary Cortisol Levels of Judo Players

• Published in: Environmental Health and Preventive Medicine Vol. 6; no. 2; pp. 113 - 116
• Main Authors: Toda, Masahiro, Morimoto, Kanehisa, Fukuda, Sanae, Umeda, Takashi, Nakaji, Shigeyuki, Sugawara, Kazuo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Heidelberg THE JAPANESE SOCIETY FOR HYGIENE 01.07.2001; Springer; Komiyama Printing Co., Ltd; Springer-Verlag
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Competition; Environmental health; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Hormones; Original; Personality. Affectivity; Product development; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Stress; Asia; Japan; Competition; Human; Reduction; Judo; Body weight; Rate; Hydrocortisone; Athlete; Saliva; Stress; saliva; cortisol; judo players; weight reduction; mental stress
• ISSN: 1342-078X; 1347-4715; 1347-4715
• DOI: 10.1007/BF02897956

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of weight reduction prior to a competition on the salivary cortisol level for first-rate judo players. Subjects were divided into three groups by the weight reduction rate. On the day before the competition, the cortisol levels of the low- and high-weight reduction group showed a tendency to decrease and were significantly lower than that of the non-weight reduction group (p<0.05). However, with regard to the change in the stress indices, there was a difference between the high- and low-weight reduction groups. In the high-weight reduction group alone, there was a significant increase in the stress indices on the day before the competition (p<0.05). These findings suggest that the HPA axis is affected during the relatively early stage of weight reduction and mental stress is increased at the higher weight reduction rate.