Heart Rate Variability in Elite Swimmers before, during and after COVID-19 Lockdown: A Brief Report on Time Domain Analysis

ABSTRACT

Background: Many athletes worldwide have endured home confinement during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their opportunities to train were strongly limited. This study describes the impact of lockdown on training volume and heart rate variability (HRV) in elite swimmers. Methods: HRV data of seven elite males were collected each Monday morning over 20 weeks, including 8 weeks of lockdown. The training volume was quantified retrospectively. Results: During the lockdown period (weeks 4–11) swimming was not allowed, and the total training volume was reduced by 55.2 ± 7.5% compared to the baseline volume (from 27.2 to 12.2 training hours). This drop was associated with a decrease in vagal activity (a 9.2 ± 5.4% increase in resting HR and a 6.5 ± 3.4% decrease in the natural logarithm of rMSSD from baseline values). After the lockdown (weeks 12–20), the training volume was gradually increased before attaining 68.8% and 88.2% of the baseline training volume at weeks 15 and 17, respectively. Resting HR and Ln rMSSD returned to baseline values four weeks after the lockdown. Conclusions: The lockdown period induced a decreased training volume which was associated with a decrease in vagal activity. However, HRV values returned to the baseline 4 weeks after the resumption of swimming training.