Article
The study aimed to investigate the possibilities of using a short-term course of respiratory biofeedback (BFB) training for the development of self-regulation skills in athletes. It was attended by representatives of martial arts, 12 men and 8 women aged 19 to 28 years. The sample was randomly divided into experimental and control groups, while maintaining the original proportion of the ratio of the number of men and women in each group.
Each participant of the experimental group underwent 5 individual sessions of BFB training aimed at teaching the technique of abdominal breathing at a resonant frequency: 6 breathes per minute. Also, all subjects twice (with an interval of three weeks) underwent multimodal registration of physiological parameters (photoplethysmogram, skin conductance, respiration amplitude and frequency).
After passing a short course of respiratory BFB training, the athletes of the experimental group demonstrated changes in the autonomic regulation of the heart rhythm (LFn.u decrease relative to the initial background) in response to instructions for relaxation compared to the control group. However, the experimental group was heterogeneous in heart rate variability (HRV) indicators dynamics after BFB-training: half of athletes had demonstrated HRV and cardiorespiratory synchronization increases, but others had not. This training had a positive impact on the functional state and regulatory processes in the autonomic and cardiovascular systems only in those experimental group athletes who initially were in a more favorable psycho-emotional state and had higher HRV.
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