Author(s): BUDDE, H., Institution: MEDICAL SCHOOL HAMBURG, Country: GERMANY, Abstract-ID: 1147

INTRODUCTION:
Physical exercise interventions can cause neuroendocrine activation, which in turn increases salivary cortisol concentrations (Budde et al., 2015). We aimed to investigate the influence of different acute exercise interventions on cortisol levels. Here, we distinguished between a coordinative exercise and an endurance exercise. To our knowledge, there have been no studies to date on whether the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis differ between an acute coordinative exercise and an acute endurance exercise of the same intensity and duration. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of these two different acute physical stressors on cortisol levels, specifically focusing on an intraindividual comparison between an acute coordinative and acute endurance exercise.
METHODS:
Sixty-one students between eighteen and thirty years of age were included in the study and completed first a coordinative exercise and seven days later an endurance exercise of the same intensity and length which was self set on the first day, with a mean heart rate of 75-80% max over a period of 15 min. To measure changes in HPA axis activity, saliva samples were collected before and 5 and 30 minutes after exercise. The exercise intensity was controlled individually on a heart rate (HR) monitor as was the Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) using the Borg Scale (Borg and Loellgen, 2001). The saliva was stored at -20C° and analyzed within the next month for cortisol.
RESULTS:
The results showed that the coordination exercise (co) produced a higher cortisol release than the endurance exercise (en). While the mean intensity was: HR 143 and the RPE was 13.9 co vs. 13.8 en.
CONCLUSION:
We argue that interventions such as a coordinative exercise require a higher cognitive component, which results in stronger cortisol release than an endurance exercise of the same intensity and length and RPE level. Neither the motor fitness level nor the physical activity level hat an impact on the cortisol secretion. Thus, the type of acute physical exercise would be a psychophysiological factor in determining the neuroendocrine stress response and may be of interest in further research to sufficiently elucidate the proximate mechanisms of the stress reactions from acute physical exercise. Until now these results could only be obtained when we observed a blunted cortisol awakening response (CAR) due to coordinative vs endurance training (Wegner et al., 2019).
References
Borg and Loellgen (2001), “Borg’s Perceived Exertion and Pain Scales,” vol. 52.
Budde et al., (2015) The cortisol response to exercise in young adults. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience. 3;9:13 doi: 0.3389/fnbeh.2015.00013
Wegner et al., (2019) Effects of different types of exercise training on the cortisol awakening response in children: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Frontiers in Endocrinology. doi: 10.3389/fendo.2019.00463