Association of Psychological Resilience with Acute Inflammatory Responses (IL-6, CRP, TNF-α) Following 8 Weeks of High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) in Professional Endurance Athletes

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Kosar University of Bojnord, Bojnord, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of psychology, Faculty of Religions and Islamic teachings, International University of Islamic Denominations, Tehran, Iran

10.22091/arsnes.2026.14378.1039

Abstract

Materials and Methods: In this randomized experimental study, 40 male professional athletes (age: 25.2 ± 3.2 years; VO₂max: 58.4 ± 5.1 mL·kg⁻¹·min⁻¹) were classified into high-resilience (n = 20) and low-resilience (n = 20) groups based on the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC). Both groups completed an 8-week HIIT program (three sessions per week), consisting of 6–8 bouts of 30-s efforts at 90–100% of maximal heart rate, interspersed with 60–120 s of active recovery. Blood samples were collected at baseline and at 24 and 48 h following the final training session, and serum levels of IL-6, CRP, and TNF-α were measured using ELISA. Heart rate variability (HRV) and sleep quality (PSQI) were also assessed. Data were analyzed using repeated-measures ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and hierarchical regression analyses.
Results: The high-resilience group exhibited significant reductions in IL-6 (P = 0.001), CRP (P = 0.002), and TNF-α (P = 0.014), whereas the low-resilience group showed increases accounting for 28% of the variance in IL-6 and 22% in CRP. Improvements in HRV indices and sleep quality were more pronounced in the high-resilience group.
Conclusion: Higher psychological resilience was independently associated with attenuated delayed inflammatory responses after HIIT and may contribute to faster recovery. Future studies are recommended to explore resilience-enhancing interventions .

Keywords

Main Subjects

Files

History

  • Receive Date: 29 June 2025
  • Revise Date: 21 August 2025
  • Accept Date: 12 September 2025
  • First Publish Date: 23 September 2025
  • Publish Date: 23 September 2025

Share

How to cite

Statistics