Biofeedback and correction of cardiac rhythm variability in athletes training for endurance

Biofeedback is a technology of diagnosing physiological processes in real time, during which the patient receives information about the state of his own physiological parameters and conducts its self-regulation in the feedback mode organized with the help of microprocessor technology. In sports cardiology, biofeedback mostly stays in demand, aimed at cardiorespiratory synchronization of heart rate variability. The aim of the study – to create an original correcting method of heart rate variability with the use of biofeedback in athletes training for endurance. The study included 61 people (men aged 20-34 years without diseases of the cardiovascular system). The main group (n = 36) was made up of athletes who predominantly train for endurance. Initially for 30 minutes after training all athletes conducted a study of heart rate variability (HRV) according to a standard procedure. Next, by the method of random numbers athletes were divided into three equal groups (12 people each). Group 1 (main) received cardiothoracic sessions. Cardiorespiratory training was conducted daily. The course consisted of 5 sessions, each of which included 8-12 samples of 120 s each. Statistical processing of the obtained data using a single-factor dispersion analysis did not reveal significant differences in the parameters of the athletes of the study groups. It was found that the total heart rate variability after cardiorespiratory training sessions increased by an average of 33.5 ms (or 69.5% of the baseline, p = 0.002). When analyzing the HRV indices in athletes after watching motivational videos and in the athletes of the comparison group, statistically significant differences were not revealed. Thus, it was the original method of biological feedback that had a significant corrective effect on the indices of heart rate variability in athletes training for endurance.