Description of perceived exertion, recovery and menstrual status across a single-congested tournament of European Women Futsal: the case of the winning team.

Abstract

The aim of this study was two-fold: (i) describe the perceived exertion and recovery of female futsal players across a congested tournament and (ii) compare the players’ responses according to the menstrual cycle phase. Ten Italian female professional futsal players (age: 27.7 ±4.9 years old; height: 165.3 ±4.8 cm; body mass: 60.4 ±2.3 kg) belonging to the same team were assessed during 3 matches from a 4-days European Women’ Futsal tournament. Perceived recovery (TQR) was collected before and perceived exertion (RPE) after the matches. The menstrual cycle phase (early follicular, day 10-15 and after day 15) was collected after the tournament. Players presented a significant increase in RPE from matches 1 and 2 to match 3 (F=9.30; p=<0.001); however, no significant changes in pre-match recovery were found (F=2.48; p= 0.102). Considering the menstrual cycle phase, in the last match (match 3), players on day 10-15 of the menstrual cycle (close to ovulation), presented lower values of recovery and lower match exertion compared to those players in the early follicular phase, with a medium (0.68) and large (0.87) but unclear effect. The findings highlighted that the single-congested tournament resulted in players’ perception of the high intensity of the last match, which was higher in those players in early-FP. Caution should be taken on interpretation, once the findings are representative of the winning team in this specific tournament, thus the results should not be generalized to other situations (i.e., regular competition or different congested schedules).