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Pain threshold and tolerance differences among intercollegiate athletes: Implication of past sports injuries and willingness to compete among sports Teams
Abstract
Research has shown that previous experience with pain has a desensitizing effect on pain threshold and tolerance. In Phase I, athletes underwent a cold pressor pain test. Athletes participating in contact sports rated their pain as less severe and had a greater pain tolerance time than non-contact sports athletes. An analysis of co-variance using aggressiveness as the covariate did not alter the outcomes of the pain threshold and tolerance measures. In Phase II, a significant difference existed between the amount of pain required to stop practicing and the amount of pain required to stop playing. Athletes were more willing to compete while injured and in pain, thus potentially compounding and worsening their injuries. Taken together, these results provide support for the role of physical contact on desensitizing athletes to pain, and indicate a need for additional intervention and education concerning adequate injury healing time.
... Thermal pain can be induced in two ways, by using either a cold or hot temperature. The cold pressor test requires that the participant immerse a limb in cold water until they are no longer able to withstand the pain [10]. Alternatively, cutaneous heat can be applied similarly by immersing a limb in water or using radiant/laser heat sources or contact probes [7]. ...
... Threshold Combat sport [23][24][25][26] Non-athletes [23][24][25][26] Higher pain threshold in contact sport athletes Tolerance Team sport [9,21,22] Combat sport [21,22,25,26] Non-athletes [9,21,22,25,26] Non-contact athletes [9,21,22] Higher pain tolerance in contact sport athletes Intensity Team sport [9] Combat sport [24] Non-athletes [24] Non-contact athletes [9] Contact sport athletes perceive the stimulus as less painful Decrease in intensity ratings after contact sport training Cold pressor test Threshold Team sport [10] Combat sport [25][26][27] Non-athletes [25][26][27] Non-contact athletes [10] Similar pain threshold to controls Tolerance Team sport [10,28] Combat sport [25][26][27][28] Non-athletes [25][26][27][28] Non-contact athletes [10,28] Higher pain tolerance than the control group Intensity Team sport [29] Combat sport [29] Non-athletes [29] Non-contact athletes [29] Contact sport athletes reported lower pain intensity ratings than controls Ischaemic pain Tolerance Team sport [21,28] Combat sport [21,28] Non-athletes [21,28] Non-contact athletes [21,28] Higher pain tolerance than the control group with a wider gap between groups after experience gain [28] Higher pain tolerance in contact sport group than non-contact sports group. Higher tolerance in non-contact sports group than non-athletes [21] Thermal pain (heat) Threshold Team sport [21] Combat sport [21] Non-athletes [21] Non-contact athletes [21] No significant difference in heat pain threshold between contact sport athletes, non-contact sport athletes and non-athletes randomly on a grid in the correct order using pen and paper. ...
... Threshold Combat sport [23][24][25][26] Non-athletes [23][24][25][26] Higher pain threshold in contact sport athletes Tolerance Team sport [9,21,22] Combat sport [21,22,25,26] Non-athletes [9,21,22,25,26] Non-contact athletes [9,21,22] Higher pain tolerance in contact sport athletes Intensity Team sport [9] Combat sport [24] Non-athletes [24] Non-contact athletes [9] Contact sport athletes perceive the stimulus as less painful Decrease in intensity ratings after contact sport training Cold pressor test Threshold Team sport [10] Combat sport [25][26][27] Non-athletes [25][26][27] Non-contact athletes [10] Similar pain threshold to controls Tolerance Team sport [10,28] Combat sport [25][26][27][28] Non-athletes [25][26][27][28] Non-contact athletes [10,28] Higher pain tolerance than the control group Intensity Team sport [29] Combat sport [29] Non-athletes [29] Non-contact athletes [29] Contact sport athletes reported lower pain intensity ratings than controls Ischaemic pain Tolerance Team sport [21,28] Combat sport [21,28] Non-athletes [21,28] Non-contact athletes [21,28] Higher pain tolerance than the control group with a wider gap between groups after experience gain [28] Higher pain tolerance in contact sport group than non-contact sports group. Higher tolerance in non-contact sports group than non-athletes [21] Thermal pain (heat) Threshold Team sport [21] Combat sport [21] Non-athletes [21] Non-contact athletes [21] No significant difference in heat pain threshold between contact sport athletes, non-contact sport athletes and non-athletes randomly on a grid in the correct order using pen and paper. ...
Contact sports athletes are regularly facing acute physical pain in part of their sport; however, the literature investigating pain perception in these athletes remains scarce. This scoping review aimed to explore the literature surrounding pain perception in contact sport athletes and to compile and understand how it is studied. The search strategy consisted of using index terms and keywords in the MEDLINE, EMBASE, SPORTDiscus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global search engines. Results from 11 studies revealed that a mix of team contact sports and combat sports are studied and are included under the umbrella of contact sports. These athletes are being compared with non-athletes as well as athletes from non-contact sports. The cold pressor test and the pain pressure test are the two predominant methods used to investigate physical pain. This review highlights the need to clearly define sports based on contact levels expected in play to better define the types of pain athletes are facing in their practice. Athletes’ level of play as well as years of experience should also be more rigorously reported. While contact sport athletes seem to have a higher level of pain tolerance than both active controls and non-contact athletes, the methods of pain testing are not always justified and appropriate in relation to the pain induced during contact sports. Future experimental studies should use pain testing methods relevant to the pain experienced during contact sports and to better justify the rationale for the choice of these methods.
... non-athletes (Sullivan et al., 2000;Tesarz et al., 2012). Differences in the tolerance of perceived pain according to the type of sports activity have been shown by the study of Raudenbush et al. (2012) who studied the perception of pain in contact and non-contact sports. The athletes engaged in contact sports showed a higher pain tolerance and perceive lower pain intensity than athletes in non-contact sports. ...
... Encarnacion et al. (2000) found subtle differences in men and women ballet dancers. Although there are studies suggesting gender differences in perceived pain (Bourgeois et al., 2009;Paller et al., 2009;Paulson et al., 1998;Wiesenfeld-Hallin, 2005;Wooten et al., 2002), as well as studies pointing to differences in sports (Meyers et al., 2015;Raudenbush et al., 2012;Thornton et al., 2017), there is still a lack of more extensive research in the context of sport. ...
... The sporting age of participants could play a role in non-significant differences in these scales (Griffith et al., 2006;Thornton et al., 2017). Also, the lack of significance can be attributed to various types of sports included in the study such as combat sports, and ice hockey, which are highly contact sports, but in our study, they are divided as an individual (combat sports) and team (ice hockey) sports (Raudenbush et al., 2012;Thornton et al., 2019), or the gender of participants (Wahl et al., 2019). ...
Abstract
Background: Injury is one of the risks of performing regular sports activities, which causes mild to severe physical discomfort and emotional distress for athletes. Objective: As there is not much research on the psychological aspects of pain perception of athletes,
the main purpose of this study was to investigate differences in pain coping styles according to gender and type of sport.
Methods:
The sample consisted of 147 athletes (101 men, 46 women) who reported a previous sports-related injury, with an average age of 20.82 ± 1.61 years, involved in individual (n = 59) and team (n = 88) sports. The pain perception was evaluated by Sports Inventory
for Pain (SIP15) comprised of three subscales: coping by direct action, catastrophizing, and somatic awareness.
Results: We found that men perceive pain in sport more intensely and sensitively than women (p = .01, r = .21). Nevertheless, men consider pain to be more bearable and give up less than women (p = .05, r = .16). In individual and team sports, we did not find significant differences in response to painful stimuli, but in terms of giving up due to the perceived pain, the athletes of individual sports scored higher values than athletes of team sports (p = .04, r = .17). In coping by direct action, we also did not find significant differences between gender or types of sports.
Conclusions: The results of our research suggest that pain perception is one of the factors influencing giving up in the sport. Therefore, we recommend that this aspect be considered in psychological preparation and that the efforts of sports
psychologists should focus on eliminating escape reactions, especially for women, which would contribute to higher mental resilience and effective management of painful obstacles. We also recommend implementing psychological preparation aimed at overcoming pain more in individual sports, because it seems that individual athletes can handle pain much more difficultly than collective athletes.
Keywords: pain coping styles, somatic, emotions, distress, regular sports activities, sports psychology
... Therefore, the "realization" of pain experienced by an athlete points to the ultimate strain being exerted on the body, especially on those structures that are consistently subjected to maximum damage-causing forces and stress. 27 On the other hand, the number of injuries significantly determines pain tolerance 30 and seems to vary depending on the sports discipline practiced. 33 Recent years have witnessed a considerable increase in the number of research articles on physiological and psychological aspects of pain. ...
... The in-depth statistical analysis conducted by these researchers demonstrated that the severity of pain caused by a past injury correlated positively with greater willingness to continue playing despite the pain experienced. 30 In men, participants who had experienced an injury did not differ significantly from men without injuries in terms of PPT and PTOL values. This suggests that injuries are not a significant predictor of pain sensitivity. ...
... This might be related to the extent and severity of strain and injuries, which in the case of amateur sports activity are not "sufficient" to cause a change in pain perception like that observed in athletes. 20,30 In women, the pain variability may be related to the effect of sex hormones. Experimental sensitivity to pain changes in the course of the menstrual cycle, being higher in the luteal phase as compared with the follicular phase. ...
Background
Pain is a characteristic, unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with actual or potential tissue damage. Pain is a subjective sensation, modulated by many factors such as age, sex, emotional state, national origin, or physical activity. Moreover, it is closely associated with intense physical activity, injuries, and traumas, which can significantly modulate pain tolerance.
Hypothesis
We postulate that there are correlations between past injuries, physical activity, and intensity of pain perception (pain threshold and pain tolerance) in a population of healthy men and women.
Study Design
Retrospective cohort study.
Level of Evidence
Level 4.
Methods
A total of 302 participants aged 18 to 32 years were included. The participants were divided into 2 groups (active and inactive individuals), in accordance with the scope of physical activity they had indicated. The test of pressure pain threshold and pressure pain tolerance was performed using an algometer.
Results
Active women achieved significantly higher pain threshold and pain tolerance values in all measurements on the upper limb (except for the pain threshold on the left hand) compared with inactive women. In mediation analysis, the effect of injury remained significant only for the pressure pain tolerance in the dominant arm and the left hand in the female group. In the case of men, there were no significant differences in all measurements in view of the threshold and tolerance for pain between the groups of active and inactive and between men with injuries and without injuries.
Conclusion
Intense, regular physical activity is a factor modulating the perception of pain. This was demonstrated as lowered sensitivity to pain stimuli in a population of healthy women.
Clinical Relevance
Injuries should be treated as an important factor modulating the perception of pain. We recommend detailed monitoring of injuries during treatment and control of pain sensation.
... Community sample for research purposes: Football school players from Iraq's Kurdistan area were included in the research community. The sample for the research will consist of (251) players from football academies (Koya, Zakho, Erbil, Soleimania, Soran, and Taqtaq), with the sample purposely chosen for the 2020-2021 academic year with the players' ages ranging from (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) years. That is seen in Table 1. ...
... Athletes were more willing to compete while injured, potentially aggravating their injuries. Findings show the function of physical contact in desensitizing athletes to pain and highlight the need for extra injury recovery time education and management [15]. ...
Purpose: to build measure sports tolerance for football players in sports academies. The current research aimed to promote a technique for measuring the characteristic of tolerance in athletes utilizing the triple grade ladder model.
Material and Methods: The researcher employed a descriptive system to describe the phenomena through gathering, categorizing, processing, and analyzing facts and data to draw conclusions and reach conclusions. Community sample for research purposes: Football school players from Iraq’s Kurdistan area were included in the research community. The sample for the research will consist of (251) players from football academies (Koya, Zakho, Erbil, Soleimania, Soran, and Taqtaq), with the sample purposely chosen for the 2020-2021 academic year with the player’s ages ranging from (12-16) years.
Results: The final scale of (27) paragraphs may be according to a triple estimate (3-2-1) ranging from the upper total score (81), and the lowest score (27) and the degree of neutrality (54) and all paragraphs were in a positive direction. The scale is characterized by an unmet generality and high stability that can be relied upon to measure and recognize the level of tolerance among players in the region.
Conclusion: According to the study’s summary, the researchers discovered that the scale has an unmet universality and high stability, making it acceptable for measuring and evaluating the level of tolerance among youth football players.
... Community sample for research purposes: Football school players from Iraq's Kurdistan area were included in the research community. The sample for the research will consist of (251) players from football academies (Koya, Zakho, Erbil, Soleimania, Soran, and Taqtaq), with the sample purposely chosen for the 2020-2021 academic year with the players' ages ranging from (12)(13)(14)(15)(16) years. That is seen in Table 1. ...
... Athletes were more willing to compete while injured, potentially aggravating their injuries. Findings show the function of physical contact in desensitizing athletes to pain and highlight the need for extra injury recovery time education and management [15]. ...
... Support for this notion arises from research demonstrating that children engaged in contact sports exhibit decreased sensitivity later in life to painful stimuli, i.e., injections. 21 Additionally, despite experiencing repetitive and forceful whiplash injuries, demolition derby drivers often report minimal to no lasting pain. 22 Furthermore, recent findings linking pain to psychosocial factors such as stress and anxiety reveal that children involved in individual sports face a significantly higher risk of mental health issues compared to those participating in team sports or none at all. ...
In musculoskeletal and sports medicine, pain has traditionally been linked to tissue injury, often assuming a linear correlation between tissue damage and pain intensity. However, modern pain science has illuminated the complexity of the human pain experience, incorporating psychosocial elements, nervous system sensitization, immune responses, and structural changes in the brain as factors. This contemporary understanding of pain has proven highly beneficial for both clinicians treating individuals in pain and those experiencing pain.
Pain neuroscience education (PNE) provides individuals in pain with an understanding of the underlying neurobiology and neurophysiology of their pain experience, which has been shown to result in decreased self-reported pain, reduced disability, the alleviation of fear and fear-avoidance behaviors, diminished pain catastrophizing, and improved movement. Currently, research on PNE predominantly focuses on interventions with individuals with persistent or chronic pain conditions. However, those who experience acute, sub-acute, and perioperative pain also have the potential for elevated levels of fear, fear-avoidance, and pain catastrophizing, indicating potential benefits from PNE.
This invited commentary seeks to inform readers about the latest advancements in pain science and propose a conceptual model for delivering PNE in acute pain experiences.
Level of Evidence
5
... There was also selective reporting of outcomes 11,12 and some studies did not report sufficient data to be included in the metaanalysis. 54,55 Future studies should aim to address these methodological concerns and move towards measuring the impact of pain on performance in sport. Research into the interaction between exposure to e-sports and pain processing could also be considered. ...
... Raudenbush et al. encontraram no seu estudo uma alta resistência à dor desenvolvida pelos atletas de contato. 20 No entanto, não foi uma modalidade semelhante à estudada neste trabalho, sendo esta uma possível limitação na literatura referente à resistência a dor nesta população específica de artes marciais. ...
INTRODUÇÃO: Atletas de contato estão sujeitos a lesões musculoesqueléticas devido às técnicas repetitivas aplicadas durante treinos e campeonatos. Isso pode levá-los a apresentar dores agudas e crônicas, e, a depender da técnica aplicada, diferentes regiões do corpo podem ser acometidas. Estudos nesta área focam na descrição da lesão ou trauma, no entanto, a presença de cinesiofobia nesta população é uma lacuna a ser investigada. OBJETIVO: Descrever o perfil de dor e cinesiofobia em atletas de Judô da categoria master. MÉTODO: Estudo observacional, descritivo, de corte transversal, realizado com 29 atletas de judô master inscritos na Federação Baiana. Para descrição da dor, foram utilizados o Inventário Breve de Dor (IBD) e Doleur Neuropathique Questionnaire (DN4) e a Escala de Cinesiofobia de Tampa (ECT). Os dados foram tabulados e analisados descritivamente através do software Excel for Windows® utilizando valor absoluto ou média (desvio padrão). RESULTADOS: Os dados do IBD mostraram que a média geral de dor foi de 5,1 ± 1,8, o tratamento optado foi majoritariamente o farmacológico e a região mais acometida foi a face anterior do joelho. Dos 29 participantes, 9 (31%) apresentavam o escore ≥3, indicando presença de dor neuropática e cinesiofobia leve com média geral de 33,8 ± 6,7 no escore da ECT. CONSIDERAÇÕES FINAIS: Os atletas apresentaram dor moderada com pouco impacto na vida pessoal e as regiões com maior incidência foram os joelhos. Cinesiofobia leve esteve presente em mais da metade dos participantes e um terço apresentou dor neuropática.
... Heat pain was used 279 once in the earliest published article [23Methods of experimental pain induction. Numbering represents each study as follows: [1] Focht et 283 al., 2000; [2] Hawrylak et al., 2019; [3] Leźnicka et al., 2016; [4] Leźnicka et al., 2017a; [5] Leźnicka et al., 2017b; 284 [6]Raudenbush et al., 2012; [7] ...
Contact sports athletes are regularly facing acute physical pain in part of their practice. However, the literature investigating pain perception in these athletes remains scarce. This scoping review aimed to explore the literature surrounding pain perception in contact sport athletes and to compile and understand how it is studied. The search strategy consisted of using index terms and keywords in Medline, EMBASE, Sport-Discus, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL and ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global search engines. Results revealed that a mix of team contact sports and combat sports are studied and included under the umbrella of contact sports. These athletes are being compared to non-athletes as well as athletes from non-contact sports. The cold pressor test and the pain pressure test are the two predominant methods used to investigate physical pain. This review highlights the need to clearly define sports based on contact levels expected in play to better define the types of pain athletes are facing in their practice. Athlete’s level of play as well as years of experience should also be more rigorously reported. While contact sport athletes seem to have a higher level of pain tolerance than both active controls and non-contact athletes, the methods of pain testing are not always justified and appropriate in relation to the pain induced during contact sports. Future experimental studies should use pain testing methods relevant to the pain experienced during contact sports and better justify the rationale for the choice of these methods.
... Pain thresholds were higher in both athlete groups compared to non-athletes, and several previous studies (Guieu et al., 1992;Granges and Littlejohn, 1993;Raudenbush et al., 2012;Flood et al., 2017) have shown similar findings. However, there were no difference between soccer players and endurance athletes on this measure. ...
Background
Previous studies shows that elite and high-level athletes possess consistently higher pain tolerance to ischemic and cold pain stimulation compared to recreationally active. However, the data previously obtained within this field is sparse and with low consistency.
Purpose
The aim of the present study was to examine the difference in pain perception between elite and high-level endurance athletes (cross country skiers and runners), elite soccer players and non-athletes, as well to explore the impact of psychological factors on pain processing.
Methods
Seventy one healthy volunteers (33 females and 38 males) participated in the study. Soccer players (n = 17), cross country skiers (n = 12), and long-distance runners (n = 3) formed the athlete group, with 39 non-athletes as controls. Big-five personality traits, fear of pain and Grit (perseverance and passion for long-term goals) were measured prior to induction of experimental pain. Pain threshold and intensity was induced by a PC-controlled heat thermode and measured by a computerized visual analog scale. Pain tolerance was measured by the cold pressor test (CPT).
Results
Elite and high-level athletes had increased pain tolerance, higher heat pain thresholds, and reported lower pain intensity to thermal stimulation. Endurance athletes (cross country skiers and long-distance runners) had better tolerance for cold pain compared to both soccer-players and non-athletes. Furthermore, endurance athletes reported lower pain intensity compared to non-athletes, whereas both endurance athletes and soccer players had higher heat pain thresholds compared to non-athletes. Fear of Pain was the only psychological trait that had an impact on all pain measures.
Conclusion
The present findings suggest that sports with long durations of physically intense activity, leveling aerobic capacity, are associated with increased ability to tolerate pain and that the amount of training hours has an impact on this tolerance. However, the small sample size implies that the results from this study should be interpreted with caution.
... A well-known cause of pain at this stage of life is too intense or improperly conducted training, which puts excessive stress on the osteoarticular and muscular systems [25]. The influence of pain resulting from injuries and sports competition in adolescence on the experience of pain in later life remains to be investigated [26,27]. ...
... There is some evidence that contact sports athletes have higher pain tolerance than other athletes but no studies have explored the reasons for their superior pain tolerance. 41,42 In this regard, it is interesting to note that the brief experimental pain task performed by participants in this study appears to bear little relation to the prolonged pain that ultra-runners endure during races. This suggests that the adaptations in pain perception that occur in athletes are not necessarily related to the type of pain that they experience in their sport. ...
Athletes seem to have higher pain tolerance than the normally active population. It is unknown whether psychological factors contribute to their supranormal pain tolerance. The aim of this pilot study was to examine pain-related psychological processes in ultramarathon runners ('ultrarunners') and to explore whether psychological factors mediate the elevated pain tolerance displayed by ultrarunners. Forty participants took part in the study: 20 ultrarunners and 20 age- and gender-matched controls. Participants underwent the cold pressor test using water cooled to 0.1 to 0.5°C and completed the Pain Catastrophizing Scale, Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20, Pain Vigilance and Awareness Questionnaire, and Pain Resilience Scale. Immersion time on the cold pressor test was significantly longer for the ultrarunners (P = .007) and they also had lower scores on all Pain Anxiety Symptoms Scale-20 subscales (P ≤ .030). The 2 groups did not differ significantly on the other questionnaires. Mediation analysis revealed that reduced pain-related escape and avoidance behaviors accounted for 40% of the difference in immersion time between the groups (P = .020). Our results suggest that ultrarunners have lower levels of pain-related anxiety than the general population and that their supranormal pain tolerance is partially mediated by reduced pain-related escape and avoidance behaviors.
Perspective:
This study investigated whether psychological factors contribute to the supranormal pain tolerance displayed by ultrarunners. It found that ultrarunners have lower levels of pain-related anxiety than nonrunning controls and that reduced pain-related escape and avoidance behaviors partially mediate their elevated pain tolerance.
... Measuring pain sensitivity with a manual algometer at rest has demonstrated that pain threshold and pain tolerance results were significantly higher in athletes compared to non-athletes. These observations have been confirmed by other studies [2,11,12]. According to Azevedo and Samulski [13], athletes who developed effective strategies of coping with stress tolerate much higher levels of pain in comparison with non-athletes. ...
... Pain tests performed among competitive swimmers and non-competitive athletes showed that while pain thresholds differed little between the groups, pain tolerance levels were considerably different [5]. These observations were confirmed by Raudenbush et al. [6], who additionally found that physical contact of athletes is a factor that may desensitise them to pain. ...
Background and Study Aim: In sport, pain plays a pivotal but dual role which is still not fully understood and requires closer cooperation between specialists in the fields of sports medicine, sports science and psychology. The aim of this study was the knowledge about the possible association between rs6746030 (G/A substitution) genotype variants and pain tolerance in boxers.
Material and Methods: Ninety-nine boxers completed the cold pressor test (CPT), a standard laboratory technique used to measure pain tolerance and the pain threshold. Heart rate and blood pressure were measured at three time points during the CPT. Three hundred and thirty-two non-athletic subjects served as a control group.
Results: Chi-square test analysis showed no significant differences in genotype or allele frequencies between cases and control subjects (p = 0.963 for both genotypes and alleles). Contrary to the results of other studies, the SCN9A rs6746030 genotype did not affect phenotypic variables of pain.
Conclusions: Pain seems to be a complex trait. It is likely that several gene loci, each with a small but significant contribution, are responsible for this genetic component. Further large, well-designed studies are necessary to determine its genetic background.
... Second, a specific mode of physical exercise was studied, that is running a marathon, and the results may not be generalizable to pain induced by other modes of physical exercise. Third, the results of the study may not be generalizable to populations other than marathon runners, as previous studies have revealed that athletes in general and marathon runners in particular may significantly differ from the populations of pain sufferers whose memories of pain have been studied so far (Janal et al., 1994;Raudenbush et al., 2012;Tesarz et al., 2012;Freund et al., 2013). Fourth, acute pain induced by physical exercise was studied and the results may not be generalizable to clinical (either acute or chronic) or experimental pain. ...
Background:
A previous study has shown that memory of pain induced by running a marathon might be underestimated. However, little is known about the factors that might influence such a memory distortion during pain recall. The aim of the study was to investigate the memory of pain induced by running a marathon and the factors that might influence it: (1) present pain during recall and (2) recall delay.
Methods:
A total of 127 marathon runners participated in the study, which comprised of two phases. After completion of the marathon, participants were asked to rate the intensity and the unpleasantness of their pain. Either a week or a month later, they were asked again to rate the intensity and the unpleasantness of the remembered and present pain experience.
Results:
Participants underestimated remembered pain intensity and pain unpleasantness only if they did not experience pain during recall (p < 0.05). We observed a trend for underestimation after a week (p = 0.09) and significant effect after a month (p < 0.05) of recall delay. Furthermore, present pain intensity during recall significantly mediated the memory of pain intensity induced by running the marathon, but only after a month. Similarly, present pain unpleasantness during recall significantly mediated the memory of pain unpleasantness, but only after a month.
Conclusions:
It is concluded that memory of pain induced by running the marathon is underestimated after a month of recall delay and mediated by present pain during recall.
Significance:
This study explores factors acting during recall, influencing memory of naturally occurring pain induced by physical effort. The empirical findings provide the first robust evidence for a causal relationship between memory of pain and present pain during recall.
... Study results indicate that combat athletes have a higher sensory arousal threshold than non-contact ones [3]. This might explain the higher incidence of violent and sometimes even aggressive behaviours in this group [4,5]. ...
The aim of this study was to characterise the temperament of combat athletes in comparison to that of individuals who do not practise any sports with regard to pain sensitivity measured with the cold pressor test (CPT) and pressure pain threshold (PPT). The study involved 284 healthy men, aged 18 to 43years. The first group consisted of 198 combat athletes, including boxing (n=19), mixed martial arts (MMA) (n=97) and karate (n=82), aged from 18 to 43years. The control group consisted of 86 subjects between the ages of 18 and 26years, academic students not practising any sport professionally. Pain threshold and pain tolerance were evaluated using the CPT and a pressure algometer. Temperament was measured with the Formal Characteristics of Behaviour - Temperament Inventory (FCB-TI). The contact athletes showed much higher tolerance to pain than the control group using both tools: CPT (p=0.007) and PPT (p<0.001). In athletes, but not in controls, relationships were noted between BMI and endurance (r=0.20; p=0.004), BMI and activity (r=-0.283; p<0.001), BMI and pain threshold (r=0.15; p<0.05), and BMI and pain tolerance (r=0.30; p<0.001), when measured by the algometer - this necessitating adjustment for further analysis. The athletes and students in the study groups differed significantly with regard to intensity of four temperamental traits, but after BMI adjustments only group differences in Preservation, Sensory sensitivity and Emotional reactivity remained significant'. These differences indicate individual differences in perception and reaction to external stimuli. Significantly higher pain tolerance (CPT and PPT) in the athletes studied was related to specific psychological features. The obtained results of temperamental characteristics may indicate higher resilience of the nervous system in combat athletes in comparison to non-athletes.
... Such stimuli do not cause anxiety and are tolerated by the player, and the blows or hits become extra motivation to continue the fight and win. This has been confirmed by some authors (Raudenbush et al., 2012;Ryan & Kovacic, 1966), indicating that contact sport athletes have a much higher tolerance to pain compared with athletes not involved in contact sports. ...
The aim of this study was to determine whether the contact sports change the perception of pain as assessed by the cold pressor test (CPT), and if the test induces the same reaction of the cardiovascular system in contact athletes and non-athletes. The study involved 321 healthy men; 140 contact athletes and 181 students of the University of Szczecin (control). Pain threshold and pain tolerance were evaluated using CPT. Cardiovascular measurements were made during CPT. The contact athletes showed a much higher tolerance to pain than the control group (median time 120 vs. 94 s, respectively, p = 0.0002). The thresholds of pain in both groups did not differ significantly between the groups. Systolic blood pressure measured before and during the test in all three measurements was statistically significantly higher in athletes compared with the control group. Heart rate and diastolic blood pressure did not differ significantly between the studied groups.
... A meta-analysis of 15 studies found that athletes have a higher pain tolerance than non-athletes [3]. Athletes who participate in high contact sports have higher pain tolerance and report less pain intensity than athletes who play non-contact or low contact sports [4][5][6]; Athletes who engage in endurance sports also exhibit higher pain tolerance than others [7], and highly trained swimmers have higher pain tolerance than recreational athletes [8]. ...
Background/aims:
Athletes who choose to engage in contact sports do so with the knowledge that participation will bring pain in the form of contact with others, injury, and from exertion. Whilst athletes who play contact sports have been shown to have higher pain tolerance than those who do not, it is unclear whether this is a result of habituation over time, or as a result of individual differences at the outset. The aim was to compare pain responses over an athletic season in athletes who participated in contact sport and those who disengaged from it.
Methods:
One hundred and two new contact athletes completed measures of cold and ischaemic pain tolerance, perceived pain intensity, pain bothersomeness, pain coping styles and attendance at the start, middle (4 months) and end (8 months) of their season. The athletes were drawn from martial arts, rugby and American football. Cluster analysis placed 47 athletes into a participating category and 55 into a non-participating cluster.
Results:
Participating athletes had higher ischaemic pain tolerance at the start (r=0.27, p=0.05), middle (r=0.41, p<0.0001) and end of the season (r=0.57, p<0.0001) compared to non-participating athletes. In addition participating athletes were more tolerant to cold pain at the end of the season (r=0.39, p<0.0001), compared to non-participating athletes. Participating athletes also exhibited higher direct coping, catastrophized less about injury pain and also found contact pain to be less bothersome physically and psychologically compared to non-participating athletes. Participating athletes were more tolerant of ischaemic pain at the end of the season compared to the start (r=0.28, p=0.04). Conversely non-participating athletes became significantly less tolerant to both pain stimuli by the end of the season (cold pressor; r=0.54, p<0.0001; ischaemia; r=0.43, p=0.006). Pain intensity as measured by a visual analogue scale did not change over the season for both groups.
Conclusions:
Those who cease participation in contact sports become less pain tolerant of experimental pain, possibly a result of catastrophizing. The results suggest that athletes who commit to contact sports find pain less bothersome over time, possibly as a result of experience and learning to cope with pain. Athletes who continue to participate in contact sports have a higher pain tolerance, report less bothersomeness and have higher direct coping than those who drop out. In addition, tolerance to ischaemic pain increased over the season for participating athletes.
Implications:
Having a low pain tolerance should not prevent athletes from taking part in contact sports, as pain becomes less bothersome in athletes who adhere to such activities. Participating in contact sports may result in maintained cold pain tolerance, increased ischaemic pain tolerance, reduced catastrophizing and better coping skills. Coaches can therefore work with athletes to develop pain coping strategies to aid adherence to contact sports.
... Most of the athletes in the older group participated in noncontact sports (e.g., archery, volleyball, track and field) whereas a large number of the athletes under the age of 29 participated in contact sports (e.g., hockey, basketball, combat sport, or soccer). Preceding research has demonstrated that athletes participating in contact sports exhibited higher pain tolerance compared to athletes in noncontact sports [34][35][36][37]. Thus, it is possible that group differences between athletes and non-athletes in the younger group are partly caused by the rather high proportion of contact sports athletes in the athletes' group. ...
Introduction
Low back pain (LBP) is a major health issue in athletes and non-athletes often accompanied by considerable restrictions in everyday functioning. Knowledge about differences between those groups regarding LBP parameters (intensity, duration, and disability) and their influence on
daily life is still lacking. Hence, the present study aimed at the comparison of those LBP parameters between athletes and non-athletes and the impact of these factors on sports activity.
Methods
LBP patients receiving prescribed sport- or physiotherapeutic treatment (N = 264) completed a questionnaire battery to determine their LBP pain intensity, duration, chronification, disability, and changes in sports activity. The categorization into athletes and non-athletes was based on performance level. Uni- and multivariate analyses of (Co-) variance and nonparametric group comparisons were executed to analyze group differences.
Results
Disability was lower in the athlete’s group, especially concerning work ability (p < 0.05). Athletes rather continued with their sports activity despite LBP (p < 0.001). The interaction between age and difference in training volume showed that non-athletes (<29 years) reported a greater reduction of training volume from a pain free to a LBP phase compared to athletes in the respective age group.
Conclusions
The results imply that athletes with LBP perceive less impairment than non-athletes concerning disability and changes in training volume. Possible explanations can be inferred from different socialization processes and pain coping mechanisms among athletes. The outcomes contribute to the existing literature by adding specific knowledge about dissimilarities between athletes and non-athletes regarding the appraisal of LBP.
... This is particularly true for regular runners whose pain threshold was found to be significantly higher than that of normally active controls (Janal, Glusman, Kuhl, & Clark, 1994). As previous experience with pain has a desensitising effect on pain tolerance, the athletes are more willing to compete while injured and in pain (Raudenbush et al., 2012). This may be the result of the coping strategies related to pain, e.g., it was found that ignoring pain significantly attenuated the negative effect of pain intensity on athletes' inclination to play through pain (Deroche, Woodman, Stephan, Brewer, & Le Scanff, 2011). ...
The aim of this study was to assess the memory of pain induced by running a marathon and the factors that influence it. Sixty-two marathon runners participated in the study, which comprised two phases. Immediately after a participant had reached the finishing line of the marathon, they were asked to rate the intensity and the unpleasantness of their pain and the emotions they felt at that time. Either three or six months later they were asked again to rate the intensity and the unpleasantness of the same pain experience. Regardless of the length of recall delay, participants underestimated both recalled pain intensity and unpleasantness. The pain and negative affect reported at the time of the pain experience accounted for 24% of the total variance in predicting recalled pain intensity and 22% of the total variance in predicting recalled pain unpleasantness. Positive affect at the time of pain experience was not a significant predictor of both the recalled pain intensity and pain unpleasantness. It is concluded that pain induced by physical exercise is not remembered accurately and the pain and negative affect experienced influence recall. Further research is needed on the influence of positive affect on the memory of pain.
We assume that athletic success is associated with certain beliefs that on the one hand promote performance-enhancing behavior (training volume), but on the other hand can also be detrimental to health (sports addiction). These beliefs are succinctly characterized by the title of the 9-item “Mind-over-Body” scale presented here. They are the three beliefs that 1) athletic performance requires a high level of effort, 2) that willpower plays an important role in athletic success, and 3) that athletic success requires pain tolerance. A total of six web-survey-based studies with a total of 1121 participants (approximately gender parity), including individuals with different levels of athletic performance (no competition; amateur sport; regional, national, or international competition), examined the psychometric network and construct and criterion validity of the MoB scale. Exploratory graph analyses, which included the studies with the largest sample sizes, showed that the three belief components (effort, willpower, pain) form separable communities within the MoB network and that the MoB items form communities distinct from self-control and self-efficacy. Meta-analyzed correlations across all six studies showed low positive correlations with self-control and self-efficacy. In terms of criterion validity, MoB beliefs were positively correlated with training volume and exercise addiction. We discuss MoBs as “on the edge of unhealthy” and place MOBs within a framework of related but distinct concepts.
During pain, motor performance tends to decline. However, athletes who engage in contact sports are able to maintain performance despite the inherent pain that accompanies participation. This may be the result of being challenged rather than threatened by pain; adaptive coping strategies; habituation to pain; or finding pain less bothersome. This study aimed to measure performance of a novel motor task both in pain and not in pain within experienced contact athletes (n = 40), novice contact athletes (n = 40) and non-contact athletes (n = 40). Challenge and threat perceptions were manipulated during the pain condition and measures of pain tolerance, perception, coping styles and bothersomeness were taken. Results indicated that contact athletes, regardless of experience, were able to maintain their performance during painful stimulation. Non-contact athletes, conversely, performed significantly worse during pain stimulation. In addition, contact athletes tended to be more challenged and the non-contact athletes more threatened within the pain condition. Experienced contact athletes demonstrated higher levels of pain tolerance and direct coping, and reported lower levels of pain bothersomeness and intensity than the other groups. The results suggest that even relatively brief exposure to contact sports may be enough to help maintain performance in pain. Being in a challenged state appears to be an important factor during performance in pain. Moreover, pain tolerance, intensity and bothersomeness may differentiate novice and experienced athletes.
Perspective
Exposure to voluntary pain and challenge states are associated with adaptive responses to pain. Motor task performance may be maintained in individuals with more experience of sports-related pain.
Background
Athletes who play contact sports are regularly exposed to pain, yet manage to perform complex tasks without significant decrement. Limited research has suggested that superior pain tolerance in contact athletes may be important in this context and this may be altered via experience of pain. Other psychological variables such as challenge states, pain bothersomeness and coping style may also influence skill execution during pain.
Methods
Forty experienced contact athletes (>3years experience), 40 novice contact athletes (<6months experience) and 40 non‐contact athletes performed a motor task both in pain and without pain. During the pain condition, pressure pain was induced and half of each group were given challenge instructions and the other half threat based instructions. Measures of cognitive appraisal, heart rate variability, pain bothersomeness, tolerance and intensity, and coping styles were taken.
Results
Contact athletes, regardless of experience, performed better during pain compared to the non‐contact athletes, this relationship was mediated by pain tolerance and physical bothersomeness. During threat condition, experience of contact sports moderated performance. Contact athletes were challenged by the pain, regardless of the instructions given, had higher direct coping and found pain less psychologically bothersome. Experienced contact athletes had higher pain tolerance and reported pain as less intense than the other groups.
Conclusions
Athletes who play contact sports may have better coping and adjustment to experimental pain, especially during threatening conditions. Performance during experimental pain is mediated by pain tolerance and physical pain bothersomeness.
Significance
Athletes with even relatively small amounts of contact sport experience perform better during experimental pain than athletes who play non‐contact sports. Experienced contact athletes had higher levels of direct coping and were more challenged and less threatened by pain than non‐contact athletes.
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Background and objective: Rugby Is a famous contact sport around the world where the player can receive impacts accounting for musculo-skeletal trauma. Central sensitization represents an increased response of the neurons of the central nervous system originated from continuous afferent nociceptive inputs from peripheral tissues. Material and methods: Thirty rugby players (15 men, 15 women) participated in this study. They were divided into those with acute or chronic musculoskeletal pain originated from the sport practice and into a control group formed for those without pain. Pressure pain thresholds (PPT) were bilaterally assessed over the acromio-davlcular joint, median nerve, ulnar nerve, second metacarpal, tibialis anterior muscle, anterior talofibular ligament, C5/C6 joint, infraspinatus muscle and spinous process of L3. Results: Fifty-two percent (n=16) of rugby players exhibited pain. The mean duration of pain was 27.5±11.1 weeks, mean pain intensity experienced the previous week was 4.1 ±1.7, the worst pain intensity was 6 ±1.9, and the lowest pain intensity was 1.8 ±1.2). The ANOVA test did not reveal significant differences in pressure pain thresholds in any of the analyzed points between rugby player with and without pain (P>0.05) Discussion: Our results suggest that rugby players exhibited musculoskeletal pain derived from the sport but the pain does not inferred into daily life activities.The current study did not show the presence of peripheral or central sensitization mechanism in rugby players suffering musculoskeletal pain. Current results can be related to the different lesions and pain areas that the participants included in our study suffered from, and/or also to differences in pain perception in sport players in general.
This study examined 162 Division I-A intercollegiate athletes' perceptions of the legitimacy of aggression in sport. Athletes in collision, contact, and noncontact sports completed the Sport Behavior Inventory (Conroy, Silva, Newcomer, Walker & Johnson, in press). Overall, the athletes did not consider aggression legitimate. A 3 (sport type) × 2 (gender) ANOVA (alpha = .05) with post hoc comparisons showed that athletes in contact and noncontact sports scored lower than those in collision sports. Females scored lower than males. A significant interaction revealed a greater gender difference in noncontact sports than in collision or contact. In noncontact sports, gender role expectations could be the dominant influence for males, while role expectations and in-sport behavioral norms influence females. In collision and contact sports, in-sport norms could reinforce role expectations for males but encourage females to demonstrate behaviors inconsistent with traditional expectations.
Using thermal, gross pressure, and muscle ischemia testing procedures to induce pain, an effort was made to determine the relationship between pain response and athletic participation by measuring the pain threshold and pain tolerance levels of three groups of Ss, i.e., contact athletes, non-contact athletes, and non-athletes. There were no significant differences between groups in pain threshold, but a highly significant difference between groups on pain tolerance, wherein the contact athlete tolerated more pain than the non-contact athlete, who in turn tolerated more pain than the non-athlete. Correlation between pain threshold and pain tolerance was .38 and that between the two measures of pain tolerance, .82.
48 female Ss were divided into an athletic and a non-athletic group for the purpose of ascertaining differences on the parameters of pain threshold, pain tolerance, distracted pain tolerance, neuromuscular skill, and distracted neuromuscular skill. Distraction failed to raise tolerance to pain, although pain adversely affected the skill performance of both groups. Athletes demonstrated a higher pain tolerance than did non-athletes.
The relationships between sport involvement variables (participation and interest) and facets of children's morality (reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies) were investigated for 106 girls and boys in grades 4 through 7. Children responded to a sport involvement questionnaire, participated in a moral interview, and completed two self-report instruments designed to assess aggression tendencies in sport-specific and daily life contexts. Analyses revealed that boys' participation and interest in high contact sports and girls' participation in medium contact sports (the highest level of contact sport experience they reported) were positively correlated with less mature moral reasoning and greater tendencies to aggress. Regression analyses demonstrated that sport interest predicted reasoning maturity and aggression tendencies better than sport participation. Results and implications are discussed from a structural developmental perspective.
The study investigated psychocognitive processes used by athletes following an injury. Based on a differential perspective, the study evaluates the effects of the type the sport (individual vs. team), of gender on representations, believes, and causal attributional processes. Qualitative and quantitative analyses of athletes discourses confirmed the traumatic nature of the injuries causing major psychological disturbances. The results suggested that the discourse varied significantly as a function of type of sport, but the representations, the attributional processes, and the coping strategies varied significantly as a function of gender. Injuries have not only negative consequences such as pain, but also positive consequences such as the discovery of new relations with the body, the psychological transformation, and under some circumstance, the progress. Injuries may be seen in a context in which the athlete strengthens own autonomy and increases the level maturity.
The major purpose of this study was to compare the sensation seeking needs of different groups of athletes and nonathletes of both sexes. Athletes from four male sport teams (lacrosse, rugby, crew and soccer) and five female sport teams (soccer, Volleyball, softball, tennis and golf) from a local university participated in the study. Male and female nonathletes also served as subjects. All subjects were administered the Sensation Seeking Scale V (SSS). A major finding in contrast to Gundersheim's (International Journal of Sport Psychology, 18, 87–99, 1987) study, was that male athletes scored higher on sensation seeking than male nonathletes. In another departure from previous findings, contact sport athletes (rugby and lacrosse) scored higher on SSS than noncontact male sport athletes (crew and soccer). In other results, female athletes had significantly higher SSS scores than female nonathletes and both groups of males (athletes and nonathletes) exhibited stronger SSS needs than their female counterparts. The discrepancy in findings, reported above, are explained by the different methods of measuring SSS and different groups of athletes involved in the studies.
Anecdotal and clinical reports suggest that athletes are stoical. However, there are few studies comparing persons who exercise regularly with those who do not. This study compared two independent samples of regular runners and normally active controls, both without recent exercise, on cold pressor, cutaneous heat, and tourniquet ischemic pain tests. Results demonstrated that the runners' threshold for noxious cold was significantly higher than that of controls. The heart rate and blood pressure responses to cold were similar in the 2 groups, suggesting that differences in cold pain report did not result from differences in autonomic reactivity to cold. Signal detection theory measures demonstrated that runners discriminated among noxious thermal stimuli significantly better than controls, but neither noxious nor innocuous thermal report criteria differed between groups. The cohorts also did not differ in their report of ischemic pain sensations. Thus, these data do not generally support the hypothesis of pain insensitivity or stoicism in habitual runners. Rather, insensitivity occurs only in their response to noxious cold, which is suggested to be an adaptation to regular training.
The ability of athletes to continue to compete despite sustaining painful injury is often interpreted as evidence for the activation of endogenous analgesia mechanisms. However, alterations in perception of noxious stimuli during competition have not yet been systematically investigated. This experiment evaluated experimental pain sensitivity in male and female athletes 2 days before, immediately following, and 2 days after competition. Non-athlete controls were evaluated at the same intervals. Competition dramatically reduced pain report on the cold-pressor test in all athletes. Withdrawal latencies to noxious heat also were altered by competition, with finger withdrawal latency decreasing and arm withdrawal latency increasing in most athletes. No changes in pain report were observed across time in non-athlete controls. Competition induces both hyperalgesic and analgesic states that are dependent on the body region tested and pain assessment methodology used.
Sociologists studying the topic of workplace injury have neglected professional athletes despite the fact that, for such employees, remaining 'active' at work is of paramount importance. This study involved semi-structured interviews with 47 current and former male professional footballers who all had careers in the English professional football leagues. The interviews focused on the players' experiences of injury and rehabilitation and their relationships with club managers, physiotherapists and doctors. The object of this empirical article concerns an examination of how professional footballers become, or perceive themselves as being, stigmatised when they are injured or in pain. For players, the social conditions of work, for example the internal competition for places, all have implications with respect to their presentation of self when they are claiming to be injured or in pain. The often conflict-ridden relations between players and managers, combined with a culture that normalises pain and injury, means that players often find themselves in health-compromising situations. Thus, examining this highly physical vocation provides an opportunity to add to the literature in which injury at work is socially produced through interpretive social interaction.