ArticleFrontiers in public health2026
Physiological determinants of heart rate responses and bout-to-bout stability during 2v2 and 4v4 small-sided games in football players.
Article in Frontiers in public health, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
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3 authors.
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Abstract
Purpose: Injury prevention in sport is increasingly recognized as a health priority, and monitoring internal load during routine training offers a pragmatic pathway to reduce overuse risk and support long-term athlete health. This study examined the extent to which three practical physiological markers (resting heart rate (HRrest), submaximal warm-up heart rate after 60-s recovery (HRR), and Yo-Yo IR1 HRmax) explain mean heart rate (HRmean) and bout-to-bout variability (CV%) during two commonly used small-sided game (SSG) formats (2v2 and 4v4) in football players. Methods: Forty male amateur players completed HRrest, HRR, and Yo-Yo IR1 testing, followed by randomized, counterbalanced 2v2 and 4v4 SSG sessions (3 × 3-min bouts). HRmean and CV% were computed for each format. Associations were assessed using Pearson correlations and multiple linear regression. Results: HRmean did not differ significantly between 2v2 and 4v4 (166.9 ± 5.1 vs. 165.3 ± 6.0 bpm; t₃₉ = 1.35, Conclusion: HRR is the sole physiological marker meaningfully associated with internal load during SSGs (and only in 4v4) while neither HRmean nor CV% in 2v2 is explained by the tested markers. More constrained formats (2v2) produce more stable cardiovascular responses. By identifying simple heart-rate-based indicators and game formats that yield more stable cardiovascular responses, these findings can inform scalable load-management strategies that help mitigate maladaptive overreaching and contribute to broader injury-prevention efforts in athletic populations, although future studies are necessary to confirm such hypothesis.
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