Relationship between Objective and Subjective Fatigue Monitoring Tests in Professional Soccer

Abstract

Studying fatigue is challenging because it is influenced by physiological, psychological, and sociological states. Fatigue can be assessed objectively or subjectively, but the literature has difficulty understanding how an analytical test relates to a response via a questionnaire. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationships between objective fatigue variables (Squat Jump (SJ) and Countermovement Jump (CMJ)) measured on day-2 to the game and subjective fatigue (Rating Perceived Exertion (RPE) measured on day-3 to the game and Hooper Index (HI) measured on day-2). The sample comprised 32 professional football players from the First Portuguese League aged 25.86 ± 3.15 years. The Spearman correlations and regression analyses were used to study the relationships between the variables. The results showed statistically significant (p < 0.05) but small correlations (0.113−0.172) between several objective metrics and the subjective metrics evaluated. In addition, we found two weak models with statistical significance (p < 0.05) between the dependent objective variables (contact time, height, and elasticity index) and the HI (R2 = 3.7%) and RPE (R2 = 1.6%). Also, nine statistically significant (p < 0.05) but weak models were observed between the subjective dependent variables (HI and RPE) and contact time (R2 = 1.8−2.7%), flight time (R2 = 1.1−1.9%), height (R2 = 1.2−2.3%), power (R2 = 1.4%), pace (R2 = 1.2−2.1%), and elasticity index (R2 = 1.6%). In conclusion, objective and subjective fatigue-monitoring tests in professional soccer do not measure identical but rather complementary aspects of fatigue, and therefore, both need to be considered to gain a holistic perspective.