Well, my practical advice is to just give athletes
more time to cope with what's happening around
them, around the competition. So when he's lifting
or she, just be a little bit more thoughtful
and more encouraging to them, which younger athletes
appreciate much more in the long term. Hi Ivan,
it's my pleasure to have you on Evidence Strong
Show. Please introduce yourself. Hello, it's
a pleasure to be here. My name is Iron Perasovic
and I'm a PhD student at the University of the
Kingdom of Georgia of Split. First year now.
I'm also a strength and conditioning coach and
I'm hoping to do research more on the impact
of stress and the performance levels of athletes
in various sports, mainly now focused on team
sports, but also in weightlifting and other strength
and different sports. the short story you also
have some experience in weightlifting i was a
three times national champion in weightlifting
in the category of 94 and 100 afterwards yes
so i was around 10 years in active olympic weightlifting
was part of the national team so my results were
good for this vision. So I'm quite well aware
of how it is to train, how it is to compete,
and how it is to implement those Olympic techniques
in other sports. So that's my background. And
I also teach Olympic weightlifting at the college.
I'm a lecturer at the college that involves Olympic
weightlifting and strength in tradition. Today
we'll be talking about hormones and Olympic weightlifting.
So let's start with that. Could you explain the
three hormones you used in your study and measured?
them during the competition. But what are the
main roles of these hormones in weightlifting
performance? Okay, so we have actually two hormones
and one enzyme. So cortisol and testosterone
are hormones. Alpha -amylase is an enzyme. So
basically cortisol is the hormone of stress,
as you all know. The body produces when you're
under stress. And alpha -amylase is an enzyme
that is neuro -based. It's being produced by
the salivatory glands in the mouth. And it is
not hormonal. based it is more based on the central
nervous system and it's a response also to stressful
situations but mainly it causes to dilute sugar
so basically it's an enzyme for digestion but
it has been shown that it has been excreted when
you're under stress and testosterone is the hormone
yes male hormone for strength and power that
we all need when you do some exercises that are
mainly strength based so what we found out and
what is already in the research enzyme alpha
amylase and cortisone are very good correlated.
The thing is, and the main difference is, except
that there are enzymes and hormones, the thing
is that alpha -amylase is produced instantly,
not instantly, but very close because it is neuro
-based. And the cortisol is afterwards produced
after 2, 20, 30 minutes after it fails. So the
main thing is, if our main thing was that when
we extrude the enzymes and the hormones, how
does that affect our performance? Does it go
down? Does it go up? And how does it variate
during the lifts, before the lifts, and somewhere
in the middle? you have the part between the
snatch and the clean and jerk. And of course,
the testosterone was also based to see how does
that go up and down during those phases. So that
was our main thing when we were trying to conduct
this study. Now, this study is very, very special
because not only you were trying to measure hormones
and an enzyme during weightlifting performance,
but it was performance during a real competition.
Could you speak about that? Yes. Yes, because
actually the idea of the... research came when
I was talking to my professor at college, who
has lately become my mentor on the PhD. So he
did conduct these studies on various team sports
as nagball and volleyball, also with the players,
but also with the coaches and with the referees.
And since I'm involved in weightlifting, we were
talking and the competition was just coming up.
It was December and we had this competition,
but it was not individual. It was team -based,
but it was still a competition, the national.
finals so the difference is you have individuals
you have clubs that are competing with five individual
lifters and they combine their core and that's
how you get the main the winner so and we were
while we were talking we were kind of we're looking
a little bit but research is every research that
was done on olympic weightlifting was mostly
done during some training exercises some mock
competitions as in training competitions so this
was a little bit more specific because it was
a real championship we had 46 in total maybe
one or two didn't want to come didn't want to
participate but mostly because they were a little
bit more anxious and so it was all in all it
was good but this was a good way to see how the
hormones behave in a real life competition national
level competition team competition all the teams
from the country come to combat for the title
of the fourth team in the country now how did
you design the measurement so how did you design
when you will measure, what time points were
they, and so on, and how you collected the data.
Well, so how we collected the saliva samples,
first and foremost, you have cotton swabs that
the individual has to put inside their mouth.
Prior to that, he must not take any fluids, like
maybe five to ten minutes. We kept it ten minutes
to be safe. He has to put it underneath his tongue,
keep it there two to three minutes. We also kept
it maybe two and a half minutes, two minutes,
and then he takes it out, puts it in a small
plastic container. We type his code. we had to
take the baseline what we did is we took when
they came inside the hall lifting hall we took
the baselines and then afterwards we took before
they before their group was coming out on on
the podium to lift So how the championship is,
how the competition is conducted. You have groups,
A, B, C, D group, Aero, International. And when
you have the P in championship, it's not that
important who is, how much you lift. So basically,
they come up to a mutual agreement, who is going
to be in the first group, second group, third
group. We decided to take, when they came into
the weightlifting hall, to do the weights, to
do the weigh -in. So we done it there. They then
took a quick questionnaire. And afterwards, they
were warming up. And before they go to the first
lift, they took the swab. And when they did the
3D, so snatch 1, 2, 3. After the third one, they
got the swab, took it, hold it. And then we had
rest before skin and jerk. Also 1, 2, 3. And
afterwards, we took the third sample. So that's
how we conducted it. And afterwards, it was analyzed
by our biochemist in our laboratory. They went
off to analysis and you were after measuring
the levels. of the hormones and the enzyme to
know how these levels changed across the competition.
What we did see is for alpha amylase, so it went
in males, it went much significantly higher than
in females. So the baseline is the same, but
it was much higher in males than in females.
The cortisol levels were in the middle, higher
for males than in females, but afterwards, after
the last lift, it got lowered. the males and
it was higher for the females and later on testosterone
has been showing to be also higher than males
and white course are the females because you
know males have more testosterone of course of
course much much uh but uh all in all the cortisol
levels this shows significant difference because
all the other markers were basically what we
expect expecting them to be of course testosterone
levels of course they're going to be higher and
especially in the middle afterwards that will
work out you of course you have have a spike
in testosterone. And later on, it goes down after
the second workout. And females was basically
the same, but only lower. But cortisol levels
were also higher in the middle from both males
and females. But afterwards, it was much higher
in females than in males. So what was our conclusion
is basically... The coping mechanisms of female
lifters are a little bit more different and they
lack testosterone for coping with cortisol levels.
And also do note that most of the female lifters
were much younger than their male counterparts.
So they were much less experienced in that area.
And usually when it comes to strength in strength
sports, males tend to be a little bit more in
advance because of the testosterone that they
have. which is normally and the body weight that
they possess. because the females were a little
bit more insecure, didn't know how to cope with
the level of stress that they faced there. So
basically that was our explanation for why their
cortisol levels were much higher than the males.
I forgot to say about the testosterone levels
because the females did exhibit a greater relative
increase in testosterone throughout the competition,
which is from 27 .5 to 29 plus snatch and pre
-competition. So in contrast, the percentage
increase in males was significantly lower. And
this also can be attributed to the fact that
there was a heightened acute stress response
to the competition that was highly linked to
psychological and physiological demand during
the competition that I forgot to say about those
things about the T -levels. So basically that's...
That's the thing. What was the difference? I
didn't catch. What was the percentage in females
versus no? There was an increase of 27 .5 % from
pre -competition to post -snatch and 29 % from
pre -competition to post -cleaning and jerk.
In contrast, the increase in males was significantly
lower. 14 .5 % and 5 % respectively. And this
relative surge in testosterone among female athletes
may indicate the high -concuse stress response
to the competitions that was linked to psychological
arousal and physiological demand. So although
female athletes have typically lower T -levels,
In the competitions, they did increase the T
levels more than their male counterparts because
of these psychological levels, motivations, and
so on, so on. And about the alpha amylase and
cortisol levels, they increased significantly
during the competitions. And so what that indicates
that the... sympathetic nervous system and the
petroleum adrenaline was activated. It does suggest
that the alpha amylase levels were heightened
during the post -snatch and post -cleaning. fasting
which also consists the previous studies show
that alpha amylase is a reliable indicator of
the sympathetic nervous system activation during
high intensity exercises so that's what i wanted
to say why the alpha amylase is a good way because
it's non -invasive and you can see that the nervous
system is highly activated during that time so
if you have a high level high intensity workout
it's quite a reliable indicator that the sympathetic
nervous system was activated and the tumor aroused
quite good. So that's why I wanted to highlight
also. Awesome. And when it comes to cortisol
levels, cortisol levels, the post -snatch, like
I said, they kept after the post -clean and jerk,
it was heightened also because of the testosterone
levels were more heightened in females than in
males, possibly due to those things. And also
because of the way they react to certain stresses
and so on and so on. That was... We also wanted
to, what was one of the things that we will try
to do if we have the chance for, is how to cope
with these mechanisms. So how to lower the cortisol
levels much more than to lower the beating, lower
the heart rate and try to do the best performance
as we can during that time. Okay, I have a question
about it. So my understanding is that for optimal
performance in Olympic weightlifting, you have
to have some level of arousal. So you can't be
tall, built and relaxed because you will not
perform the best. So how it relates to the levels
of cortisol is go as high as you can or obviously...
If you go too high, that's too much. And yeah.
That's the thing about arousal. Arousal is different
for everyone. For me, something that arouses
me doesn't necessarily arouse you the same way.
So be it negatively, be it positively. So arousal
can be like, I have this, my personal experience
when I was in the national championships, I did
my best snatch when the European, well, European
championship wasn't split. I did 130 on the snatch,
which was my best in the competition. Afterwards,
I was so aroused by that. I was so, as I said,
I wasn't afraid. That wasn't anything. We didn't
do anything. Unfortunately, we didn't have any
of these bell markers then. But I went on the
clean and jerk and I was planning on to do 160.
But just to keep it short, my coach told me,
okay, go 145, just in case. I went there, I went
out on the stage, I was completely frozen. So
I didn't do anything. So the way that actually
I do sets with, the threes or fives in five or
four sets, I couldn't even lift it. My whole
technique was terrible. I was too much aroused
to do it. So the thing is, this is individually
based, of course, but the stress levels and the
cortisol levels must be high, of course. have
to be high because you're doing something and
it automatically releases the hormones that are
responsible for you to do something at all and
one of the hormones is cortisol because it prepares
you for something you're doing something especially
when you're high level stress but Not too much.
And that is the thing is the coping mechanisms
to do it. One of the reasons why maybe the females
were all hormone -based, there are differences.
But also the age, they were much younger. So
they were not... Also, I do have to note that
Olympic weightlifting in Croatia is not a professional
sport. You have to understand. It's a semi -professional
sport. We have a couple of professional athletes,
but nobody lives from this sport. So everybody
does a side job. While I was competing, I was
working as a coach myself. so on so it's a bit
harder to go all in into it so that's also one
of the drawbacks of this study but this is the
best that we have here in in our country so also
i think the experience level is also to be noted
that They're much less experienced. That's maybe
why they were aroused a bit more and had a little
bit more stress than the male counterparts. The
level of arousal is also subjective. It's not
objectively, unfortunately, because like I said,
something that arouses you in a good way doesn't
necessarily arouse me the same way. And because
I'm aroused doesn't mean I'm going to do the
same good job. If you're not there, I mean, you
have to be somewhere. Arousal has to be high,
but it doesn't mean that I'm going to do a better
job than you're going to do with a better job
without that arousal. So that's one of the things,
if I made myself clear, I hope. All right. Did
you look at the performance level or maybe the
success rate? So how many lifts they hit versus
how high their cortisol or testosterone level
was? Yes. Yes, we did. And it was good courses.
So all in all, all of them. succeed at their
stretch goals so most of them hit the goals that
they were planning to hit but like i said these
goals were not their highest results what they
usually do their trs so like i said this when
you do a team championship you already know what
you're gonna lift And you make sure that you
can lift it. So you're not going to gamble that
much. The thing is, this is also experience -based.
So what we found is that mostly experienced lifters,
we also had some, you know, we call them sideliners
because we had three, I think four that were
really high level. high -level athletes that
did the Olympics, that they were competing here,
but they were past their prime also. But they
showed basically no significant cortisol levels
or stress levels. But they were sideliners because
out of the 46 that we had, 47, there were three
of them who were basically retired. We had one
Hungarian, we had also two from Croatia. They
were professional ones, like I said. The thing
is, and this is unfortunately the biggest drawback,
in my opinion, is that most of our lifters are
semi -professional. That is also a bad thing
for our sport, but we have to take that into
account, that they're semi -professional, they
train. but that's the best that we have in our
country and they also all go into the national
team and so on but what but these are not as
we put aside because it was too much of a gap
between them so you know so i hope that we do
try to conduct in an environment where we have
professional lifters who only do and mainly do
these things. Because, you know, working and
training are not two best combinations when you're
doing active sports. Probably in high -level
professional weightlifters, as we saw it in the
sideliners, probably the results would be different.
I don't think significantly, but they would be
different because they're more professional,
they're used to this, they know how to handle
and cope with stress, but also... What was one
of the things that we will try to do is to have
these same lifters, that they still compete,
all of them, try to do some breathing exercises
to lower their stress levels and try to see if
that's going to help. So that's one of the, for
the future studies, that's going to be one of
the main focuses on that. One of the thing is,
what I would like to do is try to educate the
athletes, which is one of the most important
thing is how to cope with those stress levels.
Because if they can lower their... biological
physiological size of stress they can maybe perform
much better during the whole competition or during
the game so trying to figure that out is one
of the things that we will try to do so according
to breeding intervention and so on but from my
knowledge now and what we've seen in these researches
and other research papers is that experience
is key to all of that so more experienced players
more experienced athletes have fans The stress
level is the same. It's just the way they deal
with that stress is much more different. And
when it comes to stressful situations, they have
coping mechanisms that they developed by themselves
to deal much better with them, which are also
based individually. But what I would like to
do and what we will all like to do is try to
unificate that and try to standardize those coping
mechanisms to make it available to younger athletes,
which is mainly the focus here. Because the older
athletes, they already know how to deal with
lots of stress and how to better themselves in
that place. Okay, so let's try to bring it together.
What would be your practical advice for the coaches
coming out of your study? Well, my practical
advice, and this is also from the study, but
also from the experience -wise, would be to better,
as in, not better prepare, but to just give athletes
more time. to cope with what's happening around
them, around the competition. So when he's lifting
or she, just be a little bit more, as you say,
more thoughtful and more encouraging to them,
which younger athletes appreciate much more in
the long term. So just keep them calm. Don't
give them too much of an anxiety or don't arouse
them too much because they're already aroused,
but we see. They already have enough arousal
for them. They're already woken up. They already
know how to do it. Just to keep them calm and
let them breathe in, breathe out and to encourage
them a little bit more during the phases of the
lifting. For instance, and this is also experience
-based, the difference between individual and
team sport is that individual sports require
much more calmness because they need to be a
little bit more calm. They only have one task
to do and they have to do it good. They have
to do it perfect. Team sport -based, they have
to do a lot more things. Run, shoot, tackle,
defend. is that and the coaches they're much
more aggressive than the individual coaches of
the individual sports so they also but when i
when we do the analysis i'll have much more clearer
how much more stress they do. Because also I
have the coaches here in weightlifting we have
to do and also I have the coaches in basketball.
We'll see how the different coaches level. I
think the team coaches will be much, much more
aroused than the individual coaches from the
individual sports. That's my thing that that
will be a bigger difference. As I saw it, you
know, visually while I was competing and while
I was doing coaching myself. But mostly... So
like I said, keep them calm because they're already
aroused. No matter how much you think they look
calm, as we see, they're already aroused enough.
It's just how you push them in the right way
should you. So don't kill them because they already
have. Maybe they're just too nervous to perform.
Too much aroused. So giving them too much arousal
will be just, we're just going to leave them.
I think you not lift the best they can lift.
when it comes to this. Would you have any advice
on how to guide male athletes versus female athletes?
Well, when it comes to those things, I think
you shouldn't make that much of a difference.
Although maybe female athletes do need a little
bit more support when it comes to these sort
of things because usually the competition level,
because of the testosterone, male athletes tend
to be highly, highly, highly competitive, especially
in these sort of things. And I think females
are a little bit more calmer. And they do tend
to deal with these sorts of situations a little
bit more harder than their male counterparts.
So I think more supportiveness would come much
better to them. Although, of course, males also
need it. But to guide them a little bit more,
less stricter than the male counterparts, I think,
because in my experience coaching girls and coaching
boys, girls tend to be a bit more responsible
when it comes to training and when it comes to
doing the tasks that they have. versus the boys
they have tend to be a little bit more everywhere
but there when they're especially when they're
training so personally found that being stricter
with boys gets you much better results than being
stricter with girls so that's one of the things
that i my personal opinion but also when you
see these uh these results it's much more better
to be calmer and more supportive with with girls
especially younger girls than their male counterparts
one of the things also that this gender -specific
training like i said with creamers you have to
be a little bit more thoughtful also to give
them more time to rest and more sleep which i
believe will positively affect them more i mean
everybody will affect that but for them much
more because of their because of their way of
their coping mechanisms with stress in usual
so that's basically do you think it's females
in general or females young females in this study
who were a little bit less experienced well uh
to be honest we when it comes to i think when
it comes to this particular study. I think their
experience levels played a key role inside this
because they were younger. Also... general females
do tend to cope with stress levels a little bit
different than their male counterparts, like
I said. So, to be honest, I would have to research
a little bit more to see if other females react
the same, but I think it's probably the same.
Maybe the more experienced level females tend
to cope with stress better, but I think when
you compare them to their male counterparts,
so the high level, I think the males have slightly
more advantage when it comes to dealing with
those things. But like I said, I would have to
look up that a little bit more. But I think if
you compare them, I think females tend to be
more stressful in these sorts of situations.
I have two short questions to finish. The first
one is, what is your favorite lift? Snatch, definitely.
Because it's more technical and I'm better at
it. Fair enough, fair enough. And the last question
is where people can find you if they want to
follow your work or ask a question, where should
they go? Well, since I'm not there in the social
media too much, I have my private account, Ivan
.Perasovich on Instagram. That's my private Instagram
account, but also my email address, Ivan .Perasovich.
perasso at gmail .com, which is my private email
address. If you have any questions, you can feel
free to ask or to clarify other things. So that's
basically it. I'm not that involved in social
media. And I'm also on LinkedIn also. So there
you can find me on those places. Awesome. Thank
you so much, Ivan. It was a pleasure. Yeah, it
was a pleasure also.