Stress hormones and sports performance: A critical analysis

Background: In sports event stress is performing in a form of acute or episodic in response of pre competition or post competition match. The hormonal imbalance is the influencing factor for acquiring stress in sports performance. Aim: To review scientific literatures related to stress hormones and sports performance. Method: Researchers collected scientific evidences through electronic databases; Pubmed, Embase, Medline, Google Scholar, Google Advance Search, PsycINFO, ROAJ, DOAJR, Web of Science and critically analyzed all the entire relevant article according to the nature of this study. Findings: It was observed that there are some results in stress hormone on volleyball players. Most of the research are related with cortisol hormone and identified most popular stress hormone. But there are contraindications among the researchers. Another widely studied stress hormone is catecholamine and volleyball performance. Conclusions: A certain level of stress is needed for optimal performance. Too little stress expresses itself in feelings of boredom and not being challenged. Competitive stress does not necessarily impair performance and can in certain circumstances enhance it. Optimum level of stress one gets the benefits of alertness and activation that improves performance.