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Forty women took part in a study to determine the effects of high-intensity training and the menstrual cycle on mood states. Half of the sample were competitive distance runners following a training load of between 50 km and 130 km running per week. Seven athletes were amenorrhoeic and 13 either eumenorrhoeic or oligomenorrhoeic. The remaining 20 subjects were inactive women who menstruated regularly. The mean age of all 40 subjects was 29 years. Each subject completed two identical Profile of Mood States (POMS) questionnaires. The 33 menstruating subjects completed both a premenstrual and a midcycle form and the amenorrhoeic athletes completed the questionnaires at a 3-week interval, which acted as a control for the potential effects of premenstrual syndrome (PMS) among the menstruating females. Results showed highly significant differences in mood profiles among amenorrhoeic athletes, non-amenorrhoeic athletes and inactive women. The greatest difference was between premenstrual and midcycle measures for the inactive group. PMS appears to cause marked negative mood swings among menstruating women which the POMS inventory is sensitive in detecting. While the lower-intensity-training runners appeared to benefit psychologically from a training distance of approximately 50 km week-1, high-intensity training had an adverse effect on mood.

Because moods are transitory emotional states that can be influenced by a range of personality and environmental factors, the notion that elite athletes will always tend to produce a so-called iceberg profile of mood, and that less successful performers will not, is open to question. Evidence for such a claim is based principally upon descriptive studies. The present experiment used the POMS inventory as a predictor of cross-country running performance among a group of experienced male athletes. Race times from two competitive events were plotted against each of six mood factors. Using data from race 1, a multiple-regression model--incorporating the interdependence of tension, anger and depression--was able to predict rank order of finishing positions for race 2 with acceptable accuracy (rs = 0.74, P less than 0.01). The present approach differs from the traditional model of mood research in sport in that it provides a prescriptive, rather than a descriptive, focus. Although the model that has been developed appears promising, it is likely that in sports where demands on athletes are very different from those made upon cross-country runners, an alternative model may be required.