Abstract

The core objective of this research was to measure the effects on levels of state anxiety of the application of Jacobson’s (1938) progressive relaxation technique in university-level athletes who are members of the aerobic gymnastic team preparing to participate in the National University Championships in 2014. The sample was comprised of two groups. The experimental group was made up of 12 athletes from the aerobic gymnastic team at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS) (Mexico), while the control group was made up of 96 university-level athletes, whose ages ranged from 16 to 24. Both teams were administered the pre-test phase of the A-Estado scale from the Inventory of State Trait Anxiety (IDARE) by Spielberger and Díaz-Guerrero (1970), although this inventory was originally developed to investigate anxiety phenomena in normal adult subjects, that is, without psychiatric symptoms. It has been demonstrated that this instrument is also useful in measuring anxiety in secondary and baccalaureate students (Spilberger & Díaz-Guerrero, 1970). In the follow-up phase, the treatment using the progressive relaxation technique was administered for 3 months only in the experimental group made up of the aerobic gymnastic team of the UAS. In the post-test phase, the inventory was once again administered to both groups. In line with the results found, the progressive relaxation training was found to have had a significant effect on lowering levels of state anxiety in the athletes from the aerobic gymnastic team of the UAS, while the athletes in the control group showed no significant differences.