Acute Effects of Intermittent Physical Activity on Perceptions of Exercise-Related Fatigue in Children.

Abstract

To investigate the acute effects of intermittent activity performed at varying intensities on the perceptions of exercise-related fatigue in children. A total of 30 children completed 4 experimental conditions in random order, which consisted of 8 hours of sitting interrupted with 20 two-minute low-, moderate-, or high-intensity activity breaks or 20 two-minute sedentary breaks. The perceptions of exercise-related fatigue were determined via the Subjective Exercise Experience Scale at the beginning (0 breaks), middle (after 10 breaks), and end (after 20 breaks) of each condition. The average heart rate was significantly higher with increasing exercise intensity (sedentary: 89.6 ± 1.2beats/min, low: 114.6 ± 1.8beats/min, moderate: 147.2 ± 1.8beats/min, and high: 172.3 ± 1.8beats/min, P < .0001). There was no significant main effect of condition (sedentary: -0.5 ± 0.6, low: -1.0 ± 0.7, moderate: -0.2 ± 0.5, and high: -0.6 ± 1.2; P = .86) and time (10-0 breaks: -0.7 ± 0.5 and 20-0 breaks: -0.5 ± 0.5; P = .45), nor time by condition interaction (P = .99) on change in exercise-related fatigue. Incorporating intermittent activity into physical activity programs may help to reduce barriers to regular exercise by minimizing perceptions of exercise-related fatigue in children.