CONSISTENCY OF AFFECTIVE VALENCE ACROSS BOUTS OF MUSCLE-STRENGTHENING AND AEROBIC EXERCISE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS

Abstract

Exercise-related affective response are assumed to be consistent in response to the same stimulus, but there is little evidence to support this assumption. PURPOSE: To examine the consistency in ratings of in-task affective valence across eight repeated, remotely supervised home-based exercise sessions. METHODS: Participants (N=15, 20.4 ± 1.5 years old, 80% women) who reported engaging in less than 60 minutes per week of structured exercise were randomly assigned to either the muscle-strengthening (MSE) (N=8) or aerobic (AE) (N=7) group. Each participant met virtually with a trainer for two 30-min circuit-training sessions per week for four weeks. The number, type, and order of exercises (as well as duration of rest intervals) performed each session were held constant. The Feeling Scale (FS) was used to assess affective valence at nine time-points: pre-session, every three exercises before rest (i.e., capturing seven measures of in-task valence), and post session. Two-way mixed intra-class correlation coefficients (ICC) were calculated with 95% confidence intervals for the seven in-task FS overall and by group. For everyone at each session, pre-exercise FS was compared to each in-task value to explore directional change in exercise-related FS (e.g., experiencing positive, negative, or no changes). RESULTS: The ICC for FS measured during AE was 0.852 (95%CI =0.793-0.902). During MSE, the ICC for FS was 0.764 (95%CI = 0.688-0.832). Across all sessions eight participants (53%; AE 5, MSE 3) were consistently categorized as increasers and, zero participants were consistently categorized as decreasers or non-changers for all 8 days. CONCLUSION: This exploratory work represents an initial assessment of consistency in affective responses during repeated exposure to AE and MSE in a non-laboratory setting. However, this study represents only a short-term exposure to a novel, circuit-based (i.e., variety supportive) stimulus. Additional research is needed to understand consistency of in-task affective valence in response to repeated exercise of various modes, performed by a larger, more diverse sample over longer periods of time that would be representative of a typical training intervention.