Effect Of Adiposity On Physiological, Perceptual, And Affective Responses During Treadmill Walking At Self-selected Pace

Abstract

PURPOSE: To investigate the influence of adiposity on physiological, perceptual, and affective responses during treadmill walking at a self-selected pace. METHODS: Forty-five previously sedentary women were assigned to one of three groups according to their percentage of body fat (% body fat): Low Tertile (LT, n = 15, age: 28.1 ± 5.7 yr, % body fat: 23.8 ± 2.2, VO2max: 39.7 ± 6.7 ml·kg-1·min-1), Medium Tertile (MT, n = 15, age: 28.8 ± 6.4 yr, % body fat: 28.5 ± 0.8, VO2max: 34.9 ± 4.5 ml·kg-1·min-1), and High Tertile (HT, n = 15, age: 32.4 ± 4.8 yr, % body fat: 32.1 ± 2.0, VO2max: 30.3 ± 4.2 ml·kg-1·min-1). Each participant performed an incremental treadmill test to determine VO2max and a 20-min treadmill walking bout at a self-selected pace. During 20-min of treadmill walking at a self-selected pace, the physiological (oxygen uptake, VO2) responses were recorded continuously. The perceptual (Borg-RPE for the overall body, 6-20) and affective (Feeling Scale, Hardy & Rejeski, 1989) responses were determined every 5 min throughout the test. A one-way ANOVA (adiposity) was used to examine group differences in physiological, perceptual, and affective responses during 20-min of treadmill walking at a self-selected pace. RESULTS: The preferred walking pace did not differ between the groups (1.63 ± 0.19, 1.60 ± 0.20, 1.47 ± 0.18 m.sec-1 for LT, MT, and HT, respectively), whereas the %VO2max was significantly higher (P <.05) in HT (61.8 ± 8.6%) compared to MT (55.8 ± 6.8%) and LT (52.8 ± 6.8%). The perceptual (11.8 ± 1.5, 12.2 ± 1.3, and 11.7 ± 1.1) and affective (2.36 ± 1.33, 1.80 ± 1.74, and 1.85 ± 1.82 for LT, MT, and HT, respectively) responses were similar between the groups. CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate that adiposity influences physiological, but not perceptual and affective responses of previously sedentary women during treadmill walking at a self-selected pace. This study was supported in part by grants from the Istituto per il Credito Sportivo (C. F. Buzzachera) and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (H. M. Elsangedy and K. Krinski).