Effects of varying attentional focus on health-related physical fitness performance

Abstract

Assessing health-related physical fitness is important for determining health status. However, verbal instructions provided during an assessment generally do not specify direction of attentional focus. This investigation examined the effect of attentional focus on performance outcomes during appraisals of health-related physical fitness. Eight females (25.0 ± 4.0 years) and 8 males (26.3 ± 3.9 years) completed 7 physical fitness tests of the Canadian Physical Activity, Fitness and Lifestyle Approach (modified Canadian Aerobic Fitness Test, grip strength, push-ups, sit and reach, partial curl-ups, vertical jump, and back extension) on 3 different days, each separated by 1 week. On day 1, no attentional focus was specified. On days 2 and 3, participants were asked to adopt an external focus (instructions focused attention away from the body) or an internal focus (instructions focused attention on the body's movement) in randomized order. Irrespective of sex, adopting an external focus resulted in significantly better performance on all tests when compared with no focus or internal-focus conditions. An internal focus also resulted in performance decrements for grip strength, push-ups, and vertical jump vs. no focus. These results demonstrate that instructing individuals to adopt an external focus provides a performance advantage on appraisals of aerobic and musculoskeletal fitness, whereas an internal focus may hinder performance. In some participants, these scores may convert to a rating of health status that is 1 health benefit zone higher or lower, respectively. This highlights further the importance of formulating verbal instructions that incorporate attentional focus for optimal performance on appraisals of physical fitness.