Impact of Intensity on Exercise Enjoyment

Abstract

Physical activity is known to have many health benefits, yet drop-out rates have remained at over 50 percent for the past 30 years. Many physical activity recommendations highlight the notion that enjoyable exercise will result in greater adherence, but research relating enjoyment to increased exercise behavior is sparse and unclear. PURPOSE: (a) To examine enjoyment in response to different intensities of acute exercise and (b) to determine whether affect during exercise is predictive of enjoyment. METHODS: Self-reported physically active participants (N = 35; n = 13 females, n = 22 males; 21.2 ±2.0 yrs; VO2max = 48.13±2.7 ml·kg−1·min−1) exercised on a treadmill for 20 min at either 40% or 60% of VO2max. Enjoyment was measured following exercise using the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) while affect was assessed before, during (every 5 min), and following exercise using the Feeling Scale (FS) and Felt Arousal Scale (FAS). RESULTS: Enjoyment was significantly greater (P = 0.003) following the 60% (M = 122.66 ± 15.1) compared to the 40% (M = 93.94 ± 19.6) intensity condition. Affect (FS) assessed during exercise was more positive during the 40% condition compared to the 60% condition (although effect sizes were small, ranging from 0.15-0.24 and no differences between conditions existed before or after); however, affect during exercise did not predict enjoyment for either intensity condition. CONCLUSIONS: Contrary to many recommendations, moderate intensity exercise resulted in greater enjoyment than low intensity exercise. Although it is intuitively appealing that enjoyment of physical activity should be influenced by the affect experienced during the exercise itself, for low to moderate intensity exercise in relatively active individuals, this does not seem to be the case.