INTENSITY OF ACUTE EXERCISE AND AFFECT

Abstract

A study was conducted to reexamine the relationship between acute exercise intensity and affect. The methodology differed from previous studies in four respects: affect was assessed from a dimensional perspective using the circumplex model; affect was assessed repeatedly during and after exercise; the levels of exercise intensity were determined in relation to the ventilatory threshold (VT), and data analysis included an examination of response variability. Thirty volunteers (14 women, 21.2 yrs, 47.7 ml·kg·min−1; 16 men, 21.5 yrs, 56.6 ml·kg·min−1) participated in 3 sessions that included a 5 min warm-up walk, a 15 min treadmill run, a 5 min cool-down walk, and a 20 min passive recovery. The speed and grade of the treadmill for the runs was set at the levels that corresponded to (a) 20% below the VT (< VT), (b) at the VT (@VT), or (c) 10% above the VT (> VT). Affective valence and perceived activation were assessed every 3 min during the runs using the Feeling Scale (FS) and the Felt Arousal Scale (FAS), respectively. In all 3 conditions, there were significant declines in FS and increases in FAS over the course of the runs. The largest and least variable declines FS were in the > VT condition. The trends were linear for < VT and @VT, but quadratic for > VT. After the cool-downs, there were significant improvements in valence. These improvements were proportional to the declines during exercise (larger in > VT), but did not result in differences in FS between the conditions after the cool-downs. These results show that the transition to anaerobic metabolism accelerates the declines in affective valence during exercise, that there is an instantaneous improvement in valence when exercise is terminated, and that intensity effects are significant during but not following acute exercise.