Study on Psychological Effect of Cyclic Foot Joint Exercise as a Light Exercise for Sitting Position

Abstract

We present the physical and psychological effects of a foot joint exercise in a sitting position, as a preliminary experiment to design a foot exercise system for motivating sedentary adults to increase level of their physical activity. The experiment was conducted with four healthy adults performing a cyclic foot joint dorsiflexion exercise in a sitting position. Apart from changes in the blood flow and pulse rate during exercise, affective valence and perceived exertion after exercise were measured. The results indicated that the foot joint dorsiflexion exercise is a low intensity exercise, which does not lead to a change in pulse rate compared to a state of rest. However, the participants’ affective valence and perceived exertion exhibited extensive inter-individual variability. This finding suggests that the foot exercise system need to be designed to account for the possibility of significant individual variations in pleasant/unpleasant emotions, even in the context of light exercise that requires little physical burden.