The Affective Modulation of Exercise Task Performance: Rating the Urge‐to‐Stop

Abstract

Exercise performance is the integration of the physical load, the physiological response and the psychophysiological assessment of the task. Affective state modulates perceptions and motivation for the task performance. We hypothesized that the subject's rating of their Urge‐to‐Stop (RUS) in a backpack walking task will be modulated by affective responses and there will be subgroups of high responders (HiR) vs. low responders (LoR). Each subject participated in a control (no backpack weight) and experimental trial (backpack weight=40% body weight). Subjects completed a 1.6 mile exercise task on a treadmill with 8 periodic inclines of 0.1 mile. SAM scores were obtained before and after the walking task. Participants O2 consumption (VO2), CO2 production (VCO2), heart rate (HR), respiratory rate (RR) and psychophysical perception measures were recorded at the end of each incline. There were no significant perceptual differences among participants with the control task. There were significant differences in subject perceptual of RUS with experimental task. There were 2 subgroups with significant differences in RUS. The RUS increase during the loaded backpack trial in LoR was significantly less than HiR. There were no significant HiR‐LoR differences in the HR, RR, VO2 and VCO2 response to the increased load exercise tasks. SAM results for the HiR had decreased valence, increased arousal and decreased control. These results suggest that RUS during an exercise task includes an affective perceptual element and HiR greater affective responses to the task may have contributed to a higher RUS. These results also suggest the affective state of the participant is a determinant of the subject task motivation and may determine, in part, exercise performance.