Acute aerobic exercise and affect: current status, problems and prospects regarding dose-response.

Area of Science:

• Exercise Science
• Sport Psychology
• Behavioral Medicine

Background:

• Physical activity recommendations often assume lower doses are more enjoyable, promoting adherence.
• Empirical evidence on the relationship between physical activity dose (intensity, duration) and affective responses is limited.
• Existing 'inverted-U' models lack sufficient empirical support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To critically review the literature on the association between physical activity dose and affective responses.
• To examine the influence of exercise intensity and duration on affect.
• To identify gaps and propose future research directions.

Main Methods:

• Systematic review of meta-analyses and empirical studies on exercise intensity, duration, and affect.
• Examination of the moderating roles of fitness and training status.
• Analysis of affective changes during and immediately after exercise, and during recovery.

Main Results:

• Increased exercise intensity is linked to reduced positive affect during and immediately post-exercise.
• Intensity effects on affect diminish during the recovery phase.
• Exercise duration, at constant intensity, does not significantly alter pre- to post-exercise affective changes.
• Fitness and training status mediate affect-exercise relationships primarily at high intensities.

Conclusions:

• The assumption that lower physical activity doses are universally more enjoyable needs further investigation.
• Future research should adopt dimensional affect measures and explore psychological theories.
• Incorporating fitness status and refining intensity selection methods are crucial for understanding exercise-affect dynamics.