State anxiety responses to acute resistance training and step aerobic exercise across eight weeks of training

The purpose of this study was to contrast state anxiety responses to acute aerobic and resistance exercise across an 8-week period.

State anxiety (STAI-Y1) was assessed immediately prior to and 5 min following 50-min exercise sessions in 42 adults enrolled in introductory level resistance training or step aerobic exercise classes. Participants were instructed to maintain an intensity between 70-80% of their own maximum in both exercise conditions. State anxiety was assessed at weeks one, four and eight of 16-week courses.

Repeated measures ANOVA revealed that state anxiety decreased (p<0.05) following both exercise conditions (step aerobics: 36.65 to 33.03; resistance training: 35.12 to 30.39). The magnitude of the reduction did not differ significantly between conditions, nor did it change from week one to week eight. Participants were grouped into high and low baseline state anxiety groups to determine the potential influence of baseline anxiety. Reductions (p<0.05) in state anxiety were observed for the high baseline groups (step aerobics: 49.7 to 40.4; resistance: 47.6 to 38.5), and following step aerobic exercise for the low baseline group (29.9 to 26.8). However, state anxiety did not decrease (29.6 to 29.5) following resistance exercise in the low baseline group.

These results indicate state anxiety reductions occur following 50-min of aerobic exercise or weight training, and responses were not altered across 8-weeks of training. Similar state anxiety reductions were observed for each exercise mode in cases with elevated baseline state anxiety values, low baseline state anxiety levels were significantly reduced solely in the step aerobics condition.