Influencing factors and physiological parameters of psychological hurdle and motivation immediately prior to exercise

To obtain the benefits of exercise as physical inactivity becomes a global concern, managing psychological hurdles to exercise implementation is important. This study examined troublesomeness, motivation, and physiological parameters immediately before exhaustive exercise.

Thirty-one healthy university students (mean age 19.87±2.21 years, 19 female) performed two conditions on separate days: performing push-ups to exhaustion (PE condition) and performing push-ups of the 30% count of the PE condition (P30 condition). Before the push-ups, the participants sat at rest for 5 minutes and were asked about their psychological states; after the first 2 minutes, PE or P30 conditions to be performed that day were disclosed to prepare them psychologically. During the rest, changes in the heart rate variability (HRV), pupil diameter, and front polar area (FPA) neural activity were measured before and after disclosure.

Troublesomeness and FPA neural activities were significantly higher in the PE than in the P30 (P<0.001, P=0.04, P=0.01). Correlation analysis revealed correlations between motivation and pupil diameter (P=0.002), and negative correlations between total physical activity (TPA) and negative image of exercise (P=0.01).

FPA activity could reflect the psychological hurdle to exhaustive exercise, pupil diameter could reflect the motivational arousal to exercise, and TPA could modulate the psychological hurdle.