Affective responses to identical resistance exercises that are prescribed and self-selected

Allowing individuals to self-select their aerobic exercises has been shown to increase enjoyment, but less is known on how self-selecting resistance exercise impacts enjoyment. Individuals came to the laboratory for three sessions of knee extensions each separated by seven days. During the first session, individuals were instructed to self-select the exercise load, number of repetitions, and the rest period between sets. The second session was designed to determine how many repetitions individuals could perform at their self-selected load, and to vary the exercise loads to reduce the likelihood that individuals could recall what they self-selected on visit 1. The third session involved completing the same exercise that was performed on session 1, except the individuals were prescribed the exercise. At the conclusion of each set, individuals were asked to rate their exercise induced feelings, felt-arousal, discomfort, and repetitions in reserve. A total of 27 individuals (17 males, 10 females) completed the study. On average, individuals exercised 2.8 (5.9) repetitions short of volitional task failure, which corresponded to performing 88.3 (28.5) % of the repetitions that could have been completed with the self-selected load. The self-selected exercise session resulted in greater affective responses (2.6 vs. 1.9; BF¹⁰ = 10.516), felt-arousal (3.6 vs. 3.1; BF¹⁰ = 89.157), and discomfort (3.7 vs. 2.8; BF¹⁰ = 20.350) as compared to the prescribed exercise session. Allowing individuals to self-select their resistance exercise protocols increased enjoyment, which may help to increase long-term adherence.