High Cardiorespiratory Fitness and Vigorous Physical Activity Relate to Select Pain Sensitivity Assessments in...

Research highlights the potential role of physical activity (PA) in preventing chronic pain and reducing both acute and persistent pain symptoms. While increasing PA is an evidence-based intervention for chronic pain, the relationship between pain processing and PA remains unclear. This study aimed to investigate associations of both PA and fitness assessments with multiple measures of pain sensitivity, hypothesizing links with both static and dynamic pain sensitivity metrics.

Sixty-four healthy adults (30 female) representing both high and low activity levels completed a series of pressure-based quantitative sensory tests (QST), including static measures (pressure pain thresholds [PPTs]) and dynamic measures (temporal summation [TS] and conditioned pain modulation [CPM]). PA was evaluated using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ, self-report) and accelerometry (objective). Cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) was assessed using the YMCA step test. Correlation and regression analyses were used to evaluate these relationships.

Higher PPTs were related to more self-reported moderate-to-vigorous PA, vigorous PA, and total PA; accelerometry vigorous PA; and high CRF (p ≤ 0.01). Self-reported vigorous PA was inversely correlated with TS (p = 0.01), while the other PA or CRF metrics were not significantly associated with either TS or CPM (p ≥ 0.04).

CRF or vigorous PA metrics were more consistently related to static pressure QST (PPT) than to dynamic QST (TS and CPM). Our findings in a single cohort mirror the inconsistencies noted across cohorts in the literature, suggesting that PA and CRF exhibit distinct relationships with various QST measures.