The effect of co-designed workouts on students' motivation and enjoyment of school-based high-intensity interval...

Making a HIIT examined the associations of co-designing and using HIIT workouts within health and physical education lessons on students' enjoyment, autonomous motivation, basic psychological needs, and self-efficacy towards HIIT. Participants (12-14 years) were divided into: 1) a co-design group (n = 122, 48% female), who co-designed the workouts and completed an 8-week intervention using them; 2) a HIIT-only group (n = 100, 44% female), who completed the 8-week intervention; and 3) a control group (n = 86, 52% female), who continued with normal lessons. Questionnaires were completed immediately after the first and last HIIT workout. To understand the association of participating in the co-design process, co-design and non-co-design group responses after the first workout were compared. To understand the effect of using the co-designed workouts, multi-level models compared the responses of the three groups over time. Workout co-design and use were not significantly associated with any outcomes of interest. Enjoyment, autonomous motivation, autonomy, and self-efficacy were rated neutral to positive and remained stable throughout the intervention regardless of group. Perceived competence and relatedness decreased slightly over time irrespective of group (β = -0.36; -0.47). Future studies should continue to support students' basic psychological needs during school-based interventions and consider co-designing aspects of these interventions beyond the workouts.