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The effect of a single bout of exercise on energy and fatigue states: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Abstract
Background: Studies examining acute exercise effects on energy and fatigue levels have not been quantitatively summarized. Purpose: To estimate the population effects of a single bout of exercise on energy and fatigue states and examine potential moderators. Methods: Google Scholar and MEDLINE were searched systematically for published studies that measured changes in energy and fatigue after acute exercise. Meta-analytic techniques were used to analyze 58 energy effects and 58 fatigue effects from the same 16 studies involving 678 participants. Most studies involved 21–40 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic-type exercise. Result: The homogeneous mean effect for energy was Δ = 0.47 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.39, 0.56). The heterogeneous mean effect for fatigue was Δ = 0.03 (95% CI = −0.08, 0.13). The fatigue effect was moderated by a three-way interaction between change in feelings of energy, exercise intensity, and exercise duration. Conclusion: Acute exercise enhances feelings of energy. Decreases in fatigue occur only when post-exercise increases in energy are at least moderately large after low-to-moderate intensity exercise lasting longer than 20 minutes. Future research should focus on short-duration (40 minutes) exercise in non-student groups.
... Despite the exercise being perceived as more strenuous by the ED group, it elicited more bene cial psychological effects post-exercise. Previous research made primarily on healthy individuals has found that acute exercise consistently increases energy [40]. However, results on fatigue are more heterogeneous, showing that fatigue reduction occurs when baseline fatigue is normal or high and when energy increase postexercise is substantial [40]. ...
... Previous research made primarily on healthy individuals has found that acute exercise consistently increases energy [40]. However, results on fatigue are more heterogeneous, showing that fatigue reduction occurs when baseline fatigue is normal or high and when energy increase postexercise is substantial [40]. The reductions in fatigue and increased energy in ED patients are hence consistent with these results. ...
... While ED patients experienced lowered fatigue post-exercise, controls did not, likely due to a oor effect, as their pre-exercise fatigue levels were already low (see Table S8, Additional le 1). In previous acute exercise studies showing fatigue-reducing effects, pre-exercise POMS fatigue scores averaged 6.42 [40], allowing for noticeable reductions. ...
Background Understanding acute psychological responses to physical exercise is important since they likely influence the initiation and maintenance of this behavior. Given its effectiveness in reducing symptoms in various psychological disorders, physical exercise should be further explored in Exhaustion Disorder (ED; ICD-10-SE: F43.8A), a condition characterized by persistent exhaustion following long-term psychosocial stress. Currently, no studies are available on the psychological effects of acute exercise in ED patients. Aims This study aims to (1) investigate the psychological responses to acute exercise in ED patients compared to healthy controls and (2) determine if these responses differ between low and moderate exercise intensities. Methods We conducted a two-armed cross-over trial in two groups: ED patients (n = 30) and healthy controls (n = 30). On two separate occasions, participants completed a 22-minute exercise at low or moderate intensity on a cycle ergometer, in randomized order. The main outcome was perceived fatigue, and secondary outcomes were feelings of energy, anxiety, stress, perceived exertion, and perceived psychological discomfort, all measured before, during, and up to 24 hours after exercise. Effects of the exercise conditions were assessed with repeated measures analysis of variance. Results ED patients reported higher exertion and psychological discomfort before and during exercise, higher fatigue, anxiety, and stress but lower energy throughout the trial compared to the controls. ED patients experienced more reduced fatigue and stress after both intensities (p < 0.05), and a more elevated energy after moderate-intensity exercise compared to controls (p < 0.05). No interactions between groups were found for anxiety over time. No differences were observed between pre-exercise and 6 hours or 24 hours post-exercise in any variables. The only intensity effect (p < 0.05) in the ED patients was a more pronounced energy decline 30 minutes after moderate-intensity exercise. Conclusions A 22-minute exercise was perceived as more strenuous by patients with exhaustion disorder and generated greater improvements in feelings of fatigue, energy, and stress compared to healthy individuals, without delayed negative changes. These findings can inform intervention design and guide clinical practice. Trial registration The study was retrospectively registered on 05/30/2024 at Clinical Trials.gov, with trial registration number 2022-04943-01.
... Over the past two decades, research has indicated that a single bout of exercise training is among the most reliable ways to temporarily increase feelings of energy. A meta-analysis including 16 experiments that measured feelings of energy and feelings of fatigue tested a total of 678 participants (Loy et al., 2013). It revealed that a single bout of exercise increased energy compared to controls in 91 % of the effect sizes calculated, and the standardized mean effect was 0.47. ...
... This control group also involved a group-based (but sedentary) activity of similar duration, which ensured that potential changes in feelings of energy or feelings of fatigue in the exercise groups were not primarily determined by the effects of social interactions. Based on the meta-analyses by Wicks et al. (2022) and Loy et al. (2013) outlined earlier, it was expected that (1) changes in feelings of energy and feelings of fatigue would be more pronounced among participants who exercised in the nature reserve, and that (2) participants in the two exercise groups (but not those in the sedentary control group) would report increased feelings of energy. ...
... Results of Wicks et al. (2022)'s meta-analyses comparing changes in feelings of energy and feelings of fatigue following outdoor physical activity in natural versus non-natural environments revealed effects sizes of d = 3.28 and d = − 1.98 respectively (Wicks et al., 2022(Wicks et al., , p. 1054). In addition, the meta-analysis by Loy et al. (2013) indicated that in comparison to non-exercise control conditions, a single bout of aerobic exercise can enhance feelings of energy by an effect size of about 0.50 (Δ = 0.47). Given the smallest effect size of interest for the present study (0.47), the a priori power analysis for the within-between interaction of an ANOVA with three independent groups and two measurement periods (pre-test and post-test) with the settings of f = 0.25 (moderate effect size), α = .05 ...
This randomized controlled trial investigated the impact of a brief session of group-based running on feelings of energy and fatigue, comparing exercise in a local nature reserve versus an outdoor built environment, and a sedentary control condition. Sixty-six physically active university students participated, with 56 providing full data for each time point. Consistent with previous research, participants in both exercise groups reported significantly increased energy and decreased fatigue compared to those in the sedentary control group. However, the type of outdoor environment did not significantly influence the magnitude of improvements. Contrary to expectations, there was no significant difference in energy enhancement or fatigue mitigation between participants who jogged in a local nature reserve versus those who jogged on a cinder track in an urbanized area. The study discusses potential reasons for this, including seasonal variations in forest volatile organic compounds (FVOCs) concentrations, which may impact the psychological effects associated with forest environments. Further research is needed to better understand the complex relationship between exercise, environment, and feelings of energy/feelings of fatigue.
... A meta-analysis of single exercise bouts emphasized that moderate to vigorous exercise intensity resulted almost always in higher levels of energy but influenced the level of fatigue less. Moreover, a decrease in post-exercise fatigue (being less fatigued) was highly influenced by the positive affective response of energy levels and exercise intensity (Loy et al., 2013). Another recently published review and meta-analysis explored the effects of randomized controlled exercise intervention studies (minimum 1 exercise session per week over a minimum of 3 weeks) on fatigue, energy, and vitality. ...
... Relying on previous literature examining the influence of exercise on positive and negative affect (Ivarsson et al., 2021) or feelings of energy and fatigue (Haas et al., 2017;Loy et al., 2013), we hypothesized stronger positive effects of running on subjective vitality than on perceived fatigue. We distinguished between immediate post-running affective evaluation (1), subsequent (post-running) incidental affect (2), incidental affect throughout the day (3), and long-term incidental affect for 8 weeks (4). ...
... However, an increased fatigue evaluation interacts with TRIMP (Table 2), indicating a stronger negative impact on the fatigue-vitality effect ( Figure 1B). Higher effects on feelings of energy and lower effects on feelings of fatigue are also summarized in a systematic review of single exercise bouts (Loy et al., 2013) and a meta-analysis of longitudinal studies (Wender et al., 2022). As mentioned earlier, the subsequent incidental affect is not influenced by different TRIMPs (H2). ...
Exercise intensity and perceived autonomy are important factors for the affective response toward exercise and adherence. Dual‐mode theory suggests an inverted‐J response curve of affect with increased exercise intensity, but little is known about how different running programs affect the affective response and subsequent incidental affect in daily life. This ambulatory assessment study examines the short‐ to long‐term effects of two 8‐week running interventions (affect‐based vs. polarized‐prescribed) on subjective vitality and perceived fatigue in young female novices. Participants engaged in 3 × 30 minute running sessions weekly in their natural environments and completed electronic diaries three times daily. Autoregressive multilevel models indicate small effects of training intensity on immediate affective subjective vitality (ß = ‐2.37; p = .03; f ² = 0.02) but negligible non‐significant effects on fatigue (ß = 0.26; p = 0.12; f ² = 0.002). Novices experienced increased vitality throughout the day when their running was evaluated positively (ß = 0.23; p = .03; f ² = 0.04), with effects lasting over two days before returning to baseline (ß = ‐0.26; p < .001; f ² = 0.004). However, no significant long‐term effects were observed over 8 weeks in vitality or fatigue. Results indicate between‐ and within‐person variations, but limited sample power does not allow differentiating between programs. This study supports the dual‐mode theory and highlights the importance of distinguishing affective response from incidental affect.
... Although these authors found that attentional focus did not negatively impact psychophysiological responses to an acute bout of exercise, they report the benefits of an acute bout of exercise on both positive and negative affect (Meixner and Herbert). These findings are in line with a previously published meta-analysis which concluded that a single bout of exercise increased feelings of energy and depending on intensity and time may also reduce feelings of fatigue (Loy et al., 2013). While, Meixner and Hebert used a 15-min bout of exercise to enhance affect, Carmichael et al. tried to enhance feelings of energy and fatigue using a 4-min bout of stair climbing. ...
... Previously, Boolani et al. (2019a) had reported that 6 min of self-selected walking speed increased feelings of energy and decreased feelings of fatigue (Boolani et al., 2019a). Taken together these studies (Carmichael et al.;Meixner and Hebert;Loy et al., 2013;Boolani et al., 2019a) suggest that, an acute bout of exercise will positively impact affect moods, but a minimum of 6 min of physical activity is needed to positively enhance moods. ...
... Though significant evidence exists on the beneficial effects of an acute bout of exercise on moods (Carmichael et al.;Meixner and Hebert;Loy et al., 2013;Boolani et al., 2019a), until recently, the evidence on the effects of chronic exercise on feelings of energy and fatigue was mixed and suggested the influence of placebo effects on changes in energy and fatigue (O'Connor and Puetz, 2005;Puetz et al., 2006). In 2022 Wender et al. published a meta-analysis of 81 studies (7,050 participants) that considered potential moderating variables in their analyses. ...
... It has been shown that a single bout of physical activity can impact both mood [16][17][18] and cognition [19] positively; however, the duration and type of physical activity both influence the magnitude of the effect. Recently, a study by Carmichael and colleagues [20], reported that four minutes of stair walking did not modify feelings of energy and fatigue. ...
... To our knowledge the current literature is lacking studies that have used short bouts of walking to assess if these could attenuate the negative impact of performing multiple short bouts of cognitive tasks. Despite significant evidence from multiple meta-analyses on the positive impact of a single bout of physical activity on moods [16][17][18], recent evidence suggests that not everyone benefits from the mood-enhancing benefits of a single bout of exercise [22,23]. Recent work suggests that trait (long-standing pre-disposition) level mental and physical energy and fatigue may explain the inter-individual responses in moods and cognitive task performance after the consumption of caffeine [24] and an adaptogenic-rich caffeinated beverage [25]. ...
... There were no differences in reaction time between groups for the sitting or standing interventions.Individuals who exhibit high trait physical energy reported significant declines in feelings of anxiety over time (−∆0.82), while individuals who were low trait physical energy reported significant increases in feelings of anxiety (+∆0.16) over the course of the 1.5 h intervention (F (1.47, 42.62) = 5.737, p = 0.021, η 2 G = 0.021) (Figure 3B). Individuals who are low trait physical energy reported the lowest fatigue (F (1.47, 42.62) = 3.860, p = 0.031, η 2 G = 0.088), during the sitting (3.97 ± 3.82) and standing interventions (3.80 ± 3.10), while individuals who were high trait physical energy reported the highest fatigue in the standing condition (5.86 ± 3.43).Trait Physical Fatigue: Significant main interactions for trait physical fatigue and intervention (F (1.47, 42.62) = 6.123, p = 0.007, η 2 G = 0.062) were found on the forward counting correct task with low trait individuals performing the best in the standing intervention (14.04 ± 4.76) and the worst when seated(11.74 ...
College students can be sedentary for a majority of the day, which may exacerbate mental health issues or lead to declines in cognitive task performance; however, interventions to address sedentary behaviors may not positively influence everyone. Therefore, the present study sought to identify inter-individual cognitive performance and mood changes of college students during the performance of a cognitive task battery, while seated, standing and with intermittent bouts of walking. Participants (n = 31, age = 25.80 ± 3.61 yrs, 7 male) completed a series of baseline questionnaires including the Trait Mental and Physical Energy and Fatigue survey. Using a randomized controlled cross-over design, participants completed 3 separate testing sessions. At each session, they performed a series of three rounds of cognitive tasks for 27 min and self-reporting mood states for 1 min in the seated position. Each round of cognitive testing was followed by a 2 min break. Each testing day had participants spend the 2 min break in a different condition: sitting, standing, or walking. A series of mixed ANOVAs were used for the primary analysis and a combination of machine learning regressors and classifiers were used for the secondary analysis. Our results suggest that there are unique inter-individual responses to each of the interventions used during the 2 min break. Participants who were low-trait mental and low-trait physical energy benefited the most from the standing desk intervention, while also reporting significant benefits of intermittent walking. However, participants who were low-trait mental fatigue had significant negative consequences of using both standing desks and walking intermittently, while those who were high-trait mental fatigue saw no change in cognitive responses or moods in those conditions. Post hoc machine learning analyses had modest accuracy rates (MAEs < 0.7 for regressors and accuracy rates >60% for classifiers), suggesting that trait mental and physical energy and fatigue may predict inter-individual responses to these interventions. Incorporating standing desks into college classroom settings may result in some students receiving cognitive benefits when inter-individual variability in mood and cognitive responses are accounted for.
... Popularly referred to as a "runner's high," athletes have described feeling "emotionally lighter", "optimistic", "empowered and strong," "extreme energy", and "incredible energy" after a workout [44]. Healthy, sedentary people [45], patients diagnosed with depression and anxiety [46], as well as those with non-clinical levels of psychological distress [47] can also reap the benefits of even short, vigorous bouts of exercise [41]. Eighty percent of our healthy, sedentary participants recounted feeling increased energy after CPET, compared to 18% of patients with ME/CFS [24]. ...
... They demonstrated that for ME/CFS participants, a single bout of exercise increased fatigue moderately, especially at 4 to 96 hours (4 days) after exercise [48]. For non-ME/CFS participants, even some with baseline fatigue, acute exercise boosted energy considerably even as fatigue might not decrease unless the activity was low intensity and lasted more than 20 minutes [45]. ...
... We also could not distinguish whether "lack" meant an increase in the negative feeling (worsened mood, increased fatigue) or no improvement in energy and/or mood as the participant might have experienced before they were sick. Some researchers also believe energy and fatigue may be separate concepts rather than directly opposing ones: that is, someone can experience both increased fatigue and energy at the same time [45]. ...
Background:
Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is the hallmark symptom of myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) yet its diverse manifestations make it difficult to recognize. Brief instruments for detecting PEM are critical for clinical and scientific progress.
Objective:
To develop a clinical prediction rule for PEM.
Method:
49 ME/CFS and 10 healthy, sedentary subjects recruited from the community completed two maximal cardiopulmonary exercise tests (CPETs) separated by 24 hours. At five different times, subjects reported symptoms which were then classified into 19 categories. The frequency of symptom reports between groups at each time point was compared using Fisher's exact test. Receiver operating characteristics (ROC) analysis with area under the curve calculation was used to determine the number of different types of symptom reports that were sufficient to differentiate between ME/CFS and sedentary groups. The optimal number of symptoms was determined where sensitivity and specificity of the types of symptom reports were balanced.
Results:
At all timepoints, a maximum of two symptoms was optimal to determine differences between groups. Only one symptom was necessary to optimally differentiate between groups at one week following the second CPET. Fatigue, cognitive dysfunction, lack of positive feelings/mood and decrease in function were consistent predictors of ME/CFS group membership across timepoints.
Conclusion:
Inquiring about post-exertional cognitive dysfunction, decline in function, and lack of positive feelings/mood may help identify PEM quickly and accurately. These findings should be validated with a larger sample of patients.
... A single bout of exercise is among the most reliable ways to temporarily increase FOE. A meta-analytic review of 16 experiments that measured both FOE and FOF and tested a total of 678 participants found that a single bout of exercise increased FOE compared to controls in 91% of the effect sizes calculated, and the standardized mean effect was 0.47 (Loy et al., 2013). Exerciseinduced reductions in FOF were less consistent and were more likely to occur after low-to-moderate intensity exercise longer than 20 min. ...
... Four-minutes was selected as the dose because it shows promise for improving physiological outcome . Based on the studies summarized above, including the metaanalysis (Loy et al., 2013), it was hypothesized that FOE would increase compared to both a pre-walk baseline and a seated control condition and that FOF would be unchanged. A few prior investigations of acute exercise on FOE and FOF have reported data for each individual participant (e.g., Ward-Ritacco et al., 2016); however, no prior studies involving an exercise duration of less than 15-min appears to have reported data for each individual. ...
... Likewise, the lower than normative level of pre-test mental energy in the control group may have allowed for a regression to the mean related increase in mental energy in the control group that attenuated the potential exercise effect in the ANOVA. Prior studies show that sitting typically results in no change or a worsening of FOE (Loy et al., 2013) and an increase in FOF. The seated stairwell group in the present study showed a surprising decrease in FOF that is not easily explained. ...
Purpose
Even low intensity exercise bouts of at least 15 min can improve feelings of energy (FOE) and reduce systolic blood pressure. However, little is known about the psychological outcomes of briefer exercise bouts, particularly for modes of exercise that are more intense than level walking, and readily available to many working adults. This study assessed the effects of a 4-min bout of stair walking on FOE and feelings of fatigue (FOF).
Methods
Thirty-six young adult participants were randomized to either stair walking or seated control groups. All participants walked on level-ground from a laboratory to a nearby stairwell (~90 s) and were seated for 4 min before beginning their experimental condition. Stair-walking participants walked up and down one flight of 16 stairs at their own pace for 4 min, while control participants remained seated during that time. Participants walked back to the laboratory for post-condition assessments. Measures of blood pressure, heart rate, rated perceived exertion (RPE), and the intensity of feelings of mental energy, mental fatigue, physical energy, and physical fatigue were assessed pre-and post-condition. Separate one-way ANOVAs were conducted on change scores for all variables.
Results
The stair climbing group experienced significant increases in heart rate [F(1,34) = 13.167, p < 0.001] and RPE [F(1,34) = 93.844, p < 0.001] that were not observed in the seated control group. Four minutes of self-paced stair climbing resulted in small changes and non-significant differences within and between groups in blood pressure as well as FOE and FOF.
Conclusion
Although a 4-min self-paced exercise bout can convey short-term physiological health benefits, a 4-min bout of self-paced indoor stair walking in a stairwell was insufficient to lower blood pressure or change subjective FOE and fatigue in a sample that exhibited better than typical FOE and FOF at the pre-test.
... While Boolani and colleagues 24 found that 6 minutes of exercise increase feelings of energy and decrease feelings of fatigue, a meta-analysis by Loy and colleagues 8 reports that decreases in feelings of fatigue with a single session of exercise are moderated by feelings of energy, exercise intensity, and duration. They report that feelings of fatigue decreased when there was at least a moderately large increase in feelings of energy after low-to moderate-intensity exercise lasting longer than 20 minutes. ...
... They report that feelings of fatigue decreased when there was at least a moderately large increase in feelings of energy after low-to moderate-intensity exercise lasting longer than 20 minutes. 8 Interestingly, Ward-Ritacco and colleagues 26 reported that although resistance training in women who were pregnant resulted in increased feelings of mental and physical energy after all sessions, feelings of mental and physical fatigue decreased in 79% to 88% of the sessions. Their findings suggest that there may be times when exercise increases feelings of fatigue. ...
... Aquatic equipment varied by session and incorporated aerobic steps, hand buoys, arm floats, buoyancy belts, noodles, boards, and drag gloves. Participants were educated on the Borg RPE scale (score [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20], which was also posted on pool walls for reference; they were asked to choose exercise modifications to maintain an exertion of 11 to 13 ("fairly light" to "somewhat hard") corresponding to moderate intensity per the ACSM. ...
... Regarding PA, greater improvements in energy/fatigue have been observed among surgery patients with higher moderate-to-vigorous intensity PA (MVPA) levels across several samples [16][17][18][19], and a recent study of Rouxen-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) patients showed greater MVPA related to better mental health-related quality of life, which included ratings of energy/fatigue, independent of %TWL [20]. Additionally, the broader PA literature shows positive effects of MVPA on energy/fatigue [21][22][23][24]. Evaluating the associations of day-to-day perceived energy/fatigue with both %TWL and daily MVPA among bariatric surgery patients can help to elucidate the extent to which reductions in excess weight versus lifestyle factors like MVPA relate to changes in energy/fatigue. ...
... ***p < .001; ± Entered as fixed and random effect in the model, with slope and intercept uncorrelated to facilitate convergence; ¥ Non-White is reference; ϕMale is reference; ^Time-varying covariate; ICC null model = 0.61 [20], as well as experimental work from the exercise literature showing that bouts of exercise improve energy but not fatigue [22]. While we cannot draw causal conclusions given our study's design, MVPA could potentially provide a boost in energy and attentiveness, as demonstrated in prior work [22,40]. ...
... ± Entered as fixed and random effect in the model, with slope and intercept uncorrelated to facilitate convergence; ¥ Non-White is reference; ϕMale is reference; ^Time-varying covariate; ICC null model = 0.61 [20], as well as experimental work from the exercise literature showing that bouts of exercise improve energy but not fatigue [22]. While we cannot draw causal conclusions given our study's design, MVPA could potentially provide a boost in energy and attentiveness, as demonstrated in prior work [22,40]. If confirmed in future research, stronger effects of MVPA on energy and attentiveness than fatigue may be at least partially due to biological mechanisms; for example, exercise triggers an increase in dopamine [41], and dopamine affects cognitive functioning [41] and appears to influence energy more strongly than fatigue [37]. ...
PurposeEnergy and fatigue are thought to improve after bariatric surgery. Such improvements could be related to weight loss and/or increased engagement in day-to-day health behaviors, such as moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA). This study used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to evaluate several aspects of energy/fatigue in real-time in patients’ natural environment during the first year after surgery and assessed the associations of percent total weight loss (%TWL) and daily MVPA with daily energy/fatigue levels.Methods
Patients (n = 71) undergoing Roux-en-Y gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy rated their energy, alertness and attentiveness (averaged to create an “attentiveness” rating), and tiredness and sleepiness (averaged to create a “fatigue” rating) via smartphone-based EMA at 4 semi-random times daily for 10 days at pre-surgery and 3-, 6-, and 12 months post-surgery. Daily MVPA minutes were assessed via accelerometry. Weight was measured in clinic.ResultsEnergy ratings initially increased from pre- to post-surgery, before leveling off/decreasing by 12 months (p < 0.001). Attentiveness and fatigue ratings did not change over time. %TWL was unrelated to any ratings, while MVPA related to both energy and attentiveness but not fatigue. Participants reported more energy on days with more total MVPA min (p = 0.03) and greater attentiveness on days with more total (p < 0.001) and bouted (p = 0.02) MVPA.Conclusions
While more research is needed to confirm causality, results suggest that greater daily MVPA is associated with increased daily energy and attentiveness among bariatric surgery patients, independent of %TWL. Findings add to growing evidence of MVPA’s potential benefits beyond energy expenditure in the context of bariatric surgery.Graphical abstract
... Evidence supports the positive effects of acute aerobic and resistance exercise on mood states. 1,2,3,4 However, non-traditional exercise modalities such as yoga, tai chi, and Pilates remain understudied. Pilates, a mind/body exercise method focused on core stability and muscle control, 5 has improved flexibility, abdominal endurance, muscular endurance, 6 balance, 7 posture and blood pressure, 8 and chronic low back pain. ...
... 40 Reduced fatigue and enhanced feelings of energy following acute exercise result in improved quality of life. 4 In this study, the magnitude of improvement in feelings of energy (d = 0.22) was lower than the mean effect (Δ = 0.47) from 16 studies of acute aerobic exercise, where almost twothirds of the sample were students. 4 In contrast, the magnitude of the effect for fatigue following acute Pilates (d = 0.51) was considerably larger than the mean effect (Δ = 0.03) previously reported for fatigue. ...
... 4 In this study, the magnitude of improvement in feelings of energy (d = 0.22) was lower than the mean effect (Δ = 0.47) from 16 studies of acute aerobic exercise, where almost twothirds of the sample were students. 4 In contrast, the magnitude of the effect for fatigue following acute Pilates (d = 0.51) was considerably larger than the mean effect (Δ = 0.03) previously reported for fatigue. 4 These differences could be in response to participants being less energised but less fatigued by the light-to-moderate intensity required during Pilates' floor-based routine, 4 in comparison to an aerobic exercise stimulus. ...
Background:
Evidence supports positive effects of acute exercise on mood states. Non-traditional exercise modalities, including Pilates, remain understudied, particularly among males. This study examined mood state responses to a single Pilates bout among young adult males, and explored if responses differed according to analogue Generalized Anxiety Disorder (AGAD) or depression status, or physical activity level.
Methods:
Eighty-seven young adult males completed 30-min of mat-based Pilates. Outcomes included state anxiety, worry, feelings of tension, depressed mood, anger, energy and fatigue, and total mood disturbance (TMD). Paired samples t-tests compared pre- and post-session means within the group; magnitude of change was quantified with standardized mean differences. Two condition X two time repeated measures ANOVA examined outcome differences according to AGAD and depression status, and physical activity level.
Results:
Acute Pilates significantly reduced state anxiety, feelings of fatigue, and TMD, and significantly increased feelings of energy (allp ≤ 0.007). Small-to-moderate effect sizes were found for state anxiety, feelings of energy and fatigue, and TMD (all d = 0.22-0.51). Pilates resulted in significant improvements in state anxiety, feelings of fatigue and energy, and TMD among participants with AGAD (n = 28) (all d = 0.10-0.32, p < 0.007) and depressed (n=41) participants (all d = 0.01-0.19, p < 0.008).
Conclusions:
Notwithstanding potential limitations, including the absence of a control group and a lack of follow-up beyond immediate effects, this is the first report to support potential positive mood state responses to an acute bout of Pilates among young adult males. Findings varied based on analogue GAD and depression statuses, and physical activity level.
... A post hoc calculation was conducted using prior work as a guide G*Power [61] to determine whether the sample size was sufficient. Based on previous results assessing changes in affective states following acute exercise [62], the following parameters were defined: Cohen's f: 0.47; alpha error probability: 0.05; 1-beta: 0.95; with three conditions and four time points; and an estimated correlation among repeated measures of 0.5, therefore, the sample size needed to detect a significant effect was determined to be 15. As such, the 21 participants that met our inclusion criteria were deemed satisfactory. ...
... Greene et al. [51] found increased energy and decreased tiredness following 15 min of walking and body weight interval exercise relative to a quiet rest condition. A systematic review and meta-analysis reported a main effect of 0.47 for increased energy following acute exercise [62]. Finally, Jung et al. [52] reported increased energetic arousal following moderate-intensity continuous exercise and an increase in tension arousal following highintensity interval exercise and moderate-intensity continuous exercise, but a larger increase following high-intensity interval exercise. ...
This crossover randomized controlled trial examined the acute psychological effects of a bout of moderate-intensity continuous aerobic exercise (MICE) and a bout of high-intensity functional exercise (HIFE), relative to a no-exercise sedentary control (SED), in participants (N = 21; 15 f; 24.7 ± 9.3 years) with subsyndromal post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Affective state (Energy, Tiredness, Tension, Calmness) was assessed before (Pre), immediately after (Post 0), 20-min after (Post 20), and 40-min after (Post 40) each condition. Affective valence was assessed during each condition, and exercise enjoyment was assessed at Post 0. Enjoyment was significantly greater following HIFE and MICE relative to SED. Energy was significantly increased Post 0 HIFE and MICE but decreased Post 0 SED. Tension was reduced following all conditions and was significantly lower at Post 40 relative to Pre for HIFE, MICE, and SED. Tiredness was significantly reduced at Post 40 relative to Pre following MICE only, while Calmness was significantly lower at Post 40 relative to Pre following MICE and SED. Overall, both exercise conditions were enjoyed to a greater extent than the control, but MICE may provide greater psychological benefits with respect to Calmness and Tiredness. This study is among the first to assess acute changes in affective states relative to various exercise modes in individuals living with subsyndromal PTSD.
... However, the primary limitation of these studies [12][13][14][15][16] is that fatigue was measured as a perception of effort through using a Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) scale. While many researchers use RPE as a measure of fatigue, exercise studies suggest that this scale may not be a good measure of subjective perceptions of fatigue [17][18][19][20][21]. ...
... A stratified K-fold with four strata was also used, but the R 2 was not very different. Taken together, the low MAE suggests that gait may be a good predictor of fatigue and energy [54]; however, the low R 2 in the K-fold models may be explained by the fact that there was a large variation in the data (scores ranging from 0 to 20), and a small sample size (n = 126), and thus the K-fold cross-validation reduced the R 2 . However, when examining bootstrapped models, the higher R 2 suggest that gait might help us identify feelings of energy and fatigue in larger samples, where K-fold cross-validation would result in higher values of R 2 . ...
The objective of this study was to use machine learning to identify feelings of energy and fatigue using single-task walking gait. Participants (n = 126) were recruited from a university community and completed a single protocol where current feelings of energy and fatigue were measured using the Profile of Moods Survey-Short Form approximately 2 min prior to participants completing a two-minute walk around a 6 m track wearing APDM mobility monitors. Gait parameters for upper and lower extremity, neck, lumbar and trunk movement were collected. Gradient boosting classifiers were the most accurate classifiers for both feelings of energy (74.3%) and fatigue (74.2%) and Random Forest Regressors were the most accurate regressors for both energy (0.005) and fatigue (0.007). ANCOVA analyses of gait parameters comparing individuals who were high or low energy or fatigue suggest that individuals who are low energy have significantly greater errors in walking gait compared to those who are high energy. Individuals who are high fatigue have more symmetrical gait patterns and have trouble turning when compared to their low fatigue counterparts. Furthermore, these findings support the need to assess energy and fatigue as two distinct unipolar moods as the signals used by the algorithms were unique to each mood.
... The second main finding is that the VA mood increased after a single bout of the combination exercise training. This result is consistent with the meta-analysis result (Loy et al., 2013). The meta-analysis reported that the single bout of aerobic exercise improved energy and decreased fatigue (Loy et al., 2013). ...
... This result is consistent with the meta-analysis result (Loy et al., 2013). The meta-analysis reported that the single bout of aerobic exercise improved energy and decreased fatigue (Loy et al., 2013). Furthermore, one previous study using the combination SD, standard deviation; Cd, digit symbol coding; rST, reverse Stroop task; ST, Stroop task; LFT, letter fluency task; Updating, working memory updating task; D-CAT, digit cancellation task; AH, Anger-Hostility; CD, Confusion-Bewilderment; DD, Depression-Dejection; FI, Fatigue-Inertia; TA, Tension-Anxiety; VA, Vigor-Activity; F, Friendliness; TMD, total mood disturbance. ...
Background
Long-term combination of physical exercises has reported benefits for cognitive functions and mood states. However, it remains unclear whether a single bout of combination exercise training has acute positive effects on cognitive functions and mood states in middle-aged and older women. It is important to investigate acute effect of physical exercise because it would help to understand a mechanism of benefits of physical exercise. The purpose of this study was to investigate 30 min of a single bout of combination exercise training on cognition and mood states in middle-aged and older females.Methods
In this single-blinded randomized control trial (RCT), middle-aged and older females were assigned randomly to two groups: a combination exercise group and a no-exercise control group. The former group did the combination exercise training (aerobic, strength, and stretching exercises) for 30 min. Meanwhile, the latter group did not do any exercise and waited for 30 min. We measured cognitive functions and mood performance states before and after the exercise or control interventions.ResultsOur main results demonstrated that, compared to the control group, the combination exercise improved inhibition (reverse Stroop and Stroop) and increased vigor–activity mood scores in both middle-aged and older groups. We also found that the only combination exercise group showed the significant positive correlations between improved inhibition performance and improved vigor–activity mood.DiscussionThis randomized controlled trial revealed the acute benefits of combination exercise on inhibition in executive functions and vigor–activity in the healthy middle-aged and older females. Our results provided the scientific evidence related to acute effects of the single bout of the combination exercise training. It suggests that we would be better to do the 30 min physical exercise for our health.Clinical Trial RegistrationThis trial was registered in the University Hospital Medical Information Network Clinical Trials Registry (UMIN000029681). Registered 24 October 2017, https://upload.umin.ac.jp/cgi-bin/ctr/ctr_view_reg.cgi?recptno=R000033922.
... 1 Benefits include an increase in positive affect, a decreased response to acute psychological and physiological stress 10,11 and a reduction in self-reported distress and anxiety. [12][13][14] A single bout of exercise can also enhance feelings of energy, 15 and when compared with quiet rest, has been shown to significantly reduce worry engagement, state of anxiety and feelings of fatigue. [16][17][18] These responses may explain why psychological status remained stable and fatigue levels improved for participants, regardless of COVID-19 status. ...
This case study evaluated the effects of a health package (HP) of a light intensity individualised exercise program and advice on anxiety management and nutrition, on the physical and mental health of people with or without COVID-19, who were quarantined in hotels used as Special Health Accommodation and admitted to the Royal Prince Alfred Virtual Hospital, Sydney during the COVID-19 pandemic. After initial screening and consenting, participants completed three surveys: Depression, Anxiety, Stress Scale; Brief Fatigue Inventory; and the European Quality of Life 5-Dimensions 5-Levels, and were provided with the HP for the duration of their quarantine. The three surveys and a participant reported experience measure were completed prior to discharge. The HP for people in quarantine demonstrated stability of health outcomes and reduction in fatigue. Most participants reported that the HP helped them cope with isolation. Provision of a HP during quarantine could be useful to support physical and mental health.
... Moreover, we doubled the number of 1-min stair-climbing intervals (from three to six) as we suspected that the lack of cognitive benefits in females in Stenling et al. (2019) may have reflected an insufficient number of intervals. We also examined effects of exercise intensity during the stair climbing on subsequent cognitive performance and mood, given previous findings that exercise intensity can influence both the duration and magnitude of the effects of physical activity on cognition (Chang et al., 2012;McMorris & Hale, 2012;Stenling et al., 2019) and mood (Legrand et al., 2018;Loy et al., 2013;Reed & Ones, 2006;Stenling et al., 2019). We hypothesized that executive functioning (as indicted by inhibitory control and switching performance) and selfreported mood would be superior following the interval stair climbing, compared to a control session without exercise, and that benefits would be seen in both sex groups, although the extent of benefits may depend on sex, physical activity habits, and the intensity of the stair climbing. ...
Although stair-climbing intervals provide a simple mode of physical activity that can be easily carried out in naturalistic settings and incorporated into the daily lives of a significant proportion of the global population, addressing physical inactivity issues, very little research has focused on the psychological benefits of stair climbing. To address this, the current prospectively registered randomized controlled crossover trial tested whether brief bouts of stair climbing (6 × 1 min intervals) elicit immediate subsequent improvements in cognitive performance and mood in a sample of healthy young adults (final sample: n = 52, 50% female, age range 18–24 years), with consideration of sex, physical activity habits, and exercise intensity as potentially relevant variables. Compared to a no-exercise control session, following the stair climbing participants exhibited superior cognitive switching performance and reported feeling more energetic and happy. In addition, linear regression analyses linked higher stair-climbing intensity (indicated by heart-rate data) to faster response latencies. None of the effects depended on sex or physical activity habits, which implies that males and females can benefit irrespective of their current physical activity habits. Collectively, these results demonstrate that interval stair climbing can confer immediate psychological benefits, providing further evidence in support of stair climbing as a promising means to address physical inactivity issues. TRN: ACTRN12619000484145, Date of registration: 25/03/2019.
... The correlation patterns of the three items underscore the multifaceted nature of these components. Its sensitivity to various interventions aligns with existing literature, wherein aerobic exercises substantially elevate positive affect and energy perceptions but not anxiety (Reed & Ones, 2006;Loy et al., 2013;Ensari et al., 2015). Additionally, viewing nature images induces feelings of comfort and relaxation (Chen 2018;Chen & Nakagawa 2018;Song et al., 2018). ...
Understanding and assessing mood are pivotal in psychological and psychiatric research, yet existing scales often exhibit limitations such as focusing on singular dimensions of mood and introducing comparative bias through Likert scales. To address these issues, the Chen-HAgiwara Mood Test (CHAMT), a novel three-item scale, was developed. Grounded in the valence-arousal two-dimensional theory of affect, CHAMT offers a comprehensive assessment, focusing on three integral mood components: pleasure, relaxation, and vigor. This study evaluates the reliability, validity, and applicability of CHAMT in capturing mood variations post diverse experimental interventions. The results indicate that CHAMT exhibits high internal consistency and notable item-total correlations, underscoring its reliability. It demonstrated excellent same-day test-retest reliability, with variations observed on different days, implying a potential influence of temporal factors on mood assessments. The notable correlations between CHAMT's components and established external criteria such as positive affect, depression, and state anxiety substantiate its validity in assessing diverse mood dimensions. The examination of different interventions revealed a discernable impact on specific mood components, aligning with theoretical expectations, and showcasing the nuanced interplay between interventions and mood dimensions. The findings suggest that CHAMT holds substantial promise in refining mood assessments in psychological and psychiatric research, due to its brevity, multifaceted approach, and alignment with established theoretical frameworks.
... In the present study, those participants in the badminton group and the rope skipping group reported feeling less fatigued after the intervention, while those who did not engage in any exercise felt as fatigued as before the experiment. Loy and colleagues [35] suggested that the effect of exercise on fatigue could be explained by su cient energy recovery after the exercise, as energy is expended during the exercise and subsequently subjective sleep quality may improve [34]. Moreover, we discovered that participants in the exercise groups overall felt signi cantly better and more alert following the experiment, while such changes were not detected in the control group. ...
Background
Fatigue and poor sleep quality are common among university students and can negatively affect their studies, college lives, and physical and mental health. Aerobic exercise has shown promise in mitigating these issues. However, exercise interventions involved in previous studies were often time-consuming. To identify a more efficient approach, we evaluated the effects of 15-day rope skipping and badminton interventions on fatigue and sleep issues. We hypothesized that both badminton and rope skipping would be effective in mitigating fatigue and sleep problems and that the effect of rope skipping would be greater than that of badminton.
Methods
Seventy-six participants’ levels of fatigue and sleep were assessed via five variables, using the Consensus Sleep Diary, the Pittsburg Sleep Quality Index, and the fatigue diary.
Results
Both exercises were effective only in improving perceived fatigue and sleep onset latency. One of the reasons for the nonsignificant results could be that some participants’ sleep was disturbed by roommates sharing the same bedroom.
Conclusions
Short-term rope skipping and badminton can effectively improve the fatigue and sleep quality of university students. In addition, we found that some participants reported being more interested in exercise after the intervention, suggesting that exercise interventions could be used to foster exercise habits.
... Regular and moderate-intensity exercise is known to enhance feelings of energy and decrease fatigue [43]. Not only limited to healthy individuals, symptoms of fatigue in patients with medical conditions including systemic lupus erythematosus, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and cancer are also known to improve significantly with exercises [44][45][46][47]. ...
Euphoric moods characterize the postpartum period, but for many mothers, regardless of economic, social, ethnic, or cultural backgrounds, this period is overshadowed by the negative impact of physical and mental fatigue. This study conducted a comprehensive search across multiple databases, including PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Google Scholar, to gather articles reporting associations between various factors and postpartum fatigue. The findings revealed that cultural and social expectations of motherhood, sleep disturbance, partnering, socio-economic disadvantage, pre-existing mental illness, and labor experiences significantly contributed to postpartum fatigue. At the same time, routine exercise and social support systems served as protective factors. By addressing these factors promptly, healthcare providers can enhance the well-being and quality of life of postpartum women and their infants.
... The capacity for exercise to modify central (brain) and peripheral (autonomic) nervous system functioning provides possible pathways for exercise to alter cognition in the short term [40][41][42]. Indeed, meta-analytic research shows that exercise in controlled settings can have acute positive effects on cognitive performance [43][44][45], perceived energy levels [46], anxiety, mood, self-esteem [47][48][49], attention, and academic performance [43,50]. These promising outcomes have encouraged further research exploring the potential for exercise to enhance learning in schools, with several studies showing that school-based exercise interventions can have similar short-term effects [12,43,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57]. ...
Exercise has transient effects on cognition and mood, however the impact of Physical Education (PE) on cognitive and affective processes across the school day has not been examined. This study used wearables and questionnaires to track student arousal, engagement, and emotion across school days/periods following PE. Skin conductance, heart rate, heart rate variability, and self-reported engagement, arousal, and valence were analyzed for 23 students (age 15–17 years) on days with and without PE. Sympathetic arousal was significantly higher for two hours following PE and there were stronger decreases in arousal across other classes relative to days without PE. On days with PE, engagement decreased, whereas valence increased from morning to afternoon. These findings highlight the importance of considering acute effects of PE on learning across the entire school day, and demonstrates the feasibility of wearables to clarify how the timing of PE could positively or negatively affect self-regulation and learning.
... Exercise has been shown to improve motor learning on this task (Stavrinos and Coxon 2017) and was expected to enhance experimental effects by supporting motor learning in the placebo condition. Additionally, Exercise was intended to increase alertness and arousal (Dietrich and Audiffren 2011) and counteract the known mild sedative effects of sulpiride (Ho et al. 2009;Loy et al. 2013) which may obscure any apparent effects on learning. Given the specificity of sulpiride to D2-like receptors, and evidence that early learning relies primarily on D1 receptor activity, participants in both sulpiride and placebo conditions were expected to demonstrate motor skill learning during online acquisition. ...
Rationale: Dopamine signalling supports motor skill learning in a variety of ways, including through an effect on cortical and striatal plasticity. One neuromodulator that has been consistently linked to motor skill learning is dopamine. However, the specific role of dopamine D2 receptor in the acquisition and consolidation stages of motor learning remains unclear.
Objectives
To examine the effect of a selective D2 receptor antagonist on human motor skill acquisition and consolidation.
Methods
In this randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, healthy adult men and women (N = 23) completed a sequential motor skill learning task after taking either sulpiride (800mg) or placebo. A 20-minute bout of high-intensity interval cycling exercise was included to enhance experimental effects and counteract potentially confounding sedative effects of sulpiride.
Results
Sulpiride reduced performance during motor skill acquisition relative to placebo in the first session, however this difference was abolished at the subsequent retention test. Sulpiride did not reduce consolidation of learning as expected, however it led to a reduction in speed of execution relative to placebo.
Conclusions
Our results demonstrate that neuromodulation at the dopamine D2 receptor is critical in the early acquisition of a novel motor skill. These results may have functional relevance in motor rehabilitation as reduced dopamine transmission can impact performance during initial learning and slow subsequent performance of the skill.
... As well, the passive exercise condition elicited a baseline to post-PVT increase in subjective ratings of mental fatigue; however, the increase was markedly less than the control condition at each post-PVT assessment. In an active exercise condition (i.e., light to moderate intensity), a postexercise reduction in mental fatigue-compared to a non-exercise control-is expected given that the metabolic consequences of volitional muscle activation (e.g., increased heart rate, blood pressure, V E , V O 2 , V CO 2 , and CBF) increase psychological arousal, stimulate catecholamine production and promote a positive sense of well-being (for meta-analyses, see Loy et al. 2013). It was, however, unknown whether passive exercise would elicit a similar benefit given that it did not alter heart rate and because earlier work by our group reported that the manipulation (but completed without a concurrent PVT) does not produce agonist muscle activation or increased blood pressure, ventilation or gas exchange variables (Shirzad et al. 2022;Tari et al. 2023). ...
Sustained cognitive effort associated with the psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) increases objective and subjective measures of mental fatigue and elicits a post-PVT inhibitory control deficit. In contrast, passive exercise wherein an individual’s limbs are moved via an external force (i.e., mechanically driven cycle ergometer flywheel) provides a postexercise inhibitory control benefit linked to an exercise-based increase in cerebral blood flow. Here, we examined whether passive exercise performed concurrently with the PVT ‘blunts’ an inhibitory control deficit. On separate days, participants (N = 27) completed a 20 min PVT protocol (control condition) and same duration PVT protocol paired with passive cycle ergometry (passive exercise condition). Prior to (i.e., baseline), immediately after and 30 min after each condition inhibitory control was assessed via the antisaccade task. Antisaccades require a goal-directed eye movement (i.e., saccade) mirror-symmetrical to a target and provide an ideal tool for evaluating task-based changes in inhibitory control. PVT results showed that vigilance (as assessed via reaction time: RT) during control and passive exercise conditions decreased from the first to last 5 min of the protocol and increased subjective ratings of mental fatigue. As well, in the control condition, immediate (but not 30-min) post-intervention antisaccade RTs were longer than their baseline counterparts–a result evincing a transient mental fatigue-based inhibitory control deficit. For the passive exercise condition, immediate and 30-min post-intervention antisaccade RTs were shorter than their baseline counterparts and this result was linked to decreased subjective ratings of mental fatigue. Thus, passive exercise ameliorated the selective inhibitory control deficit associated with PVT-induced mental fatigue and thus provides a potential framework to reduce executive dysfunction in vigilance-demanding occupations.
... Moreover, fatigue and energy appear to be two separate, albeit correlated, constructs [113]. Even though energy and fatigue are assumed to be the two ends of the same continuum, evidence exists which suggests that certain interventions impact either energy or fatigue only, suggesting that these mood states may be distinct as well [59,[114][115][116][117][118][119]. Therefore, since in this study we operationally defined energy and fatigue as two separate mood traits and states, this may have influenced our results. ...
Noncommunicable chronic diseases are associated with lifestyle behaviors. Psychological and social factors may influence the adoption of such behaviors. Being mentally and physically energized or fatigued may influence the intention–behavior gap of healthy lifestyle adoption accordingly. We investigated the associations of age, sex, lifestyle behaviors, mood, and mental and physical energy and fatigue at both the trait and state levels. The participants (N = 670) completed questionnaires assessing their sleep, mood, mental and physical state energy and fatigue, physical activity, mental workload, and diet. The ordinary least squares regression models revealed an overlap between the mental state and trait energy levels for males who consume polyphenols, have a high mental workload, and sleep well. Being younger, having a high stress level, bad sleep habits, and being confused and depressed were associated with high mental fatigue. Physical energy and fatigue shared the same commonalities with the previous results, with greater discrepancies observed between the state and trait indicators compared to that between mental energy and fatigue. Diet and stress management seem to be predictors of high physical energy, and females report higher physical fatigue levels. Health care professionals should consider this psychosocial complex profiling in their differential diagnosis and when one is implementing lifestyle behavioral changes to address the facets of preventive medicine, wellness, and health promotion.
... This may in turn have direct positive effects on feelings of fatigue, or it may help modify maladaptive forms of behaviour. The latter option is perhaps more likely and may indeed be efficacious as previous work suggested that physical exercise, when done in appropriate form, intensity, duration and intervals, could help improve or prevent fatigue in the long run, potentially also in pathological conditions 25,53,59 . Although it should be noted that the effect of exercise on fatigue in some clinical disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, is less clear as yet [60][61][62] . ...
Research suggests that the temporal order in which people receive information about costs and benefits whilst making decisions can influence their choices. But, do people have a preference for seeking information about costs or benefits when making effort-based decisions, and does this impact motivation? Here, participants made choices about whether to exert different levels of physical effort to obtain different magnitudes of reward, or rest for low reward. Prior to each effort-based choice, they also had to decide which information they wanted to see first: how much physical effort would be required, or how large the reward would be. We found no overall preference for seeking reward or effort information first, but motivation did change when people saw reward or effort information first. Seeking effort information first, both someone’s average tendency to do so and their choice to see effort first on a given trial, was associated with reductions in the willingness to exert higher effort. Moreover, the tendency to prefer effort information first was associated with reduced vigorous exercise and higher levels of fatigue in everyday life. These findings highlight that preferences for seeking effort information may be a bias that reduces people’s willingness to exert effort in the lab and in everyday life.
... This presents an interesting paradox: increased fatigue can lead to less physical activity but increasing physical activity can lessen fatigue. Studies examining the acute effects of exercise on fatigue shed little insights on this issue, and findings vary based on intensity, whether fatigue symptoms are measured concomitantly or separately from feelings of energy, and the timing of the post-exercise measurement (Ensari, Sandroff, & Motl, 2016;Ensari, Sandroff, & Motl, 2017;Loy, O'Connor, & Dishman, 2013;Petruzzello & Motl, 2011). Therefore, it could be that perception of fatigue shortly after exercise presents as a perceived barrier to a behavior that, if completed regularly, could improve perception of fatigue severity in the long term. ...
Purpose
This study is a secondary analysis of data from a mixed methods exploration of fatigue in people with multiple sclerosis (MS), a chronic autoimmune disease affecting the central nervous system. During initial analysis, worry emerged during discussions of the fatigue experience. The purpose of this study is to explore worry in relationship to exercise and physical activity behavior.
Methods
Mixed methods were used to address the research question. 55 people with MS provided demographic and survey data (habitual physical activity, body perception, functioning). 35 participated in semi-structured interviews on the topics of fatigue, body sensations, emotions, and their effects on physical activity. Qualitative data were analyzed utilizing constructivist grounded theory. Quantitative data were analyzed utilizing multiple regression.
Results
Qualitative theory described participants’ thoughts and experiences regarding the consequences of fatigue during activity, and how they appear to influence subsequent actions. Worry played a critical role in thought processes regarding physical activity. Aspects of body perception were weak quantitative predictors of physical activity behavior after control of physical functionality.
Conclusions
The most significant finding of this study was the description and dialogue about worry as a factor that shapes perceptions of the benefits and value of exercise and physical activity. Physical activity practitioners could benefit from seeking to understand physical-activity-related worry when examining physical activity behavior and designing programming.
... Our goals were to examine how the exercise environment changed emotion and the relationship between emotion and exertion. We expected that exercise-both indoors and outdoors-would increase positive emotions (Ekkekakis et al., 2000;Loy, O'Connor, & Dishman, 2013;Reed & Ones, 2006) and decrease negative emotions (Biddle, 2000;Herring et al., 2017;Landers & Arent, 2007). We also expected that exercising in an outdoor natural outdoor environment would lead to a greater increase in positive emotions than exercising in an indoor simulated natural environment. ...
... Exercise training is a low-cost and accessible option for improving sleep and reducing fatigue in adults with stroke (Loy, O'Connor, & Dishman, 2013;Youngstedt, 2005). Exercise is recommended in the clinical management of individuals with stroke (Billinger et al., 2014). ...
Poor sleep and chronic fatigue are common in people with chronic stroke (i.e. ≥ 6 months post‐stroke). Exercise training is a viable, low‐cost therapy for promoting sleep and reducing fatigue; however, the effects of exercise on sleep and fatigue in people with chronic stroke are unclear. Thus, we conducted a systematic review ascertaining the effects of exercise on sleep and fatigue in people with chronic stroke. We systematically searched EMBASE, MEDLINE, AgeLine, the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, CINAHL, SPORTDiscus, SCOPUS, and reference lists of relevant reviews for articles that examined the effects of exercise on sleep or fatigue in chronic stroke. Search results were limited to adults ≥ 18 years, randomized controlled trials, non‐randomized trials, and pre–post studies, which were published in English and examined the effects of exercise on sleep or fatigue in people with chronic stroke. We extracted study characteristics and information on the measurement of sleep and fatigue, and assessed study quality and risk of bias using the CONSORT criteria and Cochrane risk‐of‐bias tool, respectively. We found two studies that examined the effects of exercise on sleep, and two that examined the effects of exercise on fatigue. All studies reported positive effects of exercise training on sleep and fatigue; however, there were concerns of bias and study quality in all studies. There is preliminary evidence that exercise promotes sleep and reduces fatigue in people with chronic stroke; however, the extent to which exercise impacts these health parameters is unclear.
... Physical exercise has been shown to improve energy-related sensations such as energetic arousal, calmness, burnout, emotional exhaustion, fatigue, and vigour (Puetz et al., 2008;Kanning and Schlicht, 2010;Brand et al., 2020). Exercise appears to improve sensations of energy more consistently than sensations of fatigue: a meta-analysis on the effects of a single bout of exercise found that while acute exercise homogenously increased sensations of energy, the effects for fatigue were heterogeneous, and moderated by exercise intensity and duration (Loy et al., 2013). Similarly, 6 weeks of either low or moderate chronic exercise in adults reporting persistent fatigue improved sensations of energy in both conditions. ...
Energy-related sensations include sensation of energy and fatigue as well as subjective energizability and fatigability. First, we introduce interdisciplinary useful definitions of all constructs and review findings regarding the question of whether sensations of fatigue and energy are two separate constructs or two ends of a single dimension. Second, we describe different components of the bodily energy metabolism system (e.g., mitochondria; autonomic nervous system). Third, we review the link between sensation of fatigue and different components of energy metabolism. Finally, we present an overview of different treatments shown to affect both energy-related sensations and metabolism before outlining future research perspectives.
... A previous meta-analysis found that acute exercise (i.e., a single bout of exercise for about 20-40 min) consistently increases feelings of energy but feelings of fatigue are reduced primarily after ≥20 min of low-to-moderate intensity exercise that concurrently increased feelings of energy (Loy et al., 2013). This complex finding supports the need for including both feelings of energy and fatigue in exercise research. ...
In this meta-analysis, we synthesized the results of randomized controlled trials of different exercise training interventions on participants’ feelings of fatigue, energy, and vitality. The search of studies was conducted using six databases as well as several other supplementary search strategies available before December 2021. The initial search generated over 3,600 articles with 81 studies (7,050 participants) and 172 effects meeting the inclusion criteria. We analyzed the effects from the studies using a meta-analytic multivariate model and considered the potential moderating effect of multiple variables. Our analysis revealed exercise to decrease the feelings of fatigue by a small effect size (g = −0.374; 95% CI [−0.521, −0.227]), increase energy by a small-to-moderate effect size (g = 0.415; 95% CI [0.252, 0.578]), and to increase the feeling of vitality by a moderate effect size (g = 0.537; 95% CI [0.404, 0.671]). All main results remained robust after several sensitivity analyses using different statistical estimators, and consideration of outlier and influential studies. Moreover, moderator analyses revealed significant effects of exercise intensity and intervention duration on fatigue, exercise intensity, and modality on energy, and participant health, exercise intensity modality, and exercise training location on vitality. We conclude that when groups adopt a moderate intensity exercise training program while participating in a randomized trial, compared to controls, this typically results in small-to-moderate average improvements in feelings of fatigue, energy, and vitality.
... In one review, Reed and Ones (2006) found that an acute bout of aerobic exercise had a moderate sized positive effect on positive activated affective states (e.g., vigour, energetic arousal). Similarly, Loy et al. (2013) found a moderate positive effect of a single bout of physical activity on energy, however, they found that physical activity did not have an acute effect on fatigue. Multiple meta-analyses have also shown that a single bout of physical activity has an acute effect at reducing negative activated affective states (e.g., state anxiety, tension) (Ensari et al., 2015;Petruzzello et al., 1991). ...
Background
Little is known about the acute affective response to physical activity in people with depression, which may have implications for acute symptom management and may also be a mechanism that explains the antidepressant effects of physical activity. This study aimed to quantitatively synthesize existing research on the acute affective response to physical activity in people with depression.
Methods
Five online databases were searched to July 2021 to identify studies that examined pre-post changes in affective states following a bout of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in people with depression. The affective response to physical activity was synthesized using a random-effects meta-analysis with a robust variance estimator.
Results
A total of 18 studies were included in the meta-analysis. Results showed that people with depression experienced a favourable affective response following an acute bout of physical activity (SMD = 0.585, 95% confidence interval = [0.456, 0.714], 95% prediction interval = [−0.079, 1.249]). Moderator analysis indicated this effect was consistent across different types of affective states, exercise conditions, and participant characteristics. Additionally, results were robust to changes in the study protocol and publication bias.
Limitations
Only within-person pre-post changes in affective responses were examined. No comparisons were made with control conditions.
Conclusion
Acute bouts of physical activity can significantly improve affective states in people with depression. Future research should examine the effect of physical activity on affective states in non-experimental settings and examine whether the affective response to physical activity is a predictor of the long-term antidepressant effects of physical activity interventions.
... Short-term exercise may be an effective way to protect against mental health concerns in tertiary education settings, including during periods of high stress, such as exam periods [22]. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews of all populations and age groups show that short-term exercise, including a single bout of exercise, can reduce symptoms of anxiety [23] and increase feelings of energy [24], while in healthy adults single bouts of exercise increase performance on memory tasks [25]. The potential of short-term exercise as a mental health promotion strategy in tertiary students, specifically, remains unknown. ...
Exercise can improve mental health; however many tertiary students do not reach recommended levels of weekly engagement. Short-term exercise may be more achievable for tertiary students to engage in to promote mental health, particularly during times of high stress. The current scoping review aimed to provide an overview of controlled trials testing the effect of short-term (single bout and up to 3 weeks) exercise across mental health domains, both at rest and in response to an experimentally manipulated laboratory stress task, in tertiary students. The search was conducted using ‘Evidence Finder,’ a database of published and systematic reviews and controlled trials of interventions in the youth mental health field. A total of 14 trials meet inclusion criteria, six measured mental health symptoms in response to an experimentally manipulated laboratory stress task and the remaining eight measured mental health symptoms. We found that short-term exercise interventions appeared to reduce anxiety like symptoms and anxiety sensitivity and buffered against a drop in mood following an experimentally manipulated laboratory stress task. There was limited available evidence testing the impacts of exercise on depression like symptoms and other mental health mental health domains, suggesting further work is required. Universities should consider implementing methods to increase student knowledge about the relationship between physical exercise and mental health and student access to exercise facilities.
... For example, in young, healthy adults, fatigue and energy are both correlated with and predicted by sleep quality (Boolani & Manierre, 2019); however, each construct has independent predictors, such as PA and age (Boolani & Manierre, 2019). Fatigue and energy can also be independently influenced in young, healthy adults through interventions, such as exercise (Loy, O'connor, & Dishman, 2013) and caffeine (Kumar, Wheaton, Snow, & Millard-Stafford, 2015), suggesting some of the mechanisms contributing to fatigue and energy are distinct. Furthermore, separate constructs of physical energy and mental energy have been defined and relate to the capacity to complete either physical or mental activities, respectively (Boolani & Manierre, 2019;O'Connor, 2004). ...
Compromised attentional resources during perceived fatigue has been suggested to alter motor control. The authors determined if measures of postural control and gait are predicted by state and trait physical and mental fatigue and energy, and how these relationships are modified by sex, sleep quality, and physical activity. Young adults ( n = 119) completed the Modified Clinical Test of Sensory Integration, overground walking, and questionnaires to quantify fatigue and energy, sleep quality, and physical activity. Regression models indicated that trait fatigue, trait energy, and sleep quality were predictors of postural control ( p ≤ .02, R ² ≥ .04). State fatigue, state energy, and sex were predictors of gait ( p ≤ .05, R ² ≥ .03). While the variance explained was low (3–13%), the results demonstrate perceptions of fatigue and energy may influence posture and gait.
... and others showing no changes (n range = 12-277) in fatigue after engaging in MVPA. The effects of acute PA on energy reported here are consistent with a meta-analysis of 16 acute activity experiments in which 11 of the samples were college students and two of the investigations are included in the present review (Loy et al., 2013). The meta-analysis found acute activity increased energy by a standardized mean (95% confidence interval) of 0.47 (0.39-0.56). ...
Problem
College students report high levels of mental and emotional exhaustion. As part of the 24-h activity cycle (24-HAC), sleep, sedentary behavior (SED), and physical activity are health habits that may exert independent and interactive effects on daily aspects of wellbeing and health in this cohort. The purpose of this systematic review was to synthesize the available evidence on relationships between the individual components of the 24-HAC and feelings of energy and fatigue among college students.
Method
Three databases were searched using terms related to sleep, SED, light-intensity physical activity (LIPA), and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA), energy, fatigue, and college students. Peer-reviewed, primary studies published in English using valid and reliable measures were included.
Results
Fifty-two unique studies were identified for inclusion. Sleep quality and quantity are likely positively associated with feelings of energy and negatively associated with feelings of fatigue; however, studies on LIPA and SED were less common leading to inconclusive findings. Most studies reported on associations between MVPA and feelings of energy or fatigue and indicate positive and negative relationships, respectively.
Conclusions
To date, most research has focused on relationships between MVPA and feelings of energy and fatigue. More research is needed to further characterize relationships between the other behavioral components and these outcomes of interest. Additionally, future research should include measurements of all four behavioral components within the framework of the 24-HAC to more fully elucidate how these behaviors interact to impact feelings of energy and fatigue in college students.
... Studies on the neurobiology of energy and fatigue in healthy adults without neurological diseases have suggested distinct brain networks and neurotransmitter signaling systems (32). Evidence indicates that energy may be regulated by the dopaminergic signaling system, whereas fatigue may be primarily regulated by the serotoninergic system (33)(34)(35). Dopaminergic neuromodulation is strongly implicated in motivation, cognition, and mobility; therefore, dopamine decreases associated with aging may lead to decreased motivation or perceived energy (36). ...
Background
Mild Parkinsonian Signs (MPS), highly prevalent in older adults, predict disability. It is unknown whether energy decline, a predictor of mobility disability, is also associated with MPS. We hypothesized that those with MPS had greater decline in self-reported energy levels (SEL) than those without MPS, and that SEL decline and MPS share neural substrates.
Methods
Using data from the Health, Aging and Body Composition Study, we analyzed 293 Parkinson’s Disease-free participants (83±3 years old, 39% Black, 58% women) with neuroimaging data, MPS evaluation by Unified Parkinson Disease Rating Scale in 2006-2008, and ≥ 3 measures of SEL since 1999-2000. Individual SEL slopes were computed via linear mixed models. Associations of SEL slopes with MPS were tested using logistic regression models. Association of SEL slope with volume of striatum, sensorimotor, and cognitive regions were examined using linear regression models adjusted for normalized total gray matter volume. Models were adjusted for baseline SEL, mobility, demographics, and comorbidities.
Results
Compared to those without MPS (n=165), those with MPS (n=128) had 37% greater SEL decline in the prior eight years (p=0.001). Greater SEL decline was associated with smaller right striatal volume (adjusted standardized β=0.126, p=0.029). SEL decline was not associated with volumes in other regions. The association of SEL decline with MPS remained similar after adjustment for right striatal volume (adjusted OR=2.03, 95% CI: 1.16 - 3.54).
Conclusion
SEL decline may be faster in those with MPS. Striatal atrophy may be important for declining energy but does not explain the association with MPS.
... Interestingly, a previous audit of patients from our hospital's WHP service who received individual one-to-one physiotherapy (not group-based therapy) did not find significant improvements in the coping, independent living and pain domains using the same QOL tool [32]. The improvements in QOL domains seen in the current study may be a result of the general exercise training component, as exercise is well documented to improve physical function, reduce pain severity and increase energy levels, and in turn can improve coping [24,25]. ATHENA is underpinned by clinical practice guidelines [8] and recent research supporting group-based and multicomponent therapies to improve UI symptoms in overweight and obese women [11,12], so it is not surprising that ATHENA was proven to be effective in this study. ...
Introduction and hypothesisSupervised pelvic floor muscle training (PFMT), weight loss and exercise are recommended for overweight/obese women with urinary incontinence (UI). This study aimed to implement and evaluate the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of a 12-week group exercise and healthy eating program (ATHENA) for overweight/obese women with UI.Methods
This study, using an implementation-effectiveness hybrid type 3 design, was conducted within a Women’s Health Physiotherapy outpatient service at an Australian tertiary public hospital. Intervention feasibility and acceptability were assessed through process evaluation of implementation, while clinical effectiveness was assessed via pre-/post-clinical and quality of life surveys. Process data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and effectiveness data were compared pre-/post-intervention using inferential statistics.ResultsOf 156 eligible patients, 37 (24%) agreed to participate; 29 (78%) completed the ATHENA program. Median (IQR) age and body mass index were 53 (47–65) years and 30.8 (29.1–34.8) kg/m2 respectively. ATHENA was feasible to implement, with all components delivered as intended and high participant satisfaction. Ninety-seven percent of participants reported improved UI symptoms (global rating of change) and significant improvements in overall pelvic floor dysfunction and quality of life utility scores (p = 0.001). While weight did not change, significant improvements were found in body-food choice congruence (intuitive eating scale-2; p < 0.01).Conclusions
The ATHENA intervention was feasible, acceptable and clinically effective for overweight and obese women with urinary incontinence at a tertiary public hospital in Australia. Further research into longer term outcomes and the cost effectiveness of this group intervention is recommended. Trial registration: N/A. Ethics approval, HREC/2018/QGC/46582, date of registration 14/11/2018.
... This relationship was not significant for those who reported engaging in day-to-day physical activity (such as walking to complete basic tasks or climbing stairs). It has been demonstrated that exercise can increase energy levels, and exercise has multiple mechanisms of action in the central nervous system that may directly affect energy perception [9,47,48]. Physical activity levels may be predictive of improved perception of higher energy level and may signal quality of life status in aging populations [44,49]. These dose-response relationships parallel the results presented here, wherein higher levels of physical activity had the strongest associations with higher self-reported energy. ...
Background
Effects of fatigue on health in older age are well studied, yet little is known about the clinical relevance of energy perception.
Aims
To explore cross-sectional associations of self-reported energy with physical and mental health metrics in the Health, Aging, and Body Composition Study.
Methods
Participants rated their energy from 0 to 10; the outcome was energy dichotomized at the median (≥ 7 = higher energy). Four domains were assessed: depressive symptoms (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale); physical performance (function: usual and rapid gait speed; fitness: 400-m walk time); physical activity (casual walking, walking for exercise, and intense exercise); and cognitive function (Modified Mini-Mental State Examination and Digit Symbol Substitution Test). Covariates bivariately associated with energy entered a multivariable logistic regression model, adjusted for demographics, chronic conditions, and strength.
Results
Depressive symptoms, physical performance and activity, but not cognition, were bivariately associated with energy (p < 0.0005). Younger age, male sex, greater strength, and absence of chronic conditions predicted higher energy (p < 0.001). In a multivariable model, depressive symptoms [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) 95% CI 0.69 (0.62, 0.76)] and 400-m walk times [aOR = 0.81 (0.72, 0.91)] were inversely associated with energy; usual and rapid gait speed [aOR = 1.3 (1.2, 1.4); aOR = 1.2 (1.1–1.4)], and time spent in intense exercise [aOR = 1.4 (1.1–1.7)] were positively associated with energy.
Discussion
In this cohort with a range of chronic conditions and fatigue, perceiving higher energy levels may reflect better emotional and physical health.
Conclusion
Energy should be considered in multidimensional clinical assessments of older age.
... These adjectives fall within the positive affect domain of the circumplex model of affect (Ekkekakis, 2013;Russell & Barrett, 1999). There is not a clear consensus on potential differences between specific positive affect adjectives, yet feelings of energy have demonstrated differing associations with activity-related behaviors compared to alternative positive affect conceptualizations (e.g., pleasantness, joy; Loy et al., 2013Loy et al., , 2018. Additionally, the associations between affect and activity-related behaviors in free-living settings have examined both positive affect and feelings of energy across the life span (Dunton et al., 2014;Hevel et al., 2021;Liao et al., 2015). ...
Objectives:
Older adults engage in excessive sedentary behaviors which holds significant health implications. Examining affect responses during sedentary behavior is not well understood despite the wealth of evidence linking affect and motivation. Contextual influences (i.e., social, physical) likely influence affective responses during sedentary behavior and therefore warrant further investigation.
Methods:
Older adults (n=103, Mage=72, Range: 60-98) participated in a 10-day study where they were received 6 randomly timed, smartphone-based Ecological Momentary Assessment (EMA) prompts/day. Participants reported their affect, current behavior, and context at each EMA prompt. Participants also wore an activPAL accelerometer to measure their sedentary behavior duration. Separate multilevel models examined the extent to which the context influences affective responses during self-report sedentary (vs. non-sedentary) behaviors.
Results:
The social context moderated the association between sedentary behavior and negative affect. The physical context moderated the association between sedentary behavior and positive affect.
Discussion:
Interventions should consider the context of behaviors when designing interventions to reduce sedentary behavior as some contextual factors may attenuate, while other contexts may exacerbate, associations between activity-related behaviors and indicators of well-being.
... However, Loy and colleagues [9] recently provided evidence that energy and fatigue are two distinct moods (e.g., an individual can be energetic and fatigued simultaneously), with multiple studies since showing that feelings of energy and fatigue are distinct yet overlapping constructs [10][11][12], with their own mental and physical components [13,14]. Although we are aware of multiple interventions, such as exercise [15], caffeine [16,17], and sleep [18], that increase feelings of energy and/or decrease feelings of fatigue, evidence regarding the effectiveness of these interventions is mixed. Additional research is needed to better understand the inter-and intra-individual differences in the efficacy of these interventions. ...
Multiple studies suggest that genetic polymorphisms influence the neurocognitive effects of caffeine. Using data collected from a double-blinded, within-participants, randomized, cross-over design, this study examined the effects of trait (long-standing pre-disposition) mental and physical energy and fatigue to changes in moods (Profile of Mood Survey-Short Form (POMS-SF), state mental and physical energy and fatigue survey), cognitive (serial subtractions of 3 (SS3) and 7 (SS7)), and fine-motor task (nine-hole peg test) performance after consuming a caffeinated beverage and a non-caffeinated placebo. Results indicate that trait mental and physical fatigue and mental energy modified the effects of caffeine on vigor, tension-anxiety, physical, and mental fatigue. Additionally, we report that those who were high trait physical and mental fatigue and low-trait mental energy reported the greatest benefit of caffeine on the SS3 and SS7, while those who were high trait mental and physical fatigue reported the greatest benefit of consuming caffeine on fine-motor task performance. The results of our study suggest that trait mental and physical fatigue and mental energy modify the acute effects of caffeine among a group of healthy, young adults and should be measured and controlled for by researchers who choose to study the effects of caffeine on acute moods and cognitive and fine-motor task performance.
... Physical activity may reduce tension, induce relaxation, provide a distraction, and lessen rumination over stressors, which are all considered effective means for coping with stress (Hilt and Pollak, 2012;Sharon-David and Tenenbaum, 2017). A single bout of exercise can be enough to bring about a positive change, with research suggesting that as little as 10 min of aerobic exercise can have a positive effect on mood, reduced stress, and perceived energy levels (Rudolph and Butki, 1998;Loy et al., 2013Loy et al., , 2018. ...
This study explored the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived health behaviors; physical activity, sleep, and diet behaviors, alongside associations with wellbeing. Participants were 1,140 individuals residing in the United Kingdom (n = 230), South Korea (n = 204), Finland (n = 171), Philippines (n = 132), Latin America (n = 124), Spain (n = 112), North America (n = 87), and Italy (n = 80). They completed an online survey reporting possible changes in the targeted behaviors as well as perceived changes in their physical and mental health. Multivariate analyses of covariance (MANCOVA) on the final sample (n = 1,131) revealed significant mean differences regarding perceived physical and mental health “over the last week,” as well as changes in health behaviors during the pandemic by levels of physical activity and country of residence. Follow up analyses indicated that individuals with highest decrease in physical activity reported significantly lower physical and mental health, while those with highest increase in physical activity reported significantly higher increase in sleep and lower weight gain. United Kingdom participants reported lowest levels of physical health and highest increase in weight while Latin American participants reported being most affected by emotional problems. Finnish participants reported significantly higher ratings for physical health. The physical activity by country interaction was significant for wellbeing. MANCOVA also revealed significant differences across physical activity levels and four established age categories. Participants in the oldest category reported being significantly least affected by personal and emotional problems; youngest participants reported significantly more sleep. The age by physical activity interaction was significant for eating. Discussed in light of Hobfoll (1998) conservation of resources theory, findings endorse the policy of advocating physical activity as a means of generating and maintaining resources combative of stress and protective of health.
... The primary outcome was the standardized mean difference (SMD) in BW, BMI, WC, and BF% between subjects consuming nut-containing and control diets. For parallel studies, Cohen's d effect sizes (ESs) were calculated by subtracting the mean change in weight during the control group from the mean change in weight during the nut intervention; then, this difference was divided by the pooled pre-test SD (43)(44)(45). A positive ES value indicated a less favorable change occurred in the intervention group compared with the control group. ...
Several clinical interventions report that consuming nuts will not cause weight gain. However, it is unclear if the type of instructions provided for how to incorporate nuts into the diet impacts weight outcomes. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of published nut-feeding trials with and without dietary substitution instructions to determine if there are changes in body weight (BW) or composition. PubMed and Web of Science were searched through 31 December 2019 for clinical trials involving the daily consumption of nuts or nut-based snacks/meals by adults (≥18 y) for >3 wk that reported BW, BMI, waist circumference (WC), or total body fat percentage (BF%). Each study was categorized by whether or not it contained dietary substitution instructions. Within these 2 categories, an aggregated mean effect size and 95% CI was produced using a fixed-effects model. Quality of studies was assessed through the Cochrane risk-of-bias tool. Fifty-five studies were included in the meta-analysis. In studies without dietary substitution instructions, there was no change in BW [standardized mean difference (SMD): 0.01 kg; 95% CI: -0.07, 0.08; I2 = 0%] or BF% (SMD: -0.05%; 95% CI: -0.19, 0.09; I2 = 0%). In studies with dietary substitution instructions, there was no change in BW (SMD: -0.01 kg; 95% CI: -0.11, 0.09; I2 = 0%); however, there was a significant decrease in BF% (SMD: -0.32%; 95% CI: -0.61%, -0.03%; I2 = 35.4%; P < 0.05). There was no change in BMI or WC for either category of studies. Nut-enriched diet interventions did not result in changes in BW, BMI, or WC in studies either with or without substitution instructions. Slight decreases in BF% may occur if substitution instructions are used, but more research is needed. Limitations included varying methodologies between included studies and the frequency of unreported outcome variables in excluded studies.
... Based on a meta-analysis, artistic expression like movement dance therapy and dancing seems to link to positive mental health, including reduced depression and stress levels (Koch et al. 2014). Given also that exercise alone links to positive psychological and physical benefits among college students (Gerber et al. 2014;Lin et al. 2015;Loy, O'Connor, and Dishman 2013), it is unknown if performative art movement has stronger benefits on mental health and the love of movement than mere exercise participation. Therefore, the purpose of this phronetic, quasi-experimental study was to examine if a skill-based and performative form of aerial practice was more beneficial on mental health and the love of movement than only a skill-based aerial practice program. ...
The purpose of this phronetic, quasi-experimental study was to examine if skill-based and performative aerial practice (treatment group-class, n = 8) was more beneficial on mental health and the love of movement than only skill-based aerial practice (control group-class, n = 9). The total study population included 17 undergraduate, beginner students in aerial practice (M age = 20.59). Based on Cohen’s d and two-way repeated measures ANOVA, depression and stress decreased over time with an upper-level small (d =.27; η² = 7.6%) and medium (d =.55; η² = 19%) within-subjects effect, respectively. Five qualitative themes emerged, including positive psychosocial and physical changes, healthy lifestyle choices, continuance with aerial practice – especially for the treatment group, and challenges with aerial silks, especially for the control group. Beyond skill development, including performativity qualities in aerial practice (dancing, expressing emotion, story sharing) may be key to the love of movement and long-term exercise participation.
Background
Decrements in energy are a significant problem associated with chemotherapy. To date, no study examined the variability of energy in patients with gynecologic cancers.
Objective
To identify distinct morning and evening energy profiles in patients with gynecologic cancers and evaluate for differences in demographic and clinical characteristics, other common symptoms, and quality-of-life (QOL) outcomes.
Methods
A sample of 232 patients with gynecologic cancers completed questionnaires 6 times over 2 cycles of chemotherapy. Latent profile analysis was used to identify distinct morning and evening energy profiles. Differences in demographic and clinical characteristics, other common symptoms, and QOL outcomes were evaluated using parametric and nonparametric tests.
Results
Three distinct morning (ie, high [9.2%], low [63.1%], very low [27.1%]) and 2 distinct evening (moderate [30.6%], very low [69.4%]) energy classes were identified. Clinical risk factors associated with the worst morning energy profiles included lower functional status and a higher comorbidity burden. Less likely to exercise on a regular basis was the only characteristic associated with the worst evening energy profile. For both symptoms, the worst profiles were associated with higher levels of depression and sleep disturbance, lower levels of cognitive function, and poorer QOL.
Conclusions
Approximately 70% of patients with gynecologic cancers experienced decrements in morning and evening energy. The study identified modifiable risk factors associated with more decrements in morning and evening energy.
Implications for Practice
Clinicians can use these findings to identify higher-risk patients and develop individualized energy conservation interventions for these vulnerable patients.
For neurotypical adults, a single bout of low-to-moderate intensity physical activity usually transiently improves feelings of energy. Similar bouts of exercise have the opposite effect of increased feelings of fatigue when performed by samples with chronic multisymptom illnesses (CMIs) such as Long-COVID, Gulf War Illness (GWI), or Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS). The short-term adoption of regular moderate intensity physical activity (typical experiments are 1 to 6 months) among neurotypical adults results in small-to-moderate improvements in self-reported feelings of fatigue, energy, and vitality. Small improvements in these feelings, or no change at all, occur for CMIs, but limited data precludes strong conclusions. The mechanisms of exercise effects on fatigue, whether acute or chronic, are poorly understood but likely involve multiple neural circuits and associated transmitters. For CMIs, the mechanisms of acute worsening of fatigue with exercise may be driven by the yet unknown pathophysiological mechanisms of the disease (perhaps involving brain, immune and autonomic system dysfunction, and their interactions). Likewise, fatigue improvements may depend on whether chronic physical activity is a disease-modifying treatment.
Mood disturbance is a common, long‐term, negative consequence of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that is insufficiently addressed by most traditional treatment modalities. A large body of evidence supports the efficacy of exercise training (ET) to broadly improve mood, as measured most often by the Profile of Mood States (POMS). However, this behavioral approach is not used nearly enough in the TBI population, and when it is, mood is rarely measured. This scoping review will evaluate the use of POMS as a mood measure in TBI research and to establish a rationale for using ET as a behavioral approach to broadly improve mood in persons with TBI.
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Background:
Stress and fatigue experienced by lactating employed mothers can affect mothers' and babies' mental and physical health detrimentally. Aerobic exercise is known to control stress and fatigue, but the dosages of the exercises needed to maintain long-term effects are still under investigation.
Objective:
This study aimed to investigate the acute and long-term effects of aerobic exercise on controlling stress and fatigue in lactating, employed mothers.
Methods:
This randomized control study involved sixty lactating, employed mothers suffering from stress and fatigue. They were divided into two groups: Group A received five sessions of 30-minute aerobic training on a treadmill per week, in addition to lifestyle modification advice for six weeks. Group B received the same lifestyle routine advice for the same duration without being trained. Assessments of stress and fatigue levels were done before, after 6 weeks, and after 6 months from the baseline assessments using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) and Fatigue Assessment Scale (FAS), respectively.
Results:
Post-six-week comparisons within and between both groups showed a significant decline in PSS-10 and FAS in group A compared with group B (p < 0.001); however, after six months of follow-up, there were statistically significant effects within groups only (p < 0.05) and no statistically significant difference between groups at both variables (p > 0.05).
Conclusion:
Aerobic exercises for 6 weeks can induce an acute but not long-term effect on stress and fatigue control in lactating-employed mothers. Future research is needed to tailor the exercise prescription needed to maintain training's long-term benefits.
Exercise is medicine—this is the confident title of some scientific authors’ articles. In summary, the evidence for the positive effects of regular exercise on various physiological parameters is well established. The potential of exercise to influence psychological variables, however, has only recently received attention in exercise psychological research. The first part of this chapter attempts to summarize the evidence on the effect of exercise on various psychological outcomes in both physical and mental health disorders. After the description of the potential of exercise in prevention and treatment of health disorders, the second part of the chapter will focus on potential risks and side effects of (excessive) exercise.
Acute bouts of cardiorespiratory exercise have been shown to improve anxiety and mood; however, there is limited research comparing interval and continuous exercise in regards to specific mood states, as well as, comparing exercise to other potential mood-altering activities, such as colouring. The purpose of this randomised cross-over experiment was to examine the immediate effects of two patterns of treadmill exercise (continuous vs. interval) and sedentary colouring on anxiety and mood, and explore differences in physical activity enjoyment. A total of 27 participants (M age = 21.4 years) completed 25 min of each condition: continuous exercise, interval exercise, and sedentary colouring during separate testing sessions. The exercise bouts included a warm-up, cool-down, and 20 min of condition-specific exercise. Results indicate that treadmill exercise led to significantly greater improvements in feelings of vigour and total mood disturbance compared to sedentary colouring with no differential effects between the two patterns of treadmill exercise. Other mood states were enhanced by all three conditions. The findings suggest that individuals seeking to enhance feelings of energy are not limited to engaging in a specific pattern of cardiorespiratory exercise. Individuals pursuing acute improvements in anxiety, anger, confusion, fatigue, and tension may have flexibility in choosing an activity that could modify those mood states by engaging in continuous exercise, interval exercise, or sedentary colouring. Future studies should compare these three conditions with a control group not tasked with an activity to gain a clearer picture of the enhanced mood states observed in the present study.
Recent scientific evidence suggests that traits energy and fatigue are two unique unipolar moods with distinct mental and physical components. This exploratory study investigated the correlation between mental energy (ME), mental fatigue (MF), physical energy (PE), physical fatigue (PF), and the gut microbiome. The four moods were assessed by survey, and the gut microbiome and metabolome were determined from 16 S rRNA analysis and untargeted metabolomics analysis, respectively. Twenty subjects who were 31 ± 5 y, physically active, and not obese (26.4 ± 4.4 kg/m2) participated. Bacteroidetes (45%), the most prominent phyla, was only negatively correlated with PF. The second most predominant and butyrate-producing phyla, Firmicutes (43%), had members that correlated with each trait. However, the bacteria Anaerostipes was positively correlated with ME (0.048, p = 0.032) and negatively with MF (−0.532, p = 0.016) and PF (−0.448, p = 0.048), respectively. Diet influences the gut microbiota composition, and only one food group, processed meat, was correlated with the four moods—positively with MF (0.538, p = 0.014) and PF (0.513, p = 0.021) and negatively with ME (−0.790, p < 0.001) and PE (−0.478, p = 0.021). Only the Firmicutes genus Holdemania was correlated with processed meat (r = 0.488, p = 0.029). Distinct metabolic profiles were observed, yet these profiles were not significantly correlated with the traits. Study findings suggest that energy and fatigue are unique traits that could be defined by distinct bacterial communities not driven by diet. Larger studies are needed to confirm these exploratory findings.
Amaç: Günümüzde artan teknolojiyle birlikte sağlıklı genç bireylerde, fiziksel aktivite düzeylerindeki azalmadan kaynaklı, kognitif durumlarında bozulma, duygu durumlarında değişiklikler ve yaşam kalitelerinde azalma görülmektedir. Kognitif görevle yapılan egzersizler bireylerin sağlık koşullarını iyileştirmektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı sağlıklı genç bireylerde kognitif görevle yapılan denge egzersizlerinin, kognitif durum, duygu durumu ve yaşam kalitesine etkilerini incelemektir. Yöntem: Bu çalışmaya dâhil edilme kriterlerini sağlayan 18-30 yaş aralığındaki 50 sağlıklı genç birey dâhil edildi. Bireyler randomize olarak kognitif görevli egzersiz (Grup 1) (n=25) ve sadece egzersiz (Grup 2) (n=25) grubuna ayrıldı. Bireylere günde 1 seans, haftada 3 gün olmak üzere 6 hafta boyunca egzersiz verildi. Grup 1’e aerobik egzersiz ve denge egzersizlerine ilaveten kognitif görev verildi. Grup 2’deki bireylere sadece aerobik egzersiz ve denge egzersizleri yaptırıldı. Bireyler uygulama öncesinde ve bitiminde kognitif durum (Stroop Testi, Sözel Akıcılık Testi, Sayı Menzili Testi), duygu durumu (Depresyon Anksiyete Stres Ölçeği (DASÖ)) ve yaşam kalitesi (Kısa Form 36 (SF-36)) değerlendirildi. Bulgular: Egzersiz sonrası değerlendirmelerde Grup 1’de tüm kognitif testlerde ve SF-36 mental sağlık alt parametresinde, Grup 2’de tüm kognitif testlerde ve DASÖ depresyon alt parametresinde istatistiksel olarak anlamlı fark bulundu (p<0,05). Gruplar arası değerlendirmede kognitif testlerden sözel akıcılık testinde ve SF-36 mental sağlık alt parametresinde Grup 1 lehine istatistiksel olarak anlamlı fark bulundu (p<0,05). Sonuç: Sağlıklı genç bireylerde, hem sadece egzersiz hem de kognitif görevle yapılan egzersizlerin kognitif fonksiyonlar üzerinde etkili olduğu görüldü. Kognitif görevle yapılan egzersizlerin sağlıklı genç bireylerin kognitif durum ve yaşam kaliteleri üzerinde etkili olduğu sonucuna ulaşıldı. Uygulanan egzersizlerin sağlıklı genç bireylerde özellikle kognisyon ve duygu durumu üzerine etkisinin daha iyi anlaşılabilmesi için, objektif nitelikteki çalışmalara ihtiyaç duyulduğu düşünülmektedir.
Objective
To evaluate clinical trial evidence of the effects of Qigong practice on self-reported fatigue among cancer patients or survivors.
Methods
13 articles published before 31 December 2019 involving 1154 participants were selected according to PICO guidelines in the Cochrane Handbook. Relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were included. Hedges d effect sizes were calculated and random effects models were used to estimate the pooled effects. I² tests were applied to assess the heterogeneity. Moderating effects were tested by mixed model meta-regression analysis according to moderators derived from participant characteristics, features of Qigong exposure and research design. Study quality was judged using the Wayne Checklist.
Results
Qigong practice relieved cancer-related fatigue by a heterogeneous (I² = 81.4%) standardized mean effect size 0.46 (95% CI, 0.15 to 0.78, z = 2.89, p = 0.0039). Reductions were larger in participants having elevated fatigue at baseline. Trials with blinded allocation or blinded assessment of participants had larger effects. Qigong had a significant effect on cancer-related fatigue when Qigong was compared with usual care or waitlist control (Hedges d = 0.66, 95% CI, 0.07 to 1.26, p < 0.001), but not when Qigong was compared with Western exercise (Hedges d = 0.46, 95%CI, −0.02 to 0.95, p = 0.06) or no treatment control (Hedges d = 0.10, 95%CI, −0.23 to 0.43, p = 0.60) in sub-analysis.
Conclusion
Qigong practice may have small-to-moderate efficacy for management of cancer-related fatigue, but the limited number of RCTs and methodological flaws in most of the trials make it premature to conclude clinical effectiveness. Further high-quality RCTs are needed to mitigate potential methodological bias.
With fatigue being such a dominant feature, it is important to define the timeline and its impact following exertion in individuals with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). This study aimed to investigate the physiological effects of repeated graded maximal exercise testing at 48 and 72 hours, along with analysing the reported time to recover from repeated graded exercise tests (PEM). ME/CFS (n = 16), age and gender matched controls (n=16) were randomly assigned to either a 48‐hour or 72‐hour protocol. Each participant completed a maximal incremental cycle exercise test on day one and again at either 48‐hours (48‐h) or 72‐hours (72‐h) later. Physiological responses were analysed at peak work rate (PWR). There were significant differences in both peak VO2 and workload (p<0.05) in the 48‐h ME/CFS group compared to the 48‐h controls in both test 1 and test 2. Significant differences in peak VO2 and workload were only demonstrated in test 2 in participants in the ME/CFS 72‐h group. There was a small but insignificant decrease in both peak VO2 and workload in the ME/CFS group at 48‐h. Interestingly those in the 72‐h ME/CFS protocol demonstrated an increase in workload (10 Watts), despite no change in VO2peak. Subjective data demonstrated the 48‐hour ME/CFS group reported significantly longer time to recover.
This field study used experience sampling procedures to examine the relationship of feeling states and affect to acute bouts of physical activity in women. Participants (N = 86) completed brief affect and feeling state measures (a) in response to random stratified pager tones and (b) before and after acute bouts of vigorous physical activity for 6 weeks. Analysis of averaged difference scores revealed that acute vigorous physical activity was associated with significant improvements in affect and feeling states, particularly in feelings of revitalization. Moreover, within-subject analyses indicated that the effects were moderated by preactivity scores, with the greatest improvements seen when women felt worst before activity.
This study investigated the hypothesis that the effects of acute aerobic exercise on feeling states may be influenced by the objective dose of activity, subjective responses during exercise, and preexisting levels of feeling states. College-age women (N = 80) completed baseline measures and were then randomly assigned to 1 of 4 conditions: attention control for 10 min, or exercise for 10 min, 25 min, or 40 min. Levels of exertion and affect were assessed during exercise, and posttesting occurred 20 min following activity. Exercise enhanced revitalization in comparison with the control condition; however, this effect occurred only for participants scoring low to moderate on the pretest. In addition, in-task feeling states predicted postexercise revitalization even after we controlled for the treatment, the pretest, and the Pretest × Treatment interaction.
After either eating a candy bar or walking briskly for 10 min on 12 selected days, 18 volunteers made systematic self-ratings of their energy, tiredness, and tension feelings for a fixed 2-hr period each day in the context of their normal daily activities. The snacking or walking activity was randomly selected on each test day after completion of a pretest. Results indicated that walking was associated with higher self-rated energy and lower tension significantly more than was snacking. In the walk condition reliable increases in energy and decreases in tension were observed for 2 hr. The sugar snack condition was associated with significantly higher tension after 1 hr, and a pattern of initially increased energy and reduced tiredness, followed 1 hr later by increased tiredness and reduced energy. The results partially support a general conceptual hypothesis that sugar snacking is often motivated by a low-awareness attempt to raise energy. Additionally, the results clarify an apparent conflict between neurochemical research, which indicates that sugar ingestion increases the tendency to sleep, and popular nutrition theory, which indicates that it increases tension.
In 1995 the American College of Sports Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published national guidelines on Physical Activity and Public Health. The Committee on Exercise and Cardiac Rehabilitation of the American Heart Association endorsed and supported these recommendations. The purpose of the present report is to update and clarify the 1995 recommendations on the types and amounts of physical activity needed by healthy adults to improve and maintain health. Development of this document was by an expert panel of scientists, including physicians, epidemiologists, exercise scientists, and public health specialists. This panel reviewed advances in pertinent physiologic, epidemiologic, and clinical scientific data, including primary research articles and reviews published since the original recommendation was issued in 1995. Issues considered by the panel included new scientific evidence relating physical activity to health, physical activity recommendations by various organizations in the interim, and communications issues. Key points related to updating the physical activity recommendation were outlined and writing groups were formed. A draft manuscript was prepared and circulated for review to the expert panel as well as to outside experts. Comments were integrated into the final recommendation.
Primary recommendation:
To promote and maintain health, all healthy adults aged 18 to 65 yr need moderate-intensity aerobic (endurance) physical activity for a minimum of 30 min on five days each week or vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity for a minimum of 20 min on three days each week. [I (A)] Combinations of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity can be performed to meet this recommendation. [IIa (B)] For example, a person can meet the recommendation by walking briskly for 30 min twice during the week and then jogging for 20 min on two other days. Moderate-intensity aerobic activity, which is generally equivalent to a brisk walk and noticeably accelerates the heart rate, can be accumulated toward the 30-min minimum by performing bouts each lasting 10 or more minutes. [I (B)] Vigorous-intensity activity is exemplified by jogging, and causes rapid breathing and a substantial increase in heart rate. In addition, every adult should perform activities that maintain or increase muscular strength and endurance a minimum of two days each week. [IIa (A)] Because of the dose-response relation between physical activity and health, persons who wish to further improve their personal fitness, reduce their risk for chronic diseases and disabilities or prevent unhealthy weight gain may benefit by exceeding the minimum recommended amounts of physical activity. [I (A)]
This review summarizes evidence from randomized controlled trials to examine whether strength training influences anxiety, chronic pain, cognition, depression, fatigue symptoms, self-esteem, and sleep. The weight of the available evidence supported the conclusion that strength training is associated with reductions in anxiety symptoms among healthy adults (5 trials); reductions in pain intensity among patients with low back pain (5 trials), osteoarthritis (8 trials), and fibromyalgia (4 trials); improvements in cognition among older adults (7 trials); improvements in sleep quality among depressed older adults (2 trials); reductions in symptoms of depression among patients with diagnosed depression (4 trials) and fibromyalgia (2 trials); reductions in fatigue symptoms (10 trials); and improvements in self-esteem (6 trials). The evidence indicates that larger trials with a greater range of patient samples are needed to better estimate the magnitude and the consistency of the relationship between strength training and these mental health outcomes. Plausible social, psychological, and neural mechanisms by which strength training could influence these outcomes rarely have been explored. This review revealed the high-priority research need for animal and human research aimed at better understanding the brain mechanisms underlying mental health changes with strength training.
This paper highlights the use of the Profile of Mood States (POMS) in physical activity research by reviewing and synthesizing literature generated in exercise settings. The results of many studies using the POMS have supported the relationships between exercise and acute mood changes in normal populations and between exercise and chronic mood changes in clinical populations. Based on the multitude of studies utilizing the POMS, Berger and colleagues developed a preliminary taxonomy containing enjoyment, mode, and practice guidelines to help maximize the mood benefits associated with exercise. The POMS also has been employed to identify underlying mechanisms that may promote mood alteration. Unfortunately, there is no conclusive evidence that identifies a single mechanism or group of mechanisms as consistently influencing the exercise-mood relationship. Although knowledge of the relationship between exercise and mood alteration is substantial, much remains to be studied. Promising avenues for future investigation of exercise include mood changes in specific populations, environmental influences on mood alteration, and personal characteristics impacting mood alteration.
A 36-item short-form (SF-36) was constructed to survey health status in the Medical Outcomes Study. The SF-36 was designed for use in clinical practice and research, health policy evaluations, and general population surveys. The SF-36 includes one multi-item scale that assesses eight health concepts: 1) limitations in physical activities because of health problems; 2) limitations in social activities because of physical or emotional problems; 3) limitations in usual role activities because of physical health problems; 4) bodily pain; 5) general mental health (psychological distress and well-being); 6) limitations in usual role activities because of emotional problems; 7) vitality (energy and fatigue); and 8) general health perceptions. The survey was constructed for self-administration by persons 14 years of age and older, and for administration by a trained interviewer in person or by telephone. The history of the development of the SF-36, the origin of specific items, and the logic underlying their selection are summarized. The content and features of the SF-36 are compared with the 20-item Medical Outcomes Study short-form.
Research has demonstrated the anxiolytic and affective changes following resistance exercise. However, several studies have allowed the participants to leave the testing facility and return at a later time to complete psychological assessments. This weakens internal validity, making it impossible to interpret findings as due to exercise per se. To address this issue, 23 male participants were randomly assigned to either a “stay” or “go” group. Within each group, all participants completed a non-exercise control session and a weight-training session based on 50% of their one repetition maximum for each of five exercises. All participants remained in the laboratory for 60 minutes following each session, at which time only those in the “go” group left the laboratory and returned at 90 and 120 minutes for their remaining affective assessments. The results indicate that despite transient disruptions in mood, an acute bout of resistance exercise results in positive psychological changes that occur within 60 minutes after completion of the exercise session and which persist up to 120 minutes post-exercise. Allowing participants to leave the laboratory or requiring them to remain in the testing environment was found to lead to different patterns of affective responses during the post-exercise assessment period. Future researchers must take into account such methodological issues when designing acute exercise studies requiring extended periods of post-exercise assessment.
Psychosocial stress may lead to increased rates of anxiety and depression. Aerobic exercise and mind-body therapies are frequently described as having positive effects on psychological well-being by enhancing mood and reducing anxiety. Few studies, however, have investigated the acute psychological effects of qigong exercise. Fifty-nine regular qigong exercisers (mean age 50.8 years) were randomized to a Qigong or Control group. Pre- and postmeasurements were then compared. POMS-Depression, Anger, and Fatigue, and STAI-State Anxiety scores decreased significantly in the Qigong group but not in the Control group. Results thereby suggest that qigong exercise can produce desirable psychological effects, and Qigong exercise may therefore be included among other activities performed to boost resistance to daily stressors. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Although anecdotal reports suggest that information processing and decision making is impaired immediately following prolonged periods of physical activity, results obtained from laboratory studies of exercise-induced fatigue have been inconsistent. Fatigue effects may be task specific and related to the time of post-exercise testing. The present study examined the effects on adults' performance of two cognitive tasks that differed in processing demands over an 80-min period of fatigue. Thirty young adult men and women were randomly assigned to either an exercise group and completed a 60-min bout of cycle ergometry at 90% ventilatory threshold or a control group and rested for 60 min. Following interventions, each participant completed a simple and complex version of a visual perceptual discrimination test, a 40-min memory-based vigilance test and a repetition of the visual perceptual discrimination tests. Those who exercised evidenced significant decrements in performance on complex perceptual-discrimination tasks compared to participants who rested. The response time of exercisers during a memory-demanding vigilance test were significantly slower than those of participants who rested; however, detection performance did not differ between groups neither was there a decrease in target detection across the vigil. The effects of exercise-induced fatigue may be task specific, with greater effects on perceptual tasks, which involve relatively automatic processing, compared to effortful memory-based tasks.
ObjectiveThe purpose of this meta-analysis was to examine the effect of acute aerobic exercise on self-reported positive-activated affect (PAA). Samples from 158 studies from 1979 to 2005 were included yielding 450 independent effect sizes (ESs) and a sample size of 13,101.MethodStudies were coded for moderators related to assessment time, exercise variables such as intensity, duration, and dose (combination of intensity and duration), and design characteristics. The analysis considered multiple measures of affect and corrected for statistical artifacts using Hunter and Schmidt [(1990). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings. Newbury Park: Sage; (2004). Methods of meta-analysis: Correcting error and bias in research findings (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks: Sage] meta-analytic methods.ResultsThe overall estimated mean corrected ES () and standard deviation (SDcorr) were .47 and .37, respectively. Effects were consistently positive (a) immediately post-exercise, (b) when pre-exercise PAA was lower than average, (c) for low intensity exercise <15–39% oxygen uptake reserve (%VO2R), (d) for durations up to 35 min, and (e) for low to moderate exercise doses. The effects of aerobic exercise on PAA appear to last for at least 30 min after exercise before returning to baseline. Dose results suggest the presence of distinct zones of affective change that more accurately reflect post-exercise PAA responses than intensity or duration alone. Control conditions were associated with reductions in PAA (, SDcorr=.25).ConclusionThe typical acute bout of aerobic exercise produces increases in self-reported PAA, whereas the typical control condition produces decreases. However, large SDcorr values suggest that additional variables, possibly related to individual differences, further moderate the effects of exercise on PAA.
Quantitative literature reviews such as meta-analysis are becoming common in evolutionary biology but may be strongly affected by publication biases. Using fail-safe numbers is a quick way to estimate whether publication bias is likely to be a problem for a specific study. However, previously suggested fail-safe calculations are unweighted and are not based on the framework in which most meta-analyses are performed. A general, weighted fail-safe calculation, grounded in the meta-analysis framework, applicable to both fixed- and random-effects models, is proposed. Recent meta-analyses published in Evolution are used for illustration.
Objective: Funnel plots (plots of effect estimates against sample size) may be useful to detect bias in meta-analyses that were later contradicted by large trials. We examined whether a simple test of asymmetry of funnel plots predicts discordance of results when meta-analyses are compared to large trials, and we assessed the prevalence of bias in published meta-analyses. Design: Medline search to identify pairs consisting of a meta-analysis and a single large trial (concordance of results was assumed if effects were in the same direction and the meta-analytic estimate was within 30
How overall physical activity relates to specific activities and how reported activity changes over time may influence interpretation of observed associations between physical activity and health. We examine the relationships between various physical activities self-reported at different times in a large cohort study of middle-aged UK women.
At recruitment, Million Women Study participants completed a baseline questionnaire including questions on frequency of strenuous and of any physical activity. About 3 years later 589,896 women also completed a follow-up questionnaire reporting the hours they spent on a range of specific activities. Time spent on each activity was used to estimate the associated excess metabolic equivalent hours (MET-hours) and this value was compared across categories of physical activity reported at recruitment. Additionally, 18,655 women completed the baseline questionnaire twice, at intervals of up to 4 years; repeatability over time was assessed using the weighted kappa coefficient (κweighted) and absolute percentage agreement.
The average number of hours per week women reported doing specific activities was 14.0 for housework, 4.5 for walking, 3.0 for gardening, 0.2 for cycling, and 1.4 for all strenuous activity. Time spent and the estimated excess MET-hours associated with each activity increased with increasing frequency of any or strenuous physical activity reported at baseline (tests for trend, P < 0.003), although the associations for housework were by far the weakest (Spearman correlations, 0.01 and -0.03 respectively for housework, and 0.11-0.37 for all other activities). Repeatability of responses to physical activity questions on the baseline questionnaire declined significantly over time. For strenuous activity, absolute agreement was 64% (κweighted = 0.71) for questionnaires administered less than 6 months apart, and 52% (κweighted = 0.51) for questionnaires more than 2 years apart. Corresponding values for any physical activity were 57% (κweighted = 0.67) and 47% (κweighted = 0.58).
In this cohort, responses to simple questions on the frequency of any physical activity and of strenuous activity asked at baseline were associated with hours spent on specific activities and the associated estimated excess MET-hours expended, reported 3 years later. The weakest associations were with housework. Agreement for identical questions asked on two occasions about the frequency of physical activity decreased over time.
The public health problem of physical inactivity has proven resistant to research efforts aimed at elucidating its causes and interventions designed to alter its course. Thus, in most industrialized countries, the majority of the population is physically inactive or inadequately active. Most theoretical models of exercise behaviour assume that the decision to engage in exercise is based on cognitive factors (e.g. weighing pros and cons, appraising personal capabilities, evaluating sources of support). Another, still-under-appreciated, possibility is that these decisions are influenced by affective variables, such as whether previous exercise experiences were associated with pleasure or displeasure. This review examines 33 articles published from 1999 to 2009 on the relationship between exercise intensity and affective responses. Unlike 31 studies that were published until 1998 and were examined in a 1999 review, these more recent studies have provided evidence of a relation between the intensity of exercise and affective responses. Pleasure is reduced mainly above the ventilatory or lactate threshold or the onset of blood lactate accumulation. There are pleasant changes at sub-threshold intensities for most individuals, large inter-individual variability close to the ventilatory or lactate threshold and homogeneously negative changes at supra-threshold intensities. When the intensity is self-selected, rather than imposed, it appears to foster greater tolerance to higher intensity levels. The evidence of a dose-response relation between exercise intensity and affect sets the stage for a reconsideration of the rationale behind current guidelines for exercise intensity prescription. Besides effectiveness and safety, it is becoming increasingly clear that the guidelines should take into account whether a certain level of exercise intensity would be likely to cause increases or decreases in pleasure.
Little is known regarding how attention to emotional stimuli is affected during simultaneously performed exercise. Attentional biases to emotional face stimuli were assessed in 34 college students (17 women) using the dot-probe task during counterbalanced conditions of moderate- (heart rate at 45% peak oxygen consumption) and high-intensity exercise (heart rate at 80% peak oxygen consumption) compared with seated rest. The dot-probe task consisted of 1 emotional face (pleasant or unpleasant) paired with a neutral face for 1,000 ms; 256 trials (128 trials for each valence) were presented during each condition. Each condition lasted approximately 10 min. Participants were instructed to perform each trial of the dot-probe task as quickly and accurately as possible during the exercise and rest conditions. During moderate-intensity exercise, participants exhibited significantly greater attentional bias scores to pleasant compared with unpleasant faces (p < .01), whereas attentional bias scores to emotional faces did not differ at rest or during high-intensity exercise (p > .05). In addition, the attentional bias to unpleasant faces was significantly reduced during moderate-intensity exercise compared with that during rest (p < .05). These results provide behavioral evidence that during exercise at a moderate intensity, there is a shift in attention allocation toward pleasant emotional stimuli and away from unpleasant emotional stimuli. Future work is needed to determine whether acute exercise may be an effective treatment approach to reduce negative bias or enhance positive bias in individuals diagnosed with mood or anxiety disorders, or whether attentional bias during exercise predicts adherence to exercise.
The purpose of this Position Stand is to provide guidance to professionals who counsel and prescribe individualized exercise to apparently healthy adults of all ages. These recommendations also may apply to adults with certain chronic diseases or disabilities, when appropriately evaluated and advised by a health professional. This document supersedes the 1998 American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) Position Stand, "The Recommended Quantity and Quality of Exercise for Developing and Maintaining Cardiorespiratory and Muscular Fitness, and Flexibility in Healthy Adults." The scientific evidence demonstrating the beneficial effects of exercise is indisputable, and the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risks in most adults. A program of regular exercise that includes cardiorespiratory, resistance, flexibility, and neuromotor exercise training beyond activities of daily living to improve and maintain physical fitness and health is essential for most adults. The ACSM recommends that most adults engage in moderate-intensity cardiorespiratory exercise training for ≥30 min·d on ≥5 d·wk for a total of ≥150 min·wk, vigorous-intensity cardiorespiratory exercise training for ≥20 min·d on ≥3 d·wk (≥75 min·wk), or a combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity exercise to achieve a total energy expenditure of ≥500-1000 MET·min·wk. On 2-3 d·wk, adults should also perform resistance exercises for each of the major muscle groups, and neuromotor exercise involving balance, agility, and coordination. Crucial to maintaining joint range of movement, completing a series of flexibility exercises for each the major muscle-tendon groups (a total of 60 s per exercise) on ≥2 d·wk is recommended. The exercise program should be modified according to an individual's habitual physical activity, physical function, health status, exercise responses, and stated goals. Adults who are unable or unwilling to meet the exercise targets outlined here still can benefit from engaging in amounts of exercise less than recommended. In addition to exercising regularly, there are health benefits in concurrently reducing total time engaged in sedentary pursuits and also by interspersing frequent, short bouts of standing and physical activity between periods of sedentary activity, even in physically active adults. Behaviorally based exercise interventions, the use of behavior change strategies, supervision by an experienced fitness instructor, and exercise that is pleasant and enjoyable can improve adoption and adherence to prescribed exercise programs. Educating adults about and screening for signs and symptoms of CHD and gradual progression of exercise intensity and volume may reduce the risks of exercise. Consultations with a medical professional and diagnostic exercise testing for CHD are useful when clinically indicated but are not recommended for universal screening to enhance the safety of exercise.
Fatigue is one of the most disturbing complaints of cancer patients and is often the reason for discontinuing treatment. This randomized controlled study tested the hypothesis that increased morning bright light, compared to dim light, would result in less fatigue in women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy.
Thirty-nine women newly diagnosed with stage I-III breast cancer were randomized to either bright white light (BWL) or dim red light (DRL) treatment and were instructed to use the light box for 30 min every morning throughout the first four cycles of chemotherapy. The Multidimensional Fatigue Symptom Inventory was administered prior to the start of chemotherapy (baseline), during the chemotherapy treatment week of cycle 1 (C1TW), the last week (recovery week) of cycle 1 (C1RW), the chemotherapy treatment week of cycle 4 (C4TW), and the last week (recovery week) of cycle 4 (C4RW).
The DRL group reported increased fatigue at C1TW (p = 0.003) and C4TW (p < 0.001) compared to baseline, while there was no significant change from baseline in the BWL group. A secondary analysis showed that the increases in fatigue levels in the DRL group were not mediated through nor associated with changes in sleep or in circadian rhythms as measured with wrist actigraphy.
The results of this study suggest that morning bright light treatment may prevent overall fatigue from worsening during chemotherapy. Although our hypothesis that overall fatigue would improve with bright light treatment was not supported, the lack of deterioration in total fatigue scores suggests that bright morning light may be a useful intervention during chemotherapy for breast cancer.
The authors of this article, who are also the guest editors for this issue on multilevel analysis, give an overview and brief history of multilevel analysis and present the following four research articles. Multilevel Analysis - Overview. Methods. History.
Strategies to achieve ambitious targets for reducing road accidents (34) have largely focused on engineering and technological advancements, the modification of occupational demands, and, to a lesser extent, human factors. These factors include stress and psychological states; sleep, fatigue, and alertness; and health status. Physical activity appears to influence all these human factors but has not previously been systematically considered as a direct or indirect risk factor for driver accidents. This chapter provides an overview, within an evidence-based framework, of the impact each of these human factors has on driver performance and risk of at-work road traffic accidents and then examines how physical (in)activity may moderate and mediate these relationships. Finally, we consider practical implications for work site interventions. The review aims to offer an evidence base for the deployment of resources to promote physical activity, manage stress, facilitate sleep, reduce fatigue, and enhance alertness to improve physical and psychological health among professional drivers.