Feeling of Pleasure to High-Intensity Interval Exercise Is Dependent of the Number of Work Bouts and Physical Activity Status

Abstract

ObjectivesTo examine the affective responses during a single bout of a low-volume HIIE in active and insufficiently active men.Materials and methodsFifty-eight men (aged 25.3 ± 3.6 years) volunteered to participate in this study: i) active (n = 29) and ii) insufficiently active (n = 29). Each subject undertook i) initial screening and physical evaluation, ii) maximal exercise test, and iii) a single bout of a low-volume HIIE. The HIIE protocol consisted of 10 x 60s work bouts at 90% of maximal treadmill velocity (MTV) interspersed with 60s of active recovery at 30% of MTV. Affective responses (Feeling Scale, -5/+5), rating of perceived exertion (Borg’s RPE, 6–20), and heart rate (HR) were recorded during the last 10s of each work bout. A two-factor mixed-model repeated measures ANOVA, independent-samples t test, and chi-squared test were used to data analysis.ResultsThere were similar positive affective responses to the first three work bouts between insufficiently active and active men (p > 0.05). However, insufficiently active group displayed lower affective responses over time (work bout 4 to 10) than the active group (p < 0.01). Also, the insufficiently active group displayed lower values of mean, lowest, and highest affective response, as well as lower values of affective response at the highest RPE than the active group (p < 0.001). There were no differences in the RPE and HR between the groups (p > 0.05).ConclusionsInsufficiently active and active men report feelings of pleasure to few work bouts (i.e., 3–4) during low-volume HIIE, while the affective responses become more unpleasant over time for insufficiently active subjects. Investigations on the effects of low-volume HIIE protocols including a fewer number of work bouts on health status and fitness of less active subjects would be interesting, especially in the first training weeks.

Home‐hit improves muscle capillarisation and eNOS/NAD(P)Hoxidase protein ratio in obese individuals with elevated cardiovascular disease risk

“…In addition, recent studies have suggested that sedentary individuals report pleasant feelings during the first three of four bouts of low‐volume HIT (Frazão et al . ), but importantly enjoyment of HIT increases as participants progress through a training programme (Heisz et al . ).…”

A comparison of the health benefits of reduced-exertion high-intensity interval training (REHIT) and moderate-intensity walking in type 2 diabetes patients

“…This may (Frazão et al, 2016;Saanijoki et al, 2015), or may not (Freese et al, 2014;Jung et al, 2014) be the case for HIT protocols that rely on many (4-10) longer (30-60 s) sprints, but the ratings of perceived exertion in response to two 20-s sprints as used in the REHIT protocol in the present study appear to be manageable, and the majority of participants (12 out of 16) stated a preference for performing REHIT rather than the walking intervention based on current physical activity recommendations. There is therefore an urgent need to perform further studies examining the efficacy, acceptability, and longer-term adherence to REHIT as a practical 'real-life' intervention.…”

“…However, due to the required recovery periods in between high-intensity bouts, most available HIT protocols are not as time-efficient as often claimed (Gillen & Gibala, 2014), and even in submaximal HIT protocols the high number of high-intensity bouts per training session results in high perceived exertion (Little et al, 2011). Moreover, repeating sprints more than ~4 times has a negative impact on the affective response to HIT (Frazão et al, 2016).…”

Effect of Number of Sprints in an SIT Session on Change in V˙O2max

“…Furthermore, a drawback of the use of SIT 256 as a public health intervention is the potential for high associated perceived exertion and 257 negative affective responses (8,21). In this light it is important to point out that the number of 258 sprint repetitions has been shown to negatively affect both of these parameters (19,44). 259…”