Is There a Dose–Response Relationship between High-Intensity Interval Exercise (HIIE) Intensity and Affective Valence? Analysis of Three HIIE Sessions Performed with Different Amplitudes

Abstract

The inverse relationship between exercise intensity and affective valence is well established for continuous exercise but not for high-intensity interval exercise (HIIE). The objective was to verify the dose–response relationship between exercise intensity and affective valence in HIIE sessions. Eleven young men underwent a vigorous-intensity continuous exercise (VICE) and three HIIE sessions at the same average intensity (70% of peak power—WPeak) and duration (20 min) but with different amplitudes: 10 × [1 min at 90% WPeak/1 min at 50% WPeak]—HIIE-90/50; 10 × [1 min at 100% WPeak/1 min at 40% WPeak]—HIIE-100/40; 10 × [1 min at 110% WPeak/1 min at 30% WPeak]—HIIE-110/30. During the exercise sessions, psychophysiological variables were recorded (VO2, VCO2, heart rate, perceived exertion CR10, and Feeling Scale (FS)). Higher correlations were found between CR10 and FS for all conditions (VICE = −0.987; HIIE-90/50 = −0.873; HIIE-100/40 = −0.908; HIIE-110/30 = −0.948). Regarding the physiological variables, the %HRMax presented moderate inverse correlations with FS for all exercise conditions (VICE = −0.867; HIIE-90/50 = −0.818; HIIE-100/40 = −0.837; HIIE-110/30 = −0.828) while the respiratory variables (%VO2Peak and %VCO2Peak) presented low-to-moderate correlations only for VICE, HIIE-90/50, and HIIE-100/40 (ranging from −0.523 to −0.805). Poor correlations were observed between the %VO2Peak (r = −0.293) and %VCO2Peak (r = −0.020) with FS. The results indicated that perceived exertion is more sensible than physiological variables to explain the intensity–affective valence relationship in HIIE sessions. RPE should be used for HIIE prescription with a focus on affect.

No Sex Differences in Perceptual Responses to High-Intensity Interval Training or Sprint Interval Training

“…Our results show no impact of sex on the perceptual response to interval exercise, so what alternative factors are related to changes in these outcomes during HIIT and SIT? Silva et al (47) required young men to complete 20-minute exercise bouts at vigorous intensity (70 %PPO) and 3 HIIT efforts at 90, 100, and 110 %PPO, which were matched for work. RPE was highest in response to efforts at 110 %PPO compared with all other protocols, and results showed more aversive affective valence for exercise at 70 and 110 %PPO.…”

Frontiers and hotspots of high-intensity interval exercise in children and adolescents: text mining and knowledge domain visualization

“…Furthermore, researchers generally support the use of HIIE as an attractive, feasible, and effective strategy to improve relevant health outcomes in adolescents. However, this study finds that most of the citing articles adopt a single-day protocol to detect relevant health outcomes, which may lead to an inadequate interpretation due to the absence of accumulating intensity ( Silva et al, 2023 ; Liu et al, 2024b ). Nonetheless, in the context of physical activity interventions designed to improve youth participation and adherence that have not been successful, these cutting-edge studies offer insightful knowledge and impact the practicality of HIIE as a strategy to promote health benefits in this cohort.…”

The Affective Responses to Moderate Physical Activity: A Further Study to Prove the Convergent and the Discriminant Validity for the German Versions of the Feeling Scale and the Felt Arousal Scale

“…Especially, studies on high-intensity interval training (HIIT) show a clear link between homeostatic disturbances and affective valence. That is, during the high-intensity interval of the HIIT, the perceived affective valence decreases, while it increases again when the exercise is interrupted and after the completion of the whole exercise (the so-called rebound effect) [14,15]. Thus, the VT also separates the ongoing evaluation of the exercise effect into inducing pleasant (below the VT) and unpleasant (above the VT) feelings [13].…”