Setting, Age, and Intensity Influence Responses to Exercise in Young Endurance Runners

Abstract

We investigated the effects of exercise setting (indoor treadmill vs. outdoor trail), age (17 middle school, 18 high school, and 13 college participants), and level of exertion (Borg Ratings of Perceived Exertion of 10, 12, and 16 on a 22-point scale) on young male endurance runners’ heart rate (HR), running speed, attentive focus, and affect. Three-way analyses of variance revealed that on the outdoor trail (vs. indoor treadmill), HR and speed were higher ( p < .001) and attentive focus was more dissociative ( p = .047). There were significant Age × Setting interactions for HR ( p = .047), speed ( p = .023), and attentive focus ( p = .002), with older participants exhibiting a greater increase in speed and HR and a greater shift toward dissociative focus on the outdoor trail. Three-way analyses of variance also yielded significant Age × Time interactions on components of the Physical Activity Affect Scale in that younger participants exhibited larger declines in positive affect ( p = .003) and tranquility ( p < .001) and larger increases in fatigue ( p < .001) as a result of the running session. Our data suggest that either runners develop more positive responses to exercise as they mature or those young runners who experience running more negatively tend to drop out of running so that the remaining older participants continuing to run are those who experience exercise positively.

Actual vs. perceived exertion during active virtual reality game exercise

“…Likewise, studies involving runners have shown different attentional focuses depending on the setting. Specifically, runners reported more dissociative attentive focus and lowered RPE in exercise settings that were considered more distracting (e.g., outdoor vs. indoor) (16)(17)(18). The interplay between exercise setting on RPE during AVRG participation has yet to be studied, but the effects of the virtual world could allow participants to partly dissociate from internal stimuli and focus on their digital surroundings (19).…”

Benefits to Performance and Well-Being of Nature-Based Exercise: A Critical Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

“…The outdoor environments that were in the trials encompassed rural areas situated amidst trees and fields, nature parks and forests that were occasionally located near bodies of water, ,,,,− city parks with trees and some built features, ,− university campuses with plants and trees within view, outdoor athletic tracks, ,,,− and mountain trails. , Nine studies simulated an outdoor, nature-based environment in the laboratory by showing video footage of nature reserves, botanical gardens, rural fields with cattle nearby and woods, or a forest ,,, to their participants. Two studies , used a head mounted display to create a “virtual nature” environment.…”

“…As regards the indoor environments, studies often used standard rooms ,, or indoor corridors not exposed to greenery, room viewing blank screens, ,,,,, gyms and fitness centers, ,,,,,− ,,,,,,,,, physiology laboratories, ,,,,,,,, a shopping center, and underground hallways …”

“…Regarding performance efficacy, six out of 45 acute effect studies reported that their nature-based exercise participants engaged in dancing more vigorously, exhibited greater power output in cycling (and took less time to complete the trial), ran faster, , demonstrated higher levels of cycling endurance, and covered more distance running than did their indoor counterparts. In contrast, one study reported nature-based exercise participants exhibited lower cadence within a cycling task than indoor exercisers.…”

“…Navalta et al, for example, reported that during a 30 min walk at a self-selected pace, the participants covered a greater distance when walking in natural environments, than when walking indoors or in outdoor urban environments. Reich et al reported that for young male endurance runners who were instructed to run at specific intensities, the speeds that were attained during a forest trail run exceeded those that were observed for indoor treadmill running. A longitudinal study in postmenopausal women, comparing nature-based with indoor strength training, showed that the nature-based group improved upper-body muscle strength significantly more than did the indoor group .…”