The Effects of Various Stimuli on Motivation and Physical Fitness of Physically Active and Non-Active Students

Abstract

Background. Execution of fitness testing in physical education classes is influenced by students' motivation. Therefore, addressing new testing approaches seems necessary to more accurately measure student performance. Objectives. This study presents changes in fitness performance after applying a physical fitness tests battery (without external stimuli -WS) and with external stimuli (verbal encouragement -VE, performance feedback and goal-oriented) for university students. Methods. The participants (432, BMI 24.72 ± 5.97, age 19.1 ± 2.1) were divided into non-physically active (NAS) and physically active students (PAS). They underwent a battery of fitness tests with and WS. Results. The results showed that NAS improved power in bench press (21.3W, 5.15%, P = 0.021) after performance feedback compared to attempts (WS). In 10m sprint, PAS decreased the time after a combination of VE and goal-oriented stimuli (COM) compared to WS (0.029s, 1.5%, P = 0.000) and in the 30m sprint (0.079s, 1.65%, P = 0.006) and after COM compared to VE in the 10m sprint test (0.024s, 1.24%, P = 0.001) and in the 30m sprint (0,089s, 1.86%, P = 0.000). NAS decreased the time after COM compared to VE in the 30m sprint test (0.053s, 1.06%, P = 0.006). NAS and PAS also improved in height after VE compared to WS in the height jump test (1.53cm, 6.39%, P = 0.000 resp. 1.24cm, 4.85%, P = 0.000), after COM compared to WS (2.11cm, 8.81%, P = 0.000 resp. 1.83cm, 7.16%, P = 0.000) and after COM compared to VE (0.58cm, 2.28%, P=0.013 and 0.59cm, 2.2%, P = 0.002). Conclusion. These findings indicate that giving external stimuli is more effective for testing explosive strength, acceleration, and speed than WS and that PAS achieved better improvements in fitness tests after applying COM and NAS improved mainly after just one external stimulus.

The experience of laser light feedback in back-squat resistance training

“…Traditionally, there has been a division between inner and outer stimuli for influencing the movement patterns of training individuals. For example, external stimulus is often provided as verbal instructions or encouragement ( 37 ), whereas intrinsic motivation or sensations of contact with the body and movement can be regarded as internal stimuli. To take up external, verbal stimuli, the training individual must process the information that is given to them and translate it into a mode of communication that the body understands and can respond to with movement.…”

The influence of verbal encouragement on heart rate, maximum oxygen uptake, and distance covered in young male adults during beep test

“…One stimulus that practitioners could use is verbal encouragement (VE). The main aim of VE should be to motivate people and create a non-threatening and challenging environment for better effort and results [3]. The positive effect of manipulating the motivational climate in physical education lessons was already described by Morgan et al [4].…”

“…Based on this information, students were selected for this research, and it was recorded which students were physically active or non-active. PAS stated in the survey that they were physically active at least three or more times per week for a minimum of 30 minutes over the last 5 years [3]. The majority of students were engaged in these activities: football, swimming, and volleyball.…”

“…Some testing guidelines recommend VE as one stimulus of motivation for better results [9][10][11], but unfortunately, most of the studies that used the beep test in their research do not include information on whether VE was given during the test [12] and therefore it is unclear how many of them are using VE in praxis. Some researchers investigated the effects of VE on different fitness abilities, and positive changes were found in strength [6,[13][14][15] and speed parameters [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16]. Furthermore, many studies on athletes [17][18][19] have found just small changes after applying VE and have described that athletes and females are more self-motivated than non-athletes and males.…”

Differences in explosive strength values for students of the faculty of physical education and sports (male) according to body mass index levels

“…Other authors demonstrate the importance of the psychological factor in achieving performance in muscle strength tests. The use of external stimuli (performance feedback and verbal encouragement) has a beneficial effect on explosive strength test performance (Speed test 10 m and Vertical jump test) for physically active and inactive university students in Saudi Arabia [19].…”