Abstract
Background: Resistance exercise has numerous, well-documented benefits on the health and functional performance of older adults. However, little information exists on the affective responses to resistance exercise in this population. As affective responses can predict continued exercise behavior, examining if and how they differ between resistance exercise intensities and frequencies in older adults may provide important data to improve resistance exercise prescription. Methods: We monitored the affective responses of older adults when performing high-velocity, low-load (HVLL) or low-velocity, high-load (LVHL) resistance exercise once or twice weekly. A total of 40 moderately to highly active, but resistance-exercise naïve, older adults (60–79 years) completed 1 of 4 randomly assigned progressive resistance exercise conditions: HVLL once weekly (HVLL1: n = 10), HVLL twice weekly (HVLL2: n = 10), LVHL once weekly (LVHL1: n = 10), or LVHL twice weekly (LVHL2: n = 10). The Physical Activity Affect Scale, Felt Arousal Scale, Feeling Scale, rating of perceived exertion, Visual Analog Scale, and the Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale were used to assess enjoyment and affective responses. Results: The results from Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (out of 35) suggest that all exercise conditions were largely and similarly enjoyable to older adults (HVLL1: 30.9 ± 2.4; LVHL1: 31.9 ± 3.6; HVLL2: 30.9 ± 3.5; LVHL2: 30.2 ± 3.7) despite greater fatigue (p = 0.033; η p 2= 0.22) and perceived workload (p = 0.042; η p 2 = 0.20) in LVHL (results from Visual Analog Scale). Conclusion: Moderately to highly physically active older adults may tolerate higher intensities of resistance exercise performed once or twice weekly without experiencing a negative impact on enjoyment. However, the role that supervision and social interaction played in shaping the participants’ responses is unclear.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 604-613 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of Sport and Health Science |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 6 |
Early online date | 17 Jan 2019 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - Dec 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Published under a CC-BY-NC-ND licenceKeywords
- Aging
- Enjoyment
- Exercise affect
- Health education
- Older adults
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Orthopedics and Sports Medicine
- Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation