Impact Of Music And Incentives On Motivational State During Aerobic Exercise

Social cognitive theories suggest attitude and intention are drivers of exercise behavior but research indicates these theories offer limited predictive utility. Contemporary theories consider the value of emotions and state-based motivational characteristics within the exercise experience. Two factors that may play pivotal roles within motivation states include music and incentives but both are understudied within the context of state-based motivation and exercise. PURPOSE: Investigate the impact of music and incentives on time-to-exhaustion, and the relationships between incentives, music, self-control, grit, and trait motivation across conditions of exhaustive exercise. METHODS: 10 participants (6 male; age = 20 ± 2 years; BMI = 24 ± 2; VO2max = 29 ± 5 ml/kg/min) completed exercise testing followed by 4 experimental trials of exhaustive aerobic exercise conducted at 10% above the ventilatory threshold: music only (M), incentives only (I), music & incentives (M + I), and a control condition without music or incentives (C). Primary variables of interest were time-to-exhaustion, state motivation, exertion, enjoyment, and affective valence. RESULTS: Time-to-exhaustion responses indicate that performance within the C condition was lower than all other conditions (time difference ~ 5 minutes; p < 0.10; ES ~ 0.5-0.8) but no differences were observed among the other conditions (p > 0.10; ES < 0.3). Correlational data within this small sample revealed several significant relationships and many others trending towards significance. For C, motivation to move rest was significantly correlated with grit (r = -0.64; p < 0.05) and self-control (r = -0.78). For I, amotivation was significantly correlated with introjected (r = 0.66; p < 0.05) and identified regulation (r = 0.73; p < 0.05), For M, intrinsic motivation was correlated to motivation to rest (r = -.70; p < 0.05). For M + I, there were no significant correlations (p > 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that provision of music or incentives increases exercise performance, but there is no added effect of including both music and incentives. Correlational findings point towards possible impacts of self-control, grit, and trait motivation on the experience associated with exhaustive exercise. Research in larger and more diverse samples is required.