Altering Affective Response Through Acute Bouts Of Aerobic Exercise With And Without Mindfulness

PURPOSE: Although aerobic exercise and mindfulness each has acute positive effects on post-exercise affective responses, the potential combined affective effect of aerobic exercise with mindfulness remains unknown. This study aims to compare the effect of novel mindful aerobic exercise (MAE) with traditional aerobic exercise (AE) on affect. METHODS: Twenty-nine (Mage = 22.1 ± 2.2, 15 males) participants underwent a within-subject crossover trial to assess affect using a Feeling Scale (FS) before and after a 30-min session of MAE, AE, and non-mindful rest (Rest) on three separate days in counterbalanced order. Following each session, participants also completed State Mindfulness Scale for Physical Activity 2 (SMS-PA2) that measures state mindfulness in the mind and body domains as well as Physical Activity Enjoyment Scale (PACES) and Remembered (RP) and Predicted Pleasure (PP) scales. A repeated measures one-way (Session: MAE, AE, Rest) ANOVA was conducted to examine between-session differences in PACES, RP, and PP. Session × Time (pretest, posttest) and Session × Domain (mind, body) ANOVAs were conducted to analyze FS and SMS-PA2, respectively. RESULTS: Both AE (2.6 ± 0.6) and MAE (3.3 ± 0.6) induced higher scores in the body domain of SMS-PA2 than Rest (2.2 ± 0.8) (ts > 3.1, ps < 0.013, ds > 0.57), with MAE showing a higher score than AE (t = 5.5, p < 0.001, d = 1.01). Scores in the mind domain of SMS-PA2 were numerically higher in the MAE (2.5 ± 0.6), followed by the AE (2.3 ± 0.6) and Rest (2.0 ± 0.7) sessions, however, only MAE showed a significantly higher score than Rest (t = 2.2, p = 0.002, d = 0.72). While no between-session difference in FS was found at pretest, MAE (3.2 ± 1.6) showed a higher posttest FS compared with Rest (1.8 ± 1.9) (t = 4.5, p < 0.001, d = 0.83). Further, FS increased from pretest to posttest for MAE (t = 1.9, p = 0.070, d = 0.35) but remained unchanged for AE and Rest (ts < 1.0, ps > 0.062, ds < 0.17). Analysis on RP, PP, and PACES showed higher scores following AE and MAE compared to Rest (ts > 2.7, ps < 0.038, ds > 0.50). CONCLUSIONS: Both MAE and AE induce state-related mindfulness and exercise-related enjoyment and pleasure. Integrating mindfulness into exercise can increase additional state-related mindfulness in body and mind domains as well as positive feeling.