Cognitive reappraisal mitigates affective valence declines during exercise at the ventilatory threshold

ABSTRACT

Affective valence during exercise is thought to switch from positive to negative at the ventilatory threshold (VT). The emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal (CR) can be used to reevaluate emotional stimuli to reduce negative and increase positive emotional experience. We investigated if CR applied during endurance exercise at VT would increase self-reported positive affect and reduce self-reported arousal and perceived exertion during a 60-min run. 26 young recreational runners (n = 13 women, age 25.4 ± 4.3 years old; BMI 21.3 ± 2.3 kg/m²; peak oxygen consumption (VO₂peak) = 55.02 ± 7.31 ml/kg/min, 58 ± 17 km/week) performed three sessions each separated by one week. On the first session, runners completed a maximal incremental test to determine their ventilatory threshold. During the next two sessions, runners completed a 60-min run at their VT on a treadmill while applying either CR or unregulated (UR) instructions in counterbalanced order. Participants were reminded of the emotion regulation instructions every five minutes and reported exertion, affective valence, and arousal every 10 min. Similar levels of exertion were reported during the CR and UR sessions. However, they reported marginally higher arousal during CR than UR (p=0.076). They also reported more positive valence during CR than UR (p<0.001). Post-hoc analysis showed that affective valence was higher during CR than UR (p<0.01) after 30, 40 and 50 min of exercise. During endurance exercise at the ventilatory threshold, cognitive reappraisal attenuates the decreases in affect after 30 min in recreational runners.

KEYWORDS:

• Running
• young adults
• ventilatory threshold
• cognition
• emotion regulation

Acknowledgement

This work was supported by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Command Soldier Center under a cooperative agreement (W911QY-19-2-0003) with Tufts University. The views expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not reflect the official policies or positions of the Department of Army, the Department of Defense, or any other department or agency of the U.S. government.

The data that support the findings of this study are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author, [KGC]. The data are not publicly available due to [restrictions e.g., their containing information that could compromise the privacy of research participants].

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Command Soldier Center: [Grant Number W911QY-19-2-0003].