Motivation during maxvo testing of sedentary college aged women

Abstract

Extrinsic motivation and its effect on exercise performance has been a subject of controversy in the literature. The purpose of this study was to determine whether verbal encouragement would affect the maximal physiological responses and/or exercise duration of sedentary college aged women. Sedentary college aged women (n=15) performed 2 maxVO2 tests. During one test the Ss were extrinsically motivated through verbal encouragement to exercise as long as possible. The other test was performed with little or no interaction during exercise between the Ss and the researchers. The test sequence (motivation/no motivation or no motivation/motivation) was randomly assigned. Ss performed each test at the same time of day with at least 24 hrs, but no more than 1 wk between tests. A dependent "t" test indicated that verbal encouragement resulted in sig (p<.05) higher maxVO2 values (41.6 vs 39.3 mlkgmin-1), HR (193.5 vs 189.9 beats min-1), VE (86.8 vs 78.2 1min-1), and test duration (757.1 vs 699.3 seconds). Verbal encouragement, however, did not result in sig (p>.05) higher RER values (1.07 vs 1.04) or RPE values (19.1 vs 18.7). This indicates that a maximal effort was given in both tests. Furthermore, there were no sig (p>.05) diff when the variables during the first test, regardless of treatment, were compared with the second test. It appears that in sedentary college aged women verbal encouragement sig increases maxVO2, HR, VE, and test duration. Therefore, when working with this population in exercise programs and classes, it is important to recognize the influence of extrinsic motivation in the form of verbal encouragement.