Disturbance of desire‐goal motivational dynamics during different exercise intensity domains

Abstract

Purpose The desire‐goal motivational conflict helps explain endurance performance; however, the physiological concomitants are unknown. The present study examined disturbances in desire to reduce effort and performance goal value across moderate, heavy, and severe exercise intensity domains, demarcated by the first (LT1) and second (LT2) lactate thresholds. In addition, the within‐person relationships among blood lactate concentration, heart rate, and desire‐goal conflict were examined. Methods Thirty participants (53% female, Mage = 21.03 years; SD = 2.06 years) completed an incremental cycling exercise test, in which work rate was increased by 25 watts every four minutes, until voluntary exhaustion or sufficient data from the severe intensity domain had been collected. Desire to reduce effort, performance goal value, blood lactate concentration (for determination of LT1 and LT2), and heart rate were measured at the end of each stage and analyzed using multilevel models. Results The desire to reduce effort increased over the exercise test with additional shifts and accelerations after each lactate threshold. The performance goal did not show general declines, nor did it shift at LT1. However, the performance goal value shifted at LT2, and the rate of change increased at both thresholds. Within‐person variation in blood lactate concentration positively correlated with the desire to reduce effort and negatively correlated with the performance goal. Within‐person variation in heart rate correlated with desire to reduce effort but not the performance goal. Conclusion Transitioning through both lactate thresholds is important phases for motivation during progressive exercise, particularly for the desire to reduce effort. Within‐person variation in blood lactate concentration is more influential for motivation, compared with heart rate.

Urges to Move and Other Motivation States for Physical Activity in Clinical and Healthy Populations: A Scoping Review Protocol

“…Therefore, there has been a call to understand how motivation for physical activity works in the moment or right now (Stults-Kolehmainen et al, 2020. Transient desires to move or rest are driven by at least 3 main factors: (1) the preceding set of behaviors; the desire to move increases (i.e., craving rises) with prolonged sitting and decreases with excessive activity, as recently demonstrated by Stults-Kolehmainen and colleagues (Stults-Kolehmainen et al, 2021) and others (Taylor et al, 2022), (2) anticipations of pleasure and displeasure (hedonic motivation) (Williams and Evans, 2014;Rhodes et al, 2019;Williams et al, 2019) and (3) the innate drive to move (and rest) (Feige, 1976;Rowland, 1998;Garland et al, 2011), similar to thirst or hunger, that is reinforcing in and of itself. In other words, movement relieves the tension that builds with inactivity, just as drinking relieves the tension that builds with thirst.…”

“…Over 50% of individuals with eating disorders report excessive movement behaviors (Fietz et al, 2014 ). However, ACMS have also been extensively described in motor control, in music psychology (i.e., “groove”) (Janata et al, 2012 , 2018 ; Madison and Sioros, 2014 ) and, more recently, exercise psychology (Ponnada et al, 2022 ; Taylor et al, 2022 ). Examining this diverse literature, it appears that the desire or urge to move is influenced by a number of stable characteristics (e.g., age) (Stults-Kolehmainen et al, 2021 ), food, drugs (e.g., caffeine, amphetamines) (Kaplan et al, 1997 ; Ferreira et al, 2006 ), and medicine (e.g., haloperidol, lurasidone and vilazodone) (Tripathi et al, 2019 ), and situational and environmental factors (Levitin et al, 2018 ).…”

The intensity rather than the quantity of prior work determines the subsequent downward shift in the power duration relationship in professional cyclists

“…The higher the prior intensity, the greater the reduction in time to exhaustion that is, the downward shift in the power‐duration relationship is greater when prior work is completed at higher intensities. Given the differing metabolic (Black et al., 2017), neuromuscular (Brownstein et al., 2021) and perceptual responses (Taylor et al., 2022) across the exercise intensity domains it could be expected that these findings could be extrapolated to well‐trained and professional cycling populations however, this hypothesis remains untested.…”

Motivation states to move, be physically active and sedentary vary like circadian rhythms and are associated with affect and arousal

“…In response to pleasant music at a high beat rate, one might feel compelled to move the body, which is called “groove” ( 31 ). Taylor and colleagues ( 32 ) have argued that pleasure/displeasure and arousal/activation are foundational to motivation for activity and perhaps more so than reflective factors. They stated, “Physiological responses to exercise and their generalized core affective labels (i.e., states that vary simply on pleasantness and activation) are motivationally salient because they form the basis of desires that are often contrary to valued goals.…”