Exploring the Impact of Mental Fatigue and Emotional Suppression on the Performance of High-Intensity Endurance Exercise

Abstract

This study investigated the extent to which mental fatigue and emotional suppression affected exercise endurance. Twelve participants performed cycling endurance tests at 80% of their peak power up to the point of exhaustion. Two experimental conditions (mental fatigue [MF] and emotion suppression conditions [ES]) and a control condition (CO) were administered. Participants responded to psychological measures throughout the exercise trials. Both MF and ES conditions hindered exercise performance relative to the CO, and there was no statistically significant difference between the negative effects of both MF and ES conditions. Of note, however, higher levels of subjective fatigue were reported in MF, prior to commencing the exercise test. High cognitive loads that induce MF and/or engaging in ES may reduce high intensity endurance exercise performance among young adults, but further research with greater numbers of participants is needed to replicate and extend these findings.

Special Section: Relationships Between Executive Function and Sports / Exercise

“…While self-regulatory ability (an aspect of EF) might serve as a protective personal resource during sport/exercise performance, as reflected in past literature that Schlicta et al (2022) reviewed, these investigators demonstrated that experimentally induced mental fatigue and emotional stress can overwhelm this presumed resource. An ironic aspect of this study (and many others) is that the authors’ means of manipulating mental fatigue was to involve participants in the very task that is often associated with measuring and showing EF gains from sport engagement – the Stroop Test.…”

“…Note again the reciprocal duality of a cognitive component to task demands. On the one hand, cognitive elements of exercise training were necessary ingredients of physical activity for enhancing EF development among young children (Giordano & Alesi, 2022) or boosting EF functioning of children with ADHD (Chang et al, 2022); but, on the other, cognitive challenges before or during adult sport activities have induced performance interference from mental fatigue (Bushel et al, 2022; Schlicta et al, 2022). Bushel et al (2022) provided a good example of an improved use of cognitively complex and ecologically valid EF testing in sport research.…”