Heart Rate, Activity, Duration, and Affect in Added-Purpose Versus Single-Purpose Jumping Activities

Abstract

This research replicates and extends an occupational therapy research project reported by Kircher in 1984. Thirty women aged 18 to 31 years jumped with a rope on one day and jumped in place on another day in a counterbalanced design. Each subject stopped jumping when she reached what she perceived as the very hard level on the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion (Borg, 1970). Differences from Kircher's design included an imposed target zone formula for safe maximum exertion, use of a portable, more easily read heart rate monitor (Exersentry, Model 3), use of the Osgood Semantic Differential to measure affective meanings, and asking the subjects to identify the type of jumping they preferred. Data analysis supported Kircher's finding that at the given rate of perceived exertion, heart rate increase after jumping rope was significantly higher (p = .01) than after jumping without a rope. The difference in duration of jumping approached significance (p = .06), but in the direction opposite to what Kircher found. There were no significant differences in affective meanings or preference. Results are discussed in terms of the need for a growing body of occupational therapy literature in regard to the purposefulness of activities.

Cardiovascular and Electroencephalographic Responses to Purposeful Versus Nonpurposeful Activities in Children

“…Since heart rate is a valid and reliable measure of exertion level (Borg & Linderholm, 1967), Kircher suggested that the workload may be misperceived as greater during nonpurposeful activities compared to purposeful activities and that purposeful activities may therefore be more intrinsically motivating to the client. Kircher's findings were corroborated by Bloch, Smith, and Nelson (1989), who also reported higher heart rates at the same level of perceived exertion while jumping with rope compared to jumping without rope. Supporting the notion that purposeful activities yield physiological benefits, Steinbeck (1986) reported that adult subjects performed a significantly higher number of exercise repetitions at the same Borg level of exertion when engaged in a purposeful activity compared to a nonpurposeful activity.…”

“…In contrast to Bloch et al (1989) and Kircher (1984), Thibodeaux and Ludwig (1988) reported a significantly lower heart rate in adult women engaged in purposeful activity with an end product they could keep versus nonpurposeful activity with no end product and suggested that their subjects may have been more motivated by the pure exercise content of the nonpurposeful activity than by the product received in the purposeful activity. Nonetheless, when the subjects were regrouped ex post facto based upon their degree of liking the activities, those subjects whose preference for the purposeful activity was the strongest did engage in the activity for a longer period of time than they did during the nonpurposeful activity with no end product to reach the same Borg exertion level.…”

“…Bakshi et al (1991) reported higher heart rates during nonpurposeful activity, but their subjects worked at a more strenuous pace during the nonpurposeful than during the purposeful activity. Other studies have also used duration on task or number of repetitions during the task as a measure of the effect of purposefulness on physical performance, controlling for the Borg level of perceived exertion (Bloch et al, 1989;Kircher, 1984;Miller & Nelson, 1987;Steinbeck, 1986;Yoder et al, 1989). By keeping the biomechanical and cardiopulmonary workload the same for both the purposeful and nonpurposeful components of each activity, the current study eliminates differences in total physical effort as a potential explanation for differences in heart rate and isolates purposefulness as the experimental variable.…”

The experience sampling method: its potential use in occupational therapy research

“…Concepts such as meaningfulness and purposefulness have been considered central determinants in therapeutic outcomes. Several researchers have sought to establish that meaning of an activity is affected by the way it is presented (Miller & Nelson, 1987;Block, Smith, & Nelson, 1989;Yoder, Nelson, & Smith, 1989;Bakshi, Bhambhani, & Madill, 1991). Findings from these studies have supported the concept that occupations which are goal directed are beneficial to clients.…”

Movement dynamics and occupational embeddedness in a grasping and placing task

“…As this premise is central to the profession of occupational therapy, it is no surprise that there is a growing body of literature that has examined this phenomenon (Kircher, 1984;Bloch et al, 1989;Yoder et al, 1989;ZimmererBranum and Nelson, 1995;Nelson et al, 1996;Schmidt and Nelson, 1996;Thomas, 1996;Lin et al, 1997;Hall and Nelson, 1998;Paul and Ramsey, 1998;Rice, 1998;Sakemiller and Nelson, 1998;Wu et al, 1998;Dolecheck and Schkade, 1999;Ma et al, 1999). The term 'occupationally embedded exercise' is used in these studies to describe occupations that have relatively greater meaning and purpose to a select group of individuals in comparison with an occupation that has relatively little meaning and purpose to the same group of individuals.…”