Greater Changes In Motivation States With Exercise In National-caliber Athletes Compared To University Students

Motivation states to be active and inactive change with bouts of exercise, but data indicate that maximal exercise may result in either decreased (Stults-Kolehmainen et al., 2021) or increased desire (Filgueiras et al., 2023) to move. Findings may be moderated by the training status of the individuals. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to compare Chinese professional athletes with non-professional university students matched approximately for gender, age, and BMI. METHODS: 42 participants were included (20 females; mean age = 19.88y [SD = 1.11]). 22 were certified athletes with at least a second-level national sports qualification. Controls were university students. All completed a group exercise training session that consisted of: A) 8-minutes of jogging, B) 5-minutes of dynamic stretching, and C) a preliminary 50-meter sprint. This was followed by gender- and athlete-grouped sprinting (5 x 150 meters at max intensity). The CRAVE-Chinese (13-items, 2 subscales for Move and Rest motivation) was administered pre- and post-training after 5 minutes of relaxation with mutual massage. RESULTS: There was a pronounced increase in Move for athletes (35.2 ± 7.6 vs. 42.4 ± 9.2) compared to a decrease in the non-athlete group (33.8 ± 6.1 vs. 25.5 ± 5.0; p < .0001, Cohen’s d = 1.48). Conversely, for Rest, there was a marked decline for the athletic group (24.6 ± 7.2 vs. 20.4 ± 5.6) in contrast to an increase for the controls (25.3 ± 6.1 vs. 34.7 ± 8.4; p < .0001, Cohen’s d = -1.58). CONCLUSIONS: Desires to be physically active increased with sprint training in professional athletes but the opposite trend was true in non-athletes. Effect sizes were large, indicating potential for further study to elucidate mechanisms of the effect, such as fitness.