Weekly Exercise Consistently Reinstates Positive Mood

Abstract

Mood improvement immediately after a single bout of exercise is well documented, but less is known about successive and longer term effects. In a “real-life” field investigation, four kinds of exercise class (Beginners, Advanced, Body Funk and Callanetics) met once a week for up to 7 weeks. Before and after each class the members assessed how they felt by completing a questionnaire listing equal numbers of “positive” and “negative” mood words. Subjects who had attended at least five times were included in the analysis, which led to groups consisting of 18, 20, 16, and 16 subjects, respectively. All four kinds of exercise significantly increased positive and decreased negative feelings, and this result was surprisingly consistent in successive weeks. However, exercise seemed to have a much greater effect on positive than on negative moods. The favorable moods induced by each class seemed to have worn off by the following week, to be reinstated by the class itself. In the Callanetics class, positive mood also improved significantly over time. The Callanetics class involved “slower,” more demanding exercises, not always done to music. The Callanetics and Advanced classes also showed significantly greater preexercise negative moods in the first three sessions. However, these differences disappeared following exercise. Possibly, these two groups had become more “tolerant” to the mood-enhancing effects of physical exercise; this may be in part have been due to “exercise addiction.”