Effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on cardiovascular and subjective responses during subsequent cognitive work.

The experiment was conducted to test the effects of an acute bout of aerobic exercise on cardiovascular arousal and mood during a subsequent period of cognitive work. Each subject participated in two testing sessions, one that followed exercise and one that did not. In each session the subjects studied for 40 minutes, and arousal during the study period was assessed. The results indicated that prior exercise resulted in higher pulse rate (10%; p = 0.02), slightly lower systolic blood pressure (2%; p = 0.09), and higher feelings of vigor (59%; p = 0.01) than did no-exercise. The results are somewhat inconsistent with anecdotal reports concerning the effects of acute exercise, and possible reasons for the inconsistencies are discussed.