Perceived Fitness and Exercise Intensity Can Predict Exercise Enjoyment

The goal of the study was to investigate the potential interplay of environmental, physiological, and psychological factors with exercise enjoyment. Eighty female undergraduate students at a private, West Coast university participated in the study. Participants were randomly assigned to one of three experimental conditions: control (C), in which the participant exercised alone; talking (T), in which the participant exercised with two confederates who provided “small talk” conversation; and no talking (NT), in which the participant was told she/he had been randomly selected not to wear headphones while the two confederates would wear them. Although experimental group assignment was unrelated to exercise enjoyment, we found that perceived fitness and average speed predicted 27.6% of the variance in exercise session enjoyment and that perceived fitness significantly predicted enjoyment as did mean speed. Neither condition nor perceived exertion were significant predictors of enjoyment. Because exercise enjoyment is a predictor of exercise program adherence, perceived fitness and actual effort during an exercise session should be further explored