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Pre-Exercise Perceptions of Energy and Fatigue are Significantly Related to Performance during Sprint Interval Cycling

Administration of ergogenic aids before exercise can increase feelings of energy and improve performance while completion of a demanding cognitive task before exercise can increase physical fatigue and decrease performance. Studies on this topic have been small (7-10 participants) and have failed to adequately measure perceptions of mental energy and fatigue. Thus, relationships between pre-exercise feelings of energy, fatigue and physical performance are not well understood. PURPOSE: Describe relationships between anaerobic power during brief all-out cycling sprints and pre-exercise feelings of physical energy, physical fatigue, mental energy and mental fatigue. METHODS: Ninety-four healthy men and women (18 to 29 years) completed 3 x 30-sec sprints at a high resistance. Participants were randomly assigned to cycle in an interactive or noninteractive virtual environment presented through a virtual reality setup (data presented elsewhere). Perceived feelings of energy and fatigue were measured pre-exercise using the Mental and Physical State Energy and Fatigue Scales. Compared to their capacity to perform typical mental or physical activities, participants rated their “right now” feelings of energy, vigor, pep, fatigue, exhaustion, and being worn out, on 10-cm visual analog scales. Scores were summed to yield criterion scores for physical energy, physical fatigue, mental energy and mental fatigue. Correlations between perceptions of energy, fatigue, mean power (MP) and objective performance fatigue (MP during the 1st sprint minus MP during the 3rd sprint) were used to evaluate relationships. RESULTS: All variables were normally distributed. MP during the 1st 30-sec sprint was significantly related to pre-exercise perceptions of physical fatigue (r = -0.300, p = .003), mental fatigue (r = -0.270, p = .008) and mental energy (r = 0.246, p = .017). Performance fatigue was significantly related to pre-exercise perceptions of physical fatigue (r = -0.237, p = .021) and mental energy (r = 0.224, p = .030). Partial correlations controlling for the experimental condition and removal of outliers did not influence these relationships. CONCLUSIONS: There are significant, small relationships between pre-exercise feelings of physical and mental fatigue, anaerobic power and performance fatigue.