Physiological and perceptual responses during walking at set and preferred pace in normal and overweight adults.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the influence of body weight, exercise modality, and pace on physiological and perceptual responses to determine the relation between perceptual and physiological responses.

Methods: Aerobically untrained, normal weight, and overweight males and females participated. Participants were randomly assigned to one exercise condition for a 1-mile walk.

Results: Prescribed pace resulted in a greater physiological stress than self-selected pace (all p < 0.001) through blood lactate (1.3 ± 0.4 vs 1.7 ± 0.5 mmol), systolic blood pressure (128.9 ± 10.3 vs 139.2 ± 13.2 mmHg), heart rate recovery (2.1 ± 1.7 vs 4.5 ± 2.6 min), oxygen consumption (15.1 ± 2.6 vs 18.1 ± 3.6 ml/kg/min), heart rate (111.7 ± 16.6 vs 134.4 ± 8.3 bpm), and energy expenditure (5.5 ± 1.4 vs 6.8 ± 1.7 kcal/min). Overweight individuals exhibited higher values than normal weight for heart rate (113 ± 8.8 vs 125.5 ± 13.2 bpm, p < 0.001), percentage of max heart rate (60.7 vs 69.0%, p < 0.001), percent of VOpeak (42.2 vs 55.6%, p < 0.001), and total energy expenditure (100.9 ± 27.4 vs 114.1 ± 33.5 kcal, p = 0.022). Greater perceived effort was seen on a treadmill (6.3 ± 0.5 vs 12.5 ± 2.0 RPE, p < 0.001) and at prescribed pace (6.5 ± 1.1 vs 8.9 ± 1.9 RPE, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: A novel finding of this study was the increased physiological stress and perception of effort on a treadmill and at a prescribed pace, while total energy expenditure showed no significant differences. This could indicate an unfavorable perception and less affective response to the treadmill modality. These results indicate exercise at self-selected pace in preferred environments promotes enjoyable experiences with similar health benefits as those during prescribed higher intensity exercise.