Does Aerobic Capacity Protect Against Stress? Insights From Two Stress‐Induction Paradigms

Figures

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  FIGURE 1. Study design. Two experimental days were separated by a one‐month washout period (or the length of one menstrual cycle for female participants). The order of the experiments was counterbalanced within each sex. After a baseline assessment, participants completed either the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) or the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST), followed by a 30‐min recovery period. Vertical arrows indicate measurement time points for State Anxiety Inventory (STAI), the visual analog scale for perceived stress (VAS), and saliva sampling. Heart rate (HR) was recorded continuously throughout the experiment, with explicit time windows for standardized analyses.

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  FIGURE 2. Time course of salivary hormones, heart rate, HRV, and subjective stress responses. Error bars indicate 95% confidence intervals (CIs). The Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST) and the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) are presented separately in blue dots and red triangles, respectively. *: Statistically significant differences compared to baseline; #: Statistically significant differences between MAST and TSST; $: Differences between men and women; Cn:C: Cortisone‐to‐cortisol ratio; VAS100: 100 mm horizontal visual analogue scale for subjective stress; lnRMSSD: Natural log‐transformed root mean square of successive differences; The x‐axes (abscissa) indicate the time in minutes, with the gray area corresponding to the stress‐induction phase.

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  FIGURE 3. Predicted area under the curve for cortisol, visual analogue scale (VAS100), heart rate (HR) during stressor condition, and natural log‐transformed root mean square of successive difference (lnRMSSD) during stressor condition, by peak oxygen uptake relative to body mass (V̇O2peak). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the fixed effect estimator. The blue dashed lines represent the models for the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST), while the blue dots indicate the sample data. Conversely, the models for the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) are depicted as red solid lines, with the sample data shown as red triangles.

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  FIGURE 4. Predicted area under the curve for cortisol, visual analogue scale (VAS100), heart rate (HR) during stressor condition, and natural log‐transformed root mean square of successive difference (lnRMSSD) during stressor condition, by hours of vigorous physical activity per week, estimated from the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ). Error bars represent 95% confidence intervals (CI) of the fixed effect estimator. The blue dashed lines represent the models for the Maastricht Acute Stress Test (MAST), while the blue dots indicate the sample data. Conversely, the models for the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) are depicted as red solid lines, with the sample data shown as red triangles.