Cognitive reappraisal mitigates affective valence declines during exercise at the ventilatory threshold

Affective valence during exercise is thought to switch from positive to negative at the ventilatory threshold (VT). The emotion regulation strategy cognitive reappraisal (CR) can be used to reevaluate emotional stimuli to reduce negative and increase positive emotional experience. We investigated if CR applied during endurance exercise at VT would increase self-reported positive affect and reduce self-reported arousal and perceived exertion during a 60-min run. 26 young recreational runners (n = 13 women, age 25.4 ± 4.3 years old; BMI 21.3 ± 2.3 kg/m2; peak oxygen consumption (VO2peak) = 55.02 ± 7.31 ml/kg/min, 58 ± 17 km/week) performed three sessions each separated by one week. On the first session, runners completed a maximal incremental test to determine their ventilatory threshold. During the next two sessions, runners completed a 60-min run at their VT on a treadmill while applying either CR or unregulated (UR) instructions in counterbalanced order. Participants were reminded of the emotion regulation instructions every five minutes and reported exertion, affective valence, and arousal every 10 min. Similar levels of exertion were reported during the CR and UR sessions. However, they reported marginally higher arousal during CR than UR (p=0.076). They also reported more positive valence during CR than UR (p<0.001). Post-hoc analysis showed that affective valence was higher during CR than UR (p<0.01) after 30, 40 and 50 min of exercise. During endurance exercise at the ventilatory threshold, cognitive reappraisal attenuates the decreases in affect after 30 min in recreational runners.