Acute affective responses in uphill mountain hiking - a randomised controlled trial

Abstract

Background According to the psychophysiological stress recovery theory, exposure to an outdoor environment is believed to create additional affective benefits compared to an indoor environment. Physical activity in an outdoor environment may increase these benefits even more. Therefore, the aims of the present study were (1) to analyse affective responses of a single bout of physical exercise and (2) to detect possible environmental influences on affective responses. Methods Using a within-subject-design, 47 healthy participants were randomly exposed to three different conditions in small groups: uphill outdoor mountain hiking, uphill indoor treadmill walking, and sedentary control situation. Each condition lasted for 1.5 hours. Measures included the Feeling Scale, Felt Arousal Scale and a German mood survey scale. Univariate ANOVAs were used to analyse differences between the conditions. Findings 42 participants completed the study. Compared to the control situation, the participants showed a significant increase in affective valence (eta²p=.36), activation (eta²p=.33), elation (eta²p=.41), and calmness (eta²p=.25), and a significant decrease in fatigue (eta²p=.37), and anxiety (eta²p=.28) after uphill mountain hiking. In the same dimensions, walking outdoors produced significantly greater positive effects than walking indoors. Discussion The results indicate, that a single bout of uphill mountain hiking elicits higher positive and lower negative affective responses compared to a sedentary control situation. Additionally, the data suggest a synergetic effect of physical activity and being outdoors. These results provide support both for the psychophysiological stress recovery theory and for the affective benefits of green exercise.