All of those workouts have benefits – but whether or not we should stick with what we know or change it up in the name of discomfort is the question at the heart of a new study.

Published in the International Journal of Behavioural Nutrition and Physical Activity, it looked at whether self-regulating your exercise intensity according to your own preference and tolerance led to more frequent training.

The study

Researchers from the Faculty of Physical Education and Sport at Lusófona University in Lisbon were keen to look at how we can motivate more people to exercise. They were critical of current strategies that suggest educating people about the health benefits of exercise was enough to get people to move more, noting that studies found limited success to that plan.

Instead, they said the most interesting angles around motivation are focused on pleasure – so they put that to the test.

They invited 46 participants, aged between 18 and 45, who were infrequent exercisers to join exercise classes at a health club. Over eight weeks, they were allowed to join a workout class every two to three days – or they could not join, if they didn’t want to.

All classes involved a treadmill warm-up followed by a resistance training session involving five exercises, then 15 minutes of stationary cycling and a cool-down of four stretches. However, half of the participants could choose the intensity of the exercises they performed according to what felt comfortable and pleasurable, whereas the other half of participants were given standardised instructions on exercise intensity.

The results

The most eye-opening takeaway from this study was that those who self-regulated their exercise intensity based on pleasure attended 77% more exercise sessions than the participants given standardised instructions.

Some interesting results from the study include:

• Those told how intense their exercise should be visited the health club an average of 8.13 times in eight weeks, compared to 14.35 visits by those who self-regulated.
• Those who self-regulated scored up to 1.93 units higher on the 11-point ‘feeling scale’ compared to the standardised group, indicating a much more positive emotional response.
• Before training, all participants were asked to indicate how much they thought the workout would improve their mood out of 100. Anticipated improvements in mood in the standardised group ranged from 59 to 71.61 throughout the study.
• In the self-regulated group, anticipated improvements ranged from 72.39 to 82.17, suggesting participants better remembered the positive impact of their workouts.

What this means for us

If you’re looking to maintain a more regular workout schedule, don’t overlook exercise you enjoy. This study suggests that following your intuition on how hard to train, and choosing intensities that you find pleasurable, will motivate you more.

That goes against what we typically think – that we need someone to shout at us to go harder to make us move.

This study also shows that exercising at an intensity you enjoy means you’re more likely to remember how good your workout makes you feel before your next session. Given we’re more likely to do things we think of as pleasurable, it suggests enjoying your exercise will make you more motivated to return to the weights room in future.

For those who worry that self-selecting your intensity (aka not being told by your PT, group instructor or ego what speed to put the treadmill on) will mean you end up doing nothing, research calls BS. The authors of this study noted previous papers that show, “When individuals are instructed to self-select their training loads or are instructed to select loads that make them feel “good,” they choose loads within the range that is recommended to stimulate muscle hypertrophy and gains in strength.”