ABSTRACT

Background: Exercise snacking has recently gain popularity as a time-saving exercise approach, however, the acute bouts of exercise snacking on study related fatigue has not been investigated among undergraduate students.

Aim: Therefore, this study compared the effect of exercise snacking versus continuous exercise on mental and physical fatigue of undergraduate students induced with mental fatigue

Methods: A pilot two-grouped experimental study was used. 30 participants were randomized into two groups. Mental and physical fatigue of participants was assessed with 0-10 numeric rating scale at baseline, before and after each bout of the three 10-minute bicycle ergometer exercise snacking and a bout of continuous 30-minute exercise. Prior to the exercise, an electronic version of the incongruent stroop task was used to induce mental fatigue on study participants for 10-minute. The intensity of the exercise was measured using the rate of perceived exertion following each exercise bout. Descriptive and inferential statistics was performed at alpha level of 0.05.

Results: The mean age of participants was 21.00 (±1.97) years. 60% (18) of the participants were male. The effect of the three bouts of 10-minuteexercise snacking for both MF and PF showed that the effect of first and third bouts were not significant for MF (p= 0.670) but was significant for PF (p= 0.014), the effect of second bout showed significant differences for both MF (p= 0.017) and PF (p= 0.001). However, the effect of the third bout was not significant for MF (p= 0.320), but was significant for PF (p= 0.002) respectively. Single bout of 30- minutes continuous exercise showed no significant difference for MF (p=0.723) but showed significant difference for PF score (P =0.001). Furthermore there was no significant difference between the effects of these two modes of exercise on physical fatigue (-0.267 ± 1.20) and mental fatigue (-1.53 ± 0.955).