Impact of Age on the Affective Responses Following Worksite Resistance Exercise in Career Firefighters

• Published in: Medicine and science in sports and exercise 2023-12, Vol.55 (12), p.2263-2270
• Main Authors: Gerstner, Gena R., Trivisonno, Abigail J., Laffan, Megan R., Giuliani-Dewig, Hayden K., Mota, Jacob A., Register-Mihalik, Johna K., Ryan, Eric D.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0195-9131; 1530-0315
• DOI: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003253

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of age on the affective responses (attitude, feelings, self-efficacy, intention, enjoyment, and fondness) after a worksite circuit-style resistance exercise routine in career firefighters. Nineteen young (25.5 ± 3.3 yr) and 19 middle-aged male career firefighters (50.3 ± 3.5 yr) completed 2 d of physical testing at local fire stations. Participants were familiarized with the resistance training exercises (deadlift, shoulder press, lunge, and upright row) at visit 1 and performed a multirepetition maximum (RM) assessment to prescribe the appropriate loads for the resistance exercise bout on visit 2. The resistance training session included three sets of 8 to 10 repetitions per exercise at 80% 1-RM. Participants completed a postexercise questionnaire examining affective responses and a rating of perceived exertion (RPE). Mann-Whitney U tests and an independent t-test were used to determine differences between the young and middle-aged firefighters' affective responses and RPE, respectively. There were no significant differences between groups for any of the six affective responses ( P = 0.062-0.819) or RPE ( P = 0.142). Age did not influence the perceived effort or affective responses following an acute bout of worksite resistance exercise. Firefighters reported overall positive attitudes, feelings, and fondness paired with high self-efficacy and intention at a training frequency of twice per week. However, confidence, intention, and enjoyment decreased at higher training frequencies (i.e., 3-4x per week). Circuit-style resistance training performed twice per week may be a feasible and practical worksite exercise routine across ages in the fire service.