AFFECTIVE RESPONSES TO ACUTE RESISTANCE EXERCISE PERFORMED AT SELF-SELECTED AND IMPOSED LOADS IN TRAINED WOMEN BRIAN C. FOCHT, 1 MATTHEW J. GARVER, 2 JOSHUA A. COTTER, 3 STEVEN T. DEVOR, 1 ALEXANDER R. LUCAS, 1 AND CIARAN M. FAIRMAN 1 1 Department of Human Sciences, Kinesiology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; 2 Department of Kinesiology and Nutrition, Abilene Christian University, Abilene, Texas; and 3 Department of Kinesiology, California State University, Long Beach, California ABSTRACT Focht, BC, Garver, MJ, Cotter, JA, Devor, ST, Lucas, AR, and Fairman, CM. Affective responses to acute resistance exercise performed at self-selected and imposed loads in trained women. J Strength Cond Res 29(11): 3067–3074, 2015— The purpose of this study was to examine the affective re- sponses to acute resistance exercise (RE) performed at self- selected (SS) and imposed loads in recreationally trained women. Secondary purposes were to (a) examine differences in correlates of motivation for future participation in RE and (b) determine whether affective responses to RE were related to these select motivational correlates of RE participation. Twenty recreationally trained young women (mean age = 23 years) completed 3 RE sessions involving 3 sets of 10 repetitions using loads of 40% of 1 repetition maximum (1RM), 70% 1RM, and an SS load. Affective responses were assessed before, during, and after each RE session using the Feeling Scale. Self-efficacy and intention for using the imposed and SS loads for their regular RE participation during the next month were also assessed postexercise. Results revealed that although the SS and imposed load RE sessions yielded differ- ent trajectories of change in affect during exercise (p , 0.01), comparable improvements in affect emerged after RE. Addi- tionally, the SS condition was associated with the highest rat- ings of self-efficacy and intention for future RE participation (p , 0.01), but affective responses to acute RE were unrelated to self-efficacy or intention. It is concluded that acute bouts of SS and imposed load RE resulted in comparable improve- ments in affect; recreationally trained women reported the highest self-efficacy and intention to use the load chosen in SS condition in their own resistance training; and affective responses were unrelated to motivational correlates of resis- tance training. KEY WORDS acute exercise, pleasure, strength training, training load INTRODUCTION T here is mounting empirical evidence demonstrat- ing that acute resistance exercise (RE) consistently results in significant improvements in a variety of psychological outcomes ranging from affective re- sponses (i.e., ratings of basic pleasure-displeasure) to stress- related emotions such as state anxiety (8,13,18). Findings from multiple studies of the RE-affect relationship suggest that affective responses to acute RE are systematically influ- enced by the training load lifted during RE with the majority of findings suggesting that moderate loads yield the most favorable improvements in psychological responses (2,4,15,22). Recent findings suggest that affective responses to acute aerobic exercise performed at a self-selected (SS) intensity are more favorable than those observed with prescribed intensity exercise (26). Although emerging evidence pro- vides support for the affective benefits accompanying acute RE, the load imposed on participants in traditional RE pre- scriptions designed to enhance muscular strength and hyper- trophy may not be a representative of the load or effort level that one would self-select during habitual exercise participa- tion (9). This may be particularly relevant to women who may be hesitant to select heavier training loads due to mis- conceptions such as increased risk of injury or potentially concern of developing undesirable levels of muscular hyper- trophy. For example, Focht (9) demonstrated that untrained women chose to exercise using loads and ratings of per- ceived exertion that were significantly lower than that typi- cally imposed in traditional RE prescriptions. From a social cognitive theory perspective (3), exercise-related self-efficacy beliefs have been linked with affective responses to acute exercise (13). Specifically, the link between affect and Address correspondence to Brian C. Focht, focht.10@osu.edu. 29(11)/3067–3074 Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research Ó 2015 National Strength and Conditioning Association VOLUME 29 | NUMBER 11 | NOVEMBER 2015 | 3067 Copyright © National Strength and Conditioning Association Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.