Effects of Exergame and Music on Acute Exercise Responses to Graded Treadmill Running

Recreational athletes may listen to music or watch videos to prolong their exercise routines. In recent years, use of active videogames has increased. The effects of audiovisual encouragements have not been compared for their potential ergogenic effects on physiological variables during moderate- to high-intensity exercises. Here 60 sedentary healthy male students were divided into four groups - control (CON), audio feedback (A), videogame feedback (V), and a combination of A and V (AV) - based on previous measurement of maximum oxygen uptake using covariate adaptive randomization. Participants completed a bout of running (Balke treadmill test) until exhaustion based on the type of feedback. Exercise responses (time, heart rate, blood sugar level, and creatine kinase level) were compared in all groups before and after participation. Participants in group A ran significantly more than those in the CON group, and those in group AV ran significantly more than those in groups CON and V. In other physiological responses, the differences were not significant among groups. It is proposed that intentional functions from internal (physical feelings) to external perspective (music and video) may have been involved in increasing exercise time but were not strong enough to change levels of other physiological parameters. However, these findings have strong applications for improving fitness exercise programs while using a new generation of videogames.