People with better cardiorespiratory fitness tend to be less anxious and more resilient in emotional situations

A study in Brazil found that individuals with better cardiorespiratory fitness tended to have lower levels of trait anxiety. They also tended to be more resilient in situations of emotional stress. The paper was published in Acta Psychologica.

Cardiorespiratory fitness is the ability of the heart, blood vessels, lungs, and muscles to supply and use oxygen efficiently during sustained physical activity. It reflects how well the body can perform activities such as walking, running, cycling, or swimming over time without becoming overly fatigued. A person with better cardiorespiratory fitness can usually exercise longer and recover faster after exertion. This form of fitness is important because it is closely linked to physical health, endurance, and a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease.

One key indicator of cardiorespiratory fitness is maximal oxygen uptake, called VO2max, which estimates the body’s capacity to use oxygen during intense exercise. Resting heart rate is another indicator, because lower resting rates are associated with better cardiovascular efficiency. Heart rate recovery after exercise is also useful, since faster recovery generally suggests better fitness. Endurance performance on activities such as timed walking, running, or cycling tests can also indicate cardiovascular fitness. Additional indicators include blood pressure responses to exercise and how easily a person can sustain moderate or vigorous activity.

Study author Thalles Guilarducci Costa and his colleagues investigated how cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with changes in anxiety and anger in response to emotionally charged visual stimuli. They note that modern lifestyles are associated with exposure to emotional stress from various sources and that stressful life events can decrease the practice of physical activity and, therefore, cardiorespiratory fitness.

These authors hypothesized that participants with higher cardiorespiratory fitness would be more resilient to anger and anxiety changes incited by emotional picture stimuli compared to individuals with lower cardiorespiratory fitness. They also expected higher cardiorespiratory fitness to be associated with lower trait anger and trait anxiety (i.e., proneness to anger and anxiety as a general tendency or permanent characteristic).

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Study participants were 40 healthy individuals recruited by the study authors through personal invitations and advertisements on social media. Twenty-three of them were women, and their ages ranged between 18 and 40 years.

Participants visited the laboratory twice, with 24 to 72 hours between the two visits. During the first visit, participants completed weight and height measurements and baseline assessments of trait anger and trait anxiety. They also self-reported their physical activity levels, which the study authors used to mathematically estimate their cardiorespiratory fitness. Based on this, participants were classified into groups with either above-average or below-average cardiorespiratory fitness.

Across the two visits, participants viewed sets of pictures from the International Affective Picture System, a validated database of emotionally graded images known to incite specific emotions. Participants viewed a 69-picture set of unpleasant images during one visit, and a 69-picture set of neutral images during the other. The order of the picture sets was randomly assigned, and each viewing session lasted 30 minutes.

During the slideshows, participants reported their emotional responses to each image using a non-verbal rating scale called the Self-Assessment Manikin. They also completed assessments of state anxiety and state anger (i.e., how angry and anxious they currently felt in that exact moment) immediately before and after viewing each picture set. Additionally, the study authors monitored the participants’ heart rates while they viewed the pictures.

Results showed that while the two fitness groups did not differ in their baseline state anger, state anxiety, or heart rates immediately before the viewing sessions, they did differ in their general traits. Specifically, higher estimated maximum oxygen uptake (VO2max) was significantly associated with lower trait anxiety. Contrary to their hypothesis, however, the researchers found that cardiorespiratory fitness was not associated with trait anger.

Furthermore, the stressful stimuli heavily impacted the less fit group. After viewing the unpleasant pictures, participants with below-average cardiorespiratory fitness reported significantly greater spikes in state anger and state anxiety compared to those with above-average fitness. Those with below-average fitness were 775% more likely to see their state anxiety levels jump from “intermediate” to “high” after viewing the stressful images.

“Our findings indicate that individuals with higher CRF [cardiorespiratory fitness] tend to exhibit lower trait anxiety and greater resilience when exposed to emotionally stressful stimuli, reinforcing the growing evidence that physical activity plays an important role in emotional health,” the study authors concluded.

The study contributes to the scientific understanding of the psychological correlates of cardiorespiratory fitness. However, it should be noted that the study was conducted on a very small group of participants and that all information regarding cardiorespiratory fitness was estimated based solely on self-reported physical activity rather than direct laboratory testing. Results of studies on larger groups using more objective measures of cardiorespiratory fitness may differ.

The paper, “Cardiorespiratory fitness is associated with lower anger and anxiety and higher emotional resilience,” was authored by Thalles Guilarducci Costa, Lucas Carrara do Amaral, Naiane Silva Morais, Wellington Fernando da Silva, Douglas Assis Teles Santos, Rodrigo Luiz Vancini, Carlos Alexandre Vieira, Mario Hebling Campos, Marilia Santos Andrade, Beat Knechtle, Katja Weiss, Ricardo Borges Viana, and Claudio Andre Barbosa de Lira.