Flow and exercise-induced feelings

Abstract

The present study examined the relationship between self-reported levels of Flow (Csikszentmihalyi, 1975) and the post-exercise feelings of Positive Engagement, Revitalisation, Tranquillity, and Physical Exhaustion (Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) using responses from 1, 231 aerobic dance exercise participants. Vallerand’s (1987) intuitive-reflective appraisal model of self-related affects and Csikszentmihalyi’s (1975) conceptual framework for optimal experience served as the guiding theoretical frameworks. It was hypothesised that self-reported flow would be positively associated with revitalisation, tranquillity and positive engagement while statistical independence was expected for physical exhaustion. First, participants completed the Flow State Scale (Jackson & Marsh, 1996) and second, the Exercise-induced Feeling Inventory (Gauvin & Rejeski, 1993) immediately after an aerobic dance exercise class. Latent variable analyses showed that the higher-order Flow factor was positively associated with post-exercise Positive Engagement, Revitalisation, and Tranquillity, but not with Physical Exhaustion. Flow state explained 35% of the variance in Positive Engagement, 31% of the variance in Revitalisation, and 22% of the variance in Tranquillity. It is concluded that self-reported flow in aerobic dance exercise is moderately associated with the experience of positive post-exercise feelings. Physical educators may wish to employ interventions to facilitate the flow experience during lessons that involve structured exercise.