Physiological and Psychological Effects of Short-term Exercise Addiction on Habitual Runners

Abstract

This experiment examined, through quantitative measures, exercise dependence in subjects who had been running at least a year and ran at least 5 days a week. The subjects, 24 males and 9 females, were randomly assigned to groups according to the Solomon four-group design. Two groups ran and the other two did not on the day of the experiment. Pretests were given to one of the running and one of the nonrunning groups. Dependent variables were the Profile of Mood States (POMS) and galvanic skin response. Overall multivariate analysis showed a significant running by pretest interaction. The nonpretested running group revealed significantly lower depression (POMS) and GSR scores than the nonpretested nonrunning group. The results suggest that even slight variations from running schedules may have a negative effect on habitual runners.