Resistance Exercise Breaks Improve Ratings of Discomfort and Fatigue in College Students (REX)

The purpose of this investigation is to determine the impact of simple resistance exercise breaks on physical activity and prolonged sedentary behavior as well as on ratings of discomfort, fatigue, and sleepiness. Participants will be enrolled in a cross-over designed study, where they will be assessed for normal activity patterns and ratings of discomfort, fatigue, and sleepiness during a typical week and compared to a week where they engage in hourly resistance exercise breaks. Subjects will also complete a feasibility questionnaire at the end to determine if such programming could be implemented into daily living. The hypothesis is that engaging in these simple, hourly resistance breaks will result in decreased ratings of discomfort, fatigue, and sleepiness as well as ratings of high feasibility for implementation of similar resistance exercise programming into their normal, everyday life. Total time spent enrolled in the study will be 4 weeks, however, the participants will only need to report to the lab on 5 different occasions totaling 120 minutes split over those 5 days. Visit one will be roughly 60 minutes long, with the following 4 visits taking roughly 15 minutes each with a visit at the beginning of the week and end of the week for both the control and experimental week.