Impact of HIIT Sessions with and without Cognitive Load on Cortical Arousal, Accuracy and Perceived Exertion in Amateur Tennis Players
Question
Does adding a cognitive task during HIIT affect cortical arousal, tennis serve accuracy, and perceived exertion in amateur tennis players?
Summary
In recreational tennis players, a bodyweight-style HIIT session paired with a Stroop cognitive task reduced serve accuracy compared with baseline and with the same HIIT session without the cognitive task. Both HIIT sessions raised perceived exertion, while cortical arousal measured by critical flicker fusion did not significantly change.
Methodology
- Young amateur tennis players
- 32 participants.
- Bodyweight exercises plus Stroop task.
- Work intervals: 30 seconds.
- Recovery: 30 seconds incongruent Stroop task.
- Intensity: High-intensity; post-session RPE about 14.44.
- About 12 minutes for intervals.
- Single condition session.
- Acute session.
- Random-order repeated-measures acute comparison
- Serve accuracy, Cortical arousal, and Perceived exertion were tracked.
Outcomes
Serve accuracy
Serve accuracy was lower after HIIT with cognitive load than at baseline and after HIIT without cognitive load.
Baseline 19.64 +/- 16.53; no-load HIIT 17.86 +/- 13.58; cognitive-load HIIT 11.16 +/- 10.73; Friedman p=0.020; baseline vs cognitive p=0.034; no-load vs cognitive p=0.046.
Perceived exertion
RPE increased after both HIIT sessions but did not differ between the two HIIT conditions.
No-load 8.38 +/- 2.22 to 14.53 +/- 1.90, p<0.001; cognitive-load 9.06 +/- 2.34 to 14.44 +/- 2.31, p<0.001; between-session p=0.405.
Cortical arousal
Critical flicker fusion threshold did not significantly change within or between HIIT conditions.
No-load p=0.278; cognitive-load p=0.135; between-change p=0.483.
Insights
- A 30:30 bodyweight HIIT structure can be paired with cognitive tasks, but precision performance may suffer immediately afterward.
- RPE alone may not reveal whether cognitive load is impairing sport-skill accuracy.
- Cognitive-load workouts should be placed away from training that requires immediate technical accuracy.
Limitations
- Small sample.
- Few female participants and no sex-specific analysis.
- Recreational tennis sample only.
- Acute design with no training adaptation data.
- Serve accuracy was measured as a simple target-hit percentage.
Safety
- No adverse events were reported.
- Sessions were separated by 48 hours.