Effects of acute boxing exercises on attention and psychophysiological states

Purpose: The objective of this investigation was to determine the effects of acute boxing exercises on attention, heart rate(HR), and mood states among regional boxing secondary school students.Methods: Fourteen students (8 males and 6 females, age = 16.10 ± .30 years, height = 166.92 ± 3.66 cm, body mass = 60.90± 7.80 kg) specialized in competing in boxing participated in the present study. They were randomly assigned to one of thefollowing three sessions in a crossover design: (i) a tag boxing game condition, (ii) a footwork drills condition, and (iii) acontrol condition (CC). Cognitive performance, namely concentration performance (CP) and fluctuation rate (FR), HR, andrating of perceived exertion (RPE) were assessed pre and immediately post each condition using d2 test, a wrist monitorrecorder, and Borg CR-10 scale, respectively. Mood state was quantified using Brunel Mood Scale (BRUMS) questionnaireonly immediately after each condition.Results: The findings revealed that while overall CP did not differ between tag boxing games and footwork drills (P= .24), theconsistency of attention was superior following tag boxing, as indicated by a significantly lower FR (P= .02). FR was also lowerin tag boxing compared to the CC (P< .001). No significant difference in HR was found between the two exercise conditions(P= 1.00). Regarding psychological measures, higher RPE and fatigue subscale values were reported after footwork drillsthan after tag boxing games (P= .03 and .04, respectively) and CC (P< .001). Conversely, higher vigor subscale values werereported following tag boxing games compared to footwork drills (P= .03) and CC (P< .001).Conclusions: Acute boxing exercises, notably tag boxing games, demonstrate a significant benefit for the persistence andconsistency of attention control, despite showing no difference in overall concentration performance. This suggests thatboxing practitioners may implement tag boxing games prior to any tasks requiring sustained and stable visual attention.