Zusammenfassung

Physical activity is a widely accessible and effective tool for improving well-being. This study aimed to unpack the feel good effects of free-time physical activity. Multilevel models were applied to repeated measures of daily free-time physical activity and four types of feeling states obtained from 190 undergraduate students. Physical activity was not associated with pleasant-deactivated, unpleasant-activated, or unpleasant-deactivated feelings. People who were more physically active overall had higher pleasant-activated feelings than people who were less physically active, and on days when people were more physically active than was typical for them, they reported higher levels of pleasant-activated feelings. Both the between- and within-person associations remained significant after controlling for day-of-week, sleep quality, and carryover effects of previous day free-time physical activity and feeling states. Results suggest that both increases in overall levels and acute bouts of free-time physical activity are associated with increases in feelings of pleasant-activation.