In Episode 31, we discuss a paper by ten Brummelhuis, Calderwood, Rosen, & Gabriel (2021) on the impact of physical activity during the day on self-efficacy, ego depletion and job performance. People who are intrinsically motivated to work out experienced a self-efficacy boost on days they did vigorous or light workouts, but a self-efficacy drop if they only had moderate workouts. People who were intrinsically motivated to workout experienced a self-efficacy boost only if they had a moderate workout. Those self-efficacy boosts translated into performance improvements as rated by a coworker. So, go forth and exercise.
CORRECTION NOTICE: In this episode, we occasionally reference self-esteem when what we mean is self-efficacy. Sorry for the confusion. Thank you to the listener who pointed out this error. So to be clear, this study examines self-efficacy, not self-esteem, as an outcome.
Should You Exercise Before Work?