Within-Person Variation of Affective Well-Being during and after Exercise: Does the Person–Exercise Fit Matter?

Affective well-being is positively linked to regular exercise. Therefore, it is important to identify the factors that influence intra-individual variability of affective well-being. This study investigated (1) whether affective responses vary within an individual and (2) how affective responses are associated with a motive–incentive fit and a skill–task fit. A total of 107 adults (66% females, Mage = 41.79 years old, 58% doing no exercise) took part in three exercise sessions in a random order. Each session lasted 30 min with a break of 10 min between. The sessions were similarly structured but covered diverse activity incentives (e.g., figure vs. social contact vs. aesthetic movements). Intraclass correlation coefficients showed a very high within-person variation of affective valence and enjoyment across the exercise sessions. The results of multi-level regression analyses revealed that associations between perceived competence, considered to be an indicator of the skill–task fit, and affective well-being were moderate to high, whereas those between motive–incentive fit and affective well-being were low to moderate.