International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

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Effects of 8-week endurance, strength, and coordination

exercise interventions on attention in adolescents: a
randomised controlled study

Wolfgang Altermann & Peter Gröpel

To cite this article: Wolfgang Altermann & Peter Gröpel (2025) Effects of 8-week endurance,
strength, and coordination exercise interventions on attention in adolescents: a randomised
controlled study, International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 23:3, 487-500, DOI:
10.1080/1612197X.2024.2332280

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2024.2332280

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INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY
2025, VOL. 23, NO. 3, 487–500
https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197X.2024.2332280

Effects of 8-week endurance, strength, and coordination

exercise interventions on attention in adolescents: a
randomised controlled study
Wolfgang Altermann and Peter Gröpel
Division of Sport Psychology, Centre for Sport Science and University Sports, University of Vienna, Vienna,
Austria

ABSTRACT ARTICLE HISTORY

The aim of this study was to test the effect of 8-week endurance, Received 2 August 2023
resistance, and coordination training programmes on adolescents’ Accepted 14 March 2024
attention. Adolescent students (N = 96) aged 15–18 years were
KEYWORDS
randomised to one of three exercise intervention groups Physical activity; chronic
(endurance, strength, coordination) or to a non-exercise, control effect; school; attention; D2
group. The random assignment to the study groups was stratified test
according to participants’ age and gender. The intervention
lasted for eight consecutive weeks, with two 50-min training
sessions per week. Before and after the exercise intervention, all
participants completed the d2-test of attention. A 4 × 2 repeated
measures ANOVA with contrast-coded test was used as the main
analysis method. The analysis revealed that attentional test
performance increased from before to after the exercise
intervention for all exercise groups, as compared with the control
group. The coordination group showed the highest, and the
strength group the lowest, improvements in attentional
performance. These results indicate that long-term exercise
intervention is in general beneficial for adolescent students’
attention, with the greatest effects being observed in the
coordination exercise group. Physical education teachers are
encouraged to enrich their lessons with coordinative tasks.

Cognitive skills and attention are crucial for academic performance (Alloway & Alloway,
2010; Best et al., 2011), and are supported by a variety of brain regions that continue
to mature throughout adolescence (Luna, 2009). Prominent developmental transform-
ations in this period of the lifespan are seen in the prefrontal cortex and limbic brain
regions (Johnson et al., 2009; Spear, 2000), with structural and functional changes includ-
ing synaptic pruning, myelination, and integration of cortical areas, which results in fine
tuning of cognitive abilities to perform complex tasks, be more precise, and control dis-
traction (Luna, 2009). Adolescence is thus a period of great opportunity to promote

CONTACT Peter Gröpel [email protected] Division of Sport Psychology, Centre for Sport Science and
University Sports, University of Vienna, Auf der Schmelz 6a, 1150 Vienna, Austria
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any
medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which
this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
488 W. ALTERMANN AND P. GRÖPEL

cognitive development and learning through enriched environmental conditions such as,
for example, physical activity and exercise (Chim et al., 2021; Hawley et al., 2014).
Physical exercise has been described as a type of physical activity which is planned,
structured, and repetitive for the aim of better fitness and health (Caspersen et al.,
1985). Yet the exercise benefits are not limited to improved fitness and health; improve-
ments in cognitive skills and attention are also evident (Chaddock-Heyman et al., 2014; de
Sousa et al., 2018; Landrigan et al., 2020). This study especially focuses on attention which
has been broadly defined as the ability to selectively focus on an object or task (Rueda
et al., 2015). It can be viewed as the learning foundation, which in time would
influence most human activities, from the simplest tasks to the most complex ones.
Because adolescents experience frequent external distractions (Stawarczyk et al., 2014),
we need to understand how to best promote their ability to concentrate. Literature indi-
cates that both acute and long-term exercise interventions have positive effects on
people’s attention (de Sousa et al., 2018). The effects of long-term interventions are par-
ticularly relevant here, as the regular engagement in physical exercise, rather than a single
bout of exercise, might especially contribute to cognitive development in adolescents.
Indeed, higher levels of physical fitness, which typically results from regular physical exer-
cise (Poitras et al., 2016; Thomas et al., 2020), have been associated with better scores on
various tests of attention (Reigal et al., 2020; Westfall et al., 2018) and higher academic
performance in children and adolescents (Santana et al., 2016). The implication is that
long-term physical exercise may be an effective strategy to promote the development
of attentional skills in adolescent students.
In general, researchers distinguish different modes of exercise training, such as endur-
ance, strength, and coordination, all of which may have an effect on adolescents’ atten-
tion (de Sousa et al., 2018). Endurance and strength exercises are known to enhance
people’s aerobic capacity and improve cardiac performance (Spalding et al., 2004),
which may facilitate attentional performance by increased blood and oxygen flow to
the brain (Chang et al., 2012; Hillman et al., 2003; Pereira et al., 2007) and elevated
levels of peripheral catecholamines and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (Ferris et al.,
2007; McMorris et al., 2016; Moreau & Conway, 2013). Coordination exercise improves
the body’s control and is characterised by a closely coupled activation of the prefrontal
cortex and the cerebellum (Stoodley et al., 2012), which requires (and promotes) a
great deal of cognitive and attentional involvement (Budde et al., 2008; Netz, 2019;
Serrien et al., 2006).
The positive effects of long-term exercise intervention on attention have been mostly
reported on endurance exercise training, with fewer studies focusing on effects of
strength or coordination exercise trainings (de Sousa et al., 2018). The evidence for endur-
ance training is largely supportive (e.g., Alesi et al., 2016; Hillman et al., 2014; Iuliano et al.,
2015), whereas strength training shows less consistent results (e.g., Liu-Ambrose et al.,
2010; Nouchi et al., 2014; Vaughan et al., 2014). To directly compare the two, Iuliano
et al. (2015) conducted an experimental study and found that only participants involved
in endurance training improved their performance on an attention-demanding task. An
experimental study on long-term coordination training and attention has not yet been
reported (de Sousa et al., 2018), yet indirect evidence from studies on physical fitness,
which is a combination of regular physical activity and genetically inherited ability
(Ortega et al., 2018), shows that coordination positively correlates with attentional
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY 489

performance (Niederer et al., 2011; Páez-Maldonado et al., 2020; Reigal et al., 2020). A
comprehensive meta-regression that compared different types of long-term exercise in
relation to overall cognitive (or executive) function showed an overall positive effect of
all types of exercise on cognition, with somewhat greater effectiveness of coordination
exercise than endurance and strength exercises across various age groups (Ludyga
et al., 2020).
The above evidence indicates a positive effect of different types of long-term exercise
trainings on adolescents’ attention, yet a study that would directly compare the effective-
ness of these types of training is still missing from the literature. We thus conducted an
evaluation of the different types of exercise to shed more light on which type of exercise
activities has the highest potential to facilitate attention in adolescence. The aim of the
study was twofold. First, we tested the effect of 8-week endurance, resistance, and coordi-
nation exercise interventions on adolescents’ attention. Based on the above evidence that
long-term exercise improves attention, we hypothesised that the three exercise interven-
tion groups would increase their attentional test performance more than a non-exercise,
control group. Second, we tested whether the three exercise interventions would have
the same attentional benefits. Based on the consistently reported evidence for endurance
training, we further hypothesised that the endurance exercise group would show a higher
increase in attention that the strength and coordination exercise groups. Because schools
are widely recognised as essential for promoting physical activity in children and adoles-
cents (WHO, 2018), we sampled adolescent students and delivered the interventions in
school setting.

Method
Study design
This was a preregistered, randomised intervention study with four groups and two dis-
tinct measurement occasions. Data are available on figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/
m9.figshare.23703237), and preregistrations of sample size and primary analyses are avail-
able on AsPredicted (https://aspredicted.org/mt9t4.pdf).

Participants
An a priori calculation with G*Power (Faul et al., 2007) for a 4 × 2 (Group × Phase) analysis
of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measurements, based on a middle effect size (f =
0.25), power of 0.95, and the alpha level of .05, resulted in a minimal sample size of 76
participants. Participants were students recruited from an academic secondary school
in Vienna, Austria. Inclusion criteria were the target age (15–18 years), no physical limit-
ations, and proficiency in German. For each age category (15, 16, 17, and 18 years), we
stopped recruiting when the sub-sample reached 24 persons with balanced sex distri-
bution. The total sample thus included 96 students (48 women and 48 men). The partici-
pants attended between 2 and 5 h of physical education per week and the majority (80%)
also reported being active outside the school. The study was approved by the ethics com-
mittee of the first author’s institution (#00595). Participants and their parents signed an
informed consent before taking part in the study.
490 W. ALTERMANN AND P. GRÖPEL

Procedure
The study consisted of three distinct phases: a pretest, an 8-week exercise intervention
phase, and a posttest. The pretest took place one week before the exercise intervention.
Participants self-reported their age, gender, sport engagement, and academic grades, and
then competed the d2-test of attention. The exercise intervention lasted for eight con-
secutive weeks, with two 50-min training sessions per week (i.e., 16 sessions in total).
Each session consisted of a 10-min warm-up, the specific physical intervention (endur-
ance, strength, or coordination; 25 min), and a cool-down at the end (15 min). The
strength and coordination trainings took place in a sports hall, whereas the endurance
training was performed on an outdoor-track. Rate of perceived exertion was measured
immediately after the first training session using the Borg CR-10 scale. All training sessions
were delivered outside of the regular PE lessons and on days when no regular PE lesson
took place. In the posttest, one week after completing the exercise intervention, partici-
pants performed the d2-test of attention for the second time, were thanked for their par-
ticipation and dismissed.

Intervention
We used stratified randomisation to assign participants to one of three exercise interven-
tion groups (endurance, strength, coordination) or to a non-exercise, control group. Par-
ticipants were first grouped into strata according to their age (15, 16, 17, and 18 years) and
gender (male, female). Within each stratum, participants were then assigned to one of the
four study groups by using randomisation function in Microsoft Excel (Microsoft,
Redmond, WA). During the study, 24 persons (20% of all recruited persons) dropped
out due to not completing all training sessions or the posttest. We kept recruiting until
we reached 24 persons per group with equal age and gender distribution across
groups (Figure 1). All exercise groups completed the same 10-min warm-up and 15-
min cool-down at the start and the end of each session, respectively. The specific physical
intervention (endurance, strength, or coordination) took place in-between and lasted for
25 min.
Participants in the endurance group performed a standardised 25-min high-intensity
interval training (HIIT; Lüthy & Di Potenza, 2016). The HIIT started with a 90-second
warm-up running and followed with 10 repetitions of hard sprinting for 20 s separated
by 40 s of jogging for recovery. After 2 min of active rest (jogging casually), participants
completed another 10 repetitions of sprinting and jogging, and concluded with a 90-
second cool-down walking. Participants in the strength group performed a standardised
25-min full-body strength workout (Rühl & Laubach, 2014). The workout consisted of
seven exercises in a circuit (sit-ups, triceps bench dips, alternating step-ups, reverse
flys, push-ups, parallel pull-ups, and plank with arm extensions), with 60 s work and
30 s rest between each exercise. Participants completed the circuit twice with four
minutes rest between each circuit. Participants in the coordination group performed a
standardised 25-min coordination circuit training (Hunzinker & Weber, 2008). The training
comprised 10 exercises in a circuit, with 2 min work and 30 s rest between each exercise.
The exercises were: simultaneous bouncing with two different balls (e.g., Soccer and bas-
ketball); throwing and catching with two different balls against wall; throwing a ball over
the head and catching it behind the back; throwing a ball high and catching it after
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY 491

Figure 1. Flow chart showing the experimental design of the study.

having clapped hands several times; bosu ball kneeling and squats; walking on a balance
bench; jumping through a ring ladder on the floor; jumping rope with different tech-
niques; throwing a ball high and catching it after having touched the ground; and
jumping over long rope. All trainings were led by physical education teachers who
were trained in the training protocols. The compliance with the protocols was checked
by the first author. Participants in the control group did not perform any physical exercise
intervention and were instead asked to read a book of their choice. This “reading club”
was supervised by a teacher and took place in exact the same time as the physical inter-
ventions did, but in a different room.

Measures
Participants self-reported their age, gender, and how frequently they engage in sport and
exercise inside and outside of school. For the sport engagement, participants indicated
the number of their weekly physical education hours, whether they are also active in
sport and exercise outside the school (yes or no), and, if so, the average number of
492 W. ALTERMANN AND P. GRÖPEL

hours per week they spent doing sport or exercising during the last month. To control for
participants’ academic achievements, participants also indicated their most recent seme-
ster grades for graduation subjects (Mathematics, German, and English). The grades
ranged from 1 to 5, with lower value representing better achievement, and were averaged
into a single academic achievement score.
Attention was measured with the revised d2-test of attention (Brickenkamp et al.,
2010), which is a reliable and commonly used measure of concentrative capacities (Stein-
born et al., 2018), and easily applicable to school settings (Bölte et al., 2000). The test con-
sists of 14 rows of letters (d’s and p’s) that are each surrounded with up to four short
dashes. Participants’ task is to search each row for d’s with two dashes and cross them
out, while also refraining from responding to seductively similar stimuli (e.g., a d with
three dashes, or a p with two dashes). Each row includes 57 items and there is a time
limit of 20 s per row. Participants were asked to work as fast and accurately as possible
while completing the test. Three main scores were computed from the test: the concen-
tration performance score, the error score, and the speed score. The concentration per-
formance score is the absolute number of detected targets minus the number of
omission and commission errors, thus reflecting both speed and accuracy. The error
score represents the percentage of processed items that were processed incorrectly
(either due to omission or commission errors). Finally, the speed score represents the
absolute number of detected targets.
Perceived physical exertion was assessed with an adapted version of the Borg CR-10
scale (Foster et al., 2001). The CR-10 scale is a 11-point Likert scale, with the score
ranging from 0 (nothing at all) to 5 (heavy) to 10 (very, very heavy) and nominal descriptors
attached to the respective intensities.

Statistical analysis
To test the homogeneity of groups, separate one-way ANOVAs were conducted on the
hours of sport and exercise activities inside and outside of school, and on academic achieve-
ment. To check the intensity of exercise intervention, a one-way ANOVA with post-hoc tests
(Bonferroni corrected) were conducted on the rate of perceived exertion with the three
intervention groups. For the study hypotheses, separate 4 (Group) × 2 (Phase) repeated
measures ANOVAs were conducted on concentration performance score, error score, and
speed score to test whether attention changed from pretest to posttest among the
study groups. In case of significant interaction, we conducted two contrast-coded analyses
through the specification of L (the test matrix) and M matrix (the transformation matrix).
One contrast-coded analysis (LMATRIX +1, +1, +1, −3 for the three intervention groups
and the control group, respectively) tested whether the three exercise intervention
groups would improve attention more that the control group, and the other contrast-
coded analysis (LMATRIX +2, −1, −1, 0 for the endurance, strength, coordination, and
control group, respectively) tested whether the endurance exercise intervention would
have a higher effect on attention that the coordination and strength exercise interventions.
In addition, we also conducted the contrast-coded test for the strength group (LMATRIX −1,
+2, −1, 0) and the coordination group (LMATRIX −1, −1, +2, 0). The M matrix was specified
as MMATRIX −1, +1 for the respective pretest and posttest attentional scores. All analyses
were performed with SPSS 26.0 (IBM Corp.; Armonk, NY, United States). For the contrast-
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY 493

coded tests, we used the Bonferroni-adjusted p value of .0125. The significance level for all
other analyses was set at p < .05 (two tailed).

Results
Characteristics of the study groups are presented in Table 1 and attentional scores are in
Table 2. The study groups did not differ in academic achievement and the hours of sport
and exercise inside and outside of school. Regarding the intensity of the intervention, the
intervention groups differed in perceived exertion, F(2,69) = 9.03, p < .001, η2p = .21, with par-
ticipants reporting higher exertion during the endurance intervention than during the
strength intervention (p < .018) and the coordination intervention (p < .001). The strength
and coordination groups did not differ in the rate of perceived exertion (p = .563).
Concentration performance score improved from pretest to posttest for all groups, as
indicated by the main effect of Phase, F(1, 92) = 306.80, p < .001, η2p = .77. Moreover, the
interaction effect was significant, F(3, 92) = 10.07, p < .001, η2p = .25, indicating that the
improvement in attention varied across groups. Contrast-coded test (+1, +1, +1, −3 for
the three intervention groups and the control group, respectively) was significant, F(1,
92) = 20.36, p < .001, η2p = .18, indicating that participants in the intervention groups
improved more than control participants. Separate contrast-coded tests for the interven-
tion groups revealed a significant contrast for the strength group, F(1, 92) = 8.64, p = .004,
η2p = .09, a marginally significant contrast for the coordination group, F(1, 92) = 5.84, p
= .018, η2p = .06, and a non-significant contrast for the endurance group, F(1, 92) = 0.28,
p = .601, η2p = .00. The coordination group showed the highest, and the strength group
the lowest, improvement in concentration performance.
Error score declined significantly from pretest to posttest, F(1, 92) = 158.97, p < .001, η2p
= .63, yet the level of decline varied across groups, F(3, 92) = 8.06, p < .001, η2p = .21. Con-
trast-coded analysis for the three intervention groups versus the control group was sig-
nificant, F(1, 92) = 12.63, p = .001, η2p = .12, indicating that participants in the
intervention groups made fewer errors than control participants in the posttest. Con-
trast-coded tests for the intervention groups yielded significant results for the coordi-
nation group, F(1, 92) = 8.80, p = .004, η2p = .09, and the strength group, F(1, 92) = 8.53,
p = .004, η2p = .09, but no significant result for the endurance group, F(1, 92) = 0.002, p
= .965, η2p = .00. Participants in the coordination group showed the highest, and partici-
pants in the strength group the lowest, improvement in their accuracy by detecting
the targets.

Table 1. Characteristics of the study groups.

Endurance Strength Coordination Control
(n = 24) (n = 24) (n = 24) (n = 24) F p η2
Hours of sport in leisure time per week, M 6.05 (1.81) 6.22 (2.29) 6.27 (2.86) 7.44 (2.43) 1.29 .283 0.05
(SD)
Hours of physical education per week, M 3.25 (1.33) 3.25 (1.33) 3.25 (1.33) 3.25 (1.33) 0.00 1.00 0.00
(SD)
Academic grades, M (SD) 2.42 (0.62) 2.61 (0.56) 2.61 (0.69) 2.86 (0.92) 1.57 .201 0.05
Perceived exertion, M (SD) 7.67 (0.82) 6.96 (0.81) 6.63 (0.97) — 9.03 <.001 0.21
Note: Groups are stratified according to age and gender; each study group includes three women and three men of each
age category (15, 16, 17, and 18 years). Academic grades range from 1 (best) to 5 (worst). Perceived exertion ranges
from 0 (nothing at all) to 5 (heavy) to 10 (very, very heavy).
 494
W. ALTERMANN AND P. GRÖPEL
Table 2. Means (Standard Deviations), and ANOVA statistics for attentional variables.
Endurance Strength Coordination Control ANOVA
(n = 24) (n = 24) (n = 24) (n = 24) Effect F p η2
Concentration score P 306.80 <.001 0.77
Pre 149.79 (20.69) 162.25 (23.52) 149.92 (22.49) 157.40 (23.26) G 1.73 .166 0.05
Post 190.87 (15.37) 192.25 (14.00) 197.04 (10.66) 175.99 (21.97) P×G 10.07 <.001 0.25
Error score P 158.97 <.001 0.63
Pre 11.54 (4.76) 9.65 (5.13) 13.85 (5.86) 10.14 (5.74) G 1.11 .350 0.04
Post 4.32 (2.62) 4.76 (2.17) 4.21 (2.90) 6.95 (4.34) P×G 8.06 <.001 0.21
Speed score P 151.33 <.001 0.62
Pre 169.54 (23.05) 179.33 (22.64) 173.71 (21.31) 174.52 (20.81) G 1.62 .189 0.05
Post 199.58 (16.19) 201.83 (13.54) 205.88 (12.59) 188.92 (19.87) P×G 3.96 .011 0.11
Note: P = Phase; G = Group; P × G = Phase × Group interaction.
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY 495

Regarding speed score, there was an significant main effect of Phase, F(1, 92) =
151.33, p < .001, η2p = .62, and a significant interaction, F(3, 92) = 3.96, p = .011,
η2p = .11. Contrast-coded analysis for the three intervention groups versus the control
group was significant, F(1, 92) = 8.70, p = .004, η2p = .09, indicating that participants in
the intervention groups increased their working speed to a higher degree than
control participants. Separate contrast-coded tests for the intervention groups
yielded no significant results, indicating that the improvement in working speed was
the same regardless of the type of intervention.

Discussion
The aim of this study was to test the effects of three different modes of long-term exercise
training – endurance, strength, and coordination – on adolescents’ attention. As hypoth-
esised, we found that concentration performance improved after the 8-week training
intervention (two sessions/week) for all exercise groups, as compared with the control
group. In contrast to hypothesis, we further found that participants involved in coordi-
nation training, rather than those involved in endurance training, showed the highest
attentional benefits. Participants in the strength group improved attention to the
lowest degree. These results indicate that long-term exercise is in general beneficial for
adolescents’ attention, with coordination exercise training showing the highest impact.
The finding that all three training groups improved their attentional performance is in
line with previous evidence showing that exercise training intervention generally results
in positive changes in attention (de Sousa et al., 2018). Several studies with children and
older adults found that attentional test score increased from before to after a long-term
exercise intervention (e.g., Alesi et al., 2016; Hillman et al., 2014; Liu-Ambrose et al., 2010;
Vaughan et al., 2014). We replicated this effect for adolescents. This is an important con-
tribution given that adolescence is a sensitive period of maturation, where fine tuning of
cognitive functions take places until a mature level of performance is achieved in early
adulthood (Luna, 2009). Physical exercise seems to promote this cognitive development
and may in turn add to adolescents’ psychosocial adjustment and learning (Crone & Dahl,
2012; Santana et al., 2016; Stawarczyk et al., 2014).
We further tested whether different types of exercise differ in their effect on attention.
Positive results have been most often reported for endurance exercise training (de Sousa
et al., 2018), which let us assume that this type of training would have higher effect than
strength and coordination trainings. However, contrast analysis showed that participants
involved in coordination training, rather than endurance training, showed the highest
improvements in attentional performance. This may be explained by higher demands
on cognitive involvement due to higher motor complexity of coordinative tasks. In par-
ticular, researchers observed that more complex motor tasks require more prefrontal
cortex activity, and thus a higher variety of frontal-dependent cognitive processes, than
basic or automatic motor behaviours that are more controlled by the basal ganglia
(Netz, 2019; Serrien et al., 2006). Consequently, coordinative exercise may especially facili-
tate and develop cortical centres responsible for cognitive functions including attention,
whereas the less complex endurance and strength exercises might require individuals to
perform more automated movements and thus prefrontal structures might not be
required to the same extent as in the coordinative tasks (Koutsandreou et al., 2016).
496 W. ALTERMANN AND P. GRÖPEL

The effect of coordination exercise training is also in line with the recent meta-analysis
by Ludyga et al. (2020) who reported greater effect of coordination exercise than endur-
ance and strength exercises on overall cognitive/executive function, as derived from mod-
erator analysis within a meta-regression model. Coordinative tasks may thus bring the
highest benefits not only for attention, but for the cognitive function in general.
Ludyga et al. further observed similar effects for both endurance and strength training
interventions, whereas we found that participants in the strength group benefited least
from the intervention. However, this should be interpreted with caution because the
mechanisms that trigger benefits of this exercise type for cognition are less clear and
the reported effects on attention are mixed (de Sousa et al., 2018). We need more exper-
imental studies that would directly compare different types of long-term exercise in their
effects on cognitive function in general, and attention in particular, to allow for a defini-
tive conclusion.
Our exercise intervention lasted for eight consecutive weeks, with two 50-min training
sessions per week. This was comparable with prior research on long-term exercise inter-
vention, in which the intervention typically lasted for six weeks or more, with the mean
frequency of 2.8 session per week and the mean session duration of 53.9 min (Ludyga
et al., 2020; Xue et al., 2019). Prior evidence is inconclusive regarding the dose parameters,
with meta-analyses either showing a higher effect of exercise on cognitive performance
with shorter (Xue et al., 2019) or longer session duration (Northey et al., 2018), or no
association between the effect size and single dose parameters (Ludyga et al., 2020).
However, a meta-analysis of results with child and adolescent samples observed the
highest benefits in the modalities of curricular physical activity (Xue et al., 2019), indicat-
ing that the particular setting the participants were used to might provide the optimal
dose parameter. We therefore chose two 50-min session per week because it corre-
sponded to the school setting in which the study was conducted.
The present study has multiple strength, including well-standardised training protocol,
a randomised controlled research design, and high statistical power to detect predicted
effects. Moreover, the study was enacted under real-life setting (i.e., school), which
increases the generalisability of its results. However, this study also has several limitations.
First, participants were recruited from a private school which requires tuition fees; conse-
quently, the sample presumably comes from families with higher socio-economic status.
Students from households with higher wealth engage more often in physical activity
outside school (Bann et al., 2019), which might positively influence the participants’
motivation to take part in the study. Future researchers should sample students from
families with different socio-economic status to enlarge the generalisability of our
results. Second, the coordination exercise intervention also included a component of
strength and vice versa, as it is difficult to completely isolate both strength and coordi-
nation components. Third, we did not test gender and age differences in our analyses.
Our sample size would be too small to include further predictors in the group analyses.
Rather, we stratified the intervention and control groups according to participants’ age
and gender, so that equal number of men and women of each target age were included
in each study group. The present results should therefore not be confounded by gender
or age differences, yet we cannot conclude whether different gender or age groups
benefit more from a particular exercise intervention. Finally, the endurance intervention
was scored more demanding than the strength and coordination interventions. While it is
 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SPORT AND EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY 497

plausible to expect that high-intensity interval training will be perceived as demanding, a

recent meta-analysis also found no evidence for main effect of exercise intensity on exer-
cise-induced cognitive benefits (Ludyga et al., 2020). Consequently, it is unlikely that the
higher intensity of the HIIT intervention in our study confounded the study results.
The results of this research also suggest practical implications. Due to the school regu-
lations, we had to deliver the exercise interventions as an extracurricular activity, yet still
in the school context. The participation led to clear benefits for participants’ attention. The
school setting may thus become a useful place for informal exercise activities, such active
breaks between classes or after-school programmes. School directors could even think of
allocating a greater portion of curricular time to exercise programmes. This need not
necessarily mean to increase the curricular time in an absolute number. Rather, school
directors may take time from other, so-called academic subjects. Prior research showed
that taking an hour from other subject and allocating it to sport and exercise does not
hinder student academic achievement (Trudeau & Shephard, 2008). Consequently, allo-
cating more time to physical exercise activities does not seem to come at the cost of aca-
demic performance. In contrast, such activities are likely to promote students’ attention
which is an indirect but important factor in academic achievement.

Conclusion
This study showed that long-term exercise intervention might be a promising way to
promote attention in adolescent students. School directors may thus allocate a greater
portion of curricular time to exercise programmes. This may be achieved by taking
time from other subjects, even without risk of hindering student academic achievement
(Trudeau & Shephard, 2008). The study further indicates that the inclusion of coordination
activities might be especially beneficial for adolescent students’ attention. Physical edu-
cation teachers are thus encouraged to enrich their lessons with coordinative tasks.

Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data are openly available at figshare (https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.23703237). The preregis-
tration can be found under https://aspredicted.org/mt9t4.pdf.

ORCID
Wolfgang Altermann http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4563-2728
Peter Gröpel http://orcid.org/0000-0001-8765-176X

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