Abstract
The presence of an audience impacts exercise performance, rating of perceived exertion (RPE), and social physique anxiety (SPA) through self-presentation theory. Research has found physical audiences influence exercise performance, RPE, and SPA, whereas recorded digital audiences show increased SPA but no changes to performance or RPE. Given audience visibility appears necessary for these changes to occur, live-streaming platforms, an unexplored area in research, may offer a viable alternative by providing real-time viewer feedback. PURPOSE: To investigate the effects of a live-streamed audience on physically active males’ and females’ exercise performance, RPE, and SPA during a YMCA bench press test. METHODS: Participants (N = 45) underwent a repeated measures design with two conditions, live-streamed and non-live-streamed. Participants completed the YMCA bench press test, the Borg RPE Scale, and the SPA 9-Item Scale in both conditions. The YMCA bench press test is a submaximal strength test that reduces risk of injury in which participants complete the bench press (males = 80 lbs, females = 35 lbs) in sync to a metronome set at 60 beats per minute. Participants’ heart rate was recorded using a Polar H10 Heart Rate Sensor before and after YMCA bench press completion. In the live-streamed condition, we deceived participants by telling them their bench press performance was being live-streamed to the department’s Instagram account using fakeLive, an application that depicts a live-stream by generating fake viewer counts. The non-live-stream condition was identical to the live-stream condition, without the use of fakeLive. Paired t or Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to detect differences in total repetitions, RPE, SPA, and heart rate between the conditions (α=0.05). RESULTS: Performance (i.e., repetitions) was significantly higher (p < 0.001, d = 0.71) in the live-streamed condition (46.3 + 17.3) compared to the non-live-streamed condition (41.1 + 17.1). However, no statistically significant differences were found in RPE (p = 0.71, d = 0.06) or SPA (p = 0.32, d = 0.07) between the live-streamed (12.9 + 2.3; 2.8 + 0.9) and non-live-streamed conditions (12.8 + 3.0; 2.7 + 0.9). Likewise, no statistically significant differences were found in post bench press heart rate (p = 0.14, d = 0.23) between the live-streamed and non-live-streamed conditions. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that the presence of a live-streamed audience may not impact RPE or SPA in physically active young adults. Increases in RPE and SPA are found when exercisers are able to see their audience, however, since fakeLive is only able to depict changes in viewer-count, participants may still not see all who are watching them exercise as with physical audiences. Nonetheless, our results suggest that the presence of a live-streamed audience may positively impact exercise performance without increasing SPA in exercisers, which may support exercise participation and adherence.
Recommended Citation
Campos, Daimien J.; Shipherd, Amber M.; and Hearon, Christopher M.
(2026)
"Exploring a Live-Streamed Audience’s Impact on Performance, Rating of Perceived Exertion, and Social Physique Anxiety during the YMCA Bench Press Test,"
International Journal of Exercise Science: Conference Proceedings: Vol. 2:
Iss.
18, Article 27.
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.wku.edu/ijesab/vol2/iss18/27