The Resistance Exercise Training for Worry Trial: Replication and Expansion

A recent clinical trial supported the anxiolytic effects of regularly-performed resistance exercise training compared to a waitlist control among young adults with and without at least subclinical, or analogue, Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Although the evidence to date is promising, waitlist control conditions cannot control for potential social and psychological benefits of engaging with most interventions, including social contact, expectations for improvement, and mastery experiences, which could potentially be achieved from easier activities. Therefore, this trial aims to replicate the previously investigated World Health Organization and American College of Sports Medicine guidelines-based resistance exercise training program, and expand on this research by more rigorously examining the effects on anxiety and worry symptoms, independent of potential social and psychological benefits of engagement with the intervention. Consequently, this trial quantifies the acute and chronic effects of moderate-to-high intensity, guidelines-based resistance exercise training compared to a low intensity SHAM attention control on signs and symptoms of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among at-risk young adult women with Analogue Generalized Anxiety Disorder. This trial consists of a two-week familiarization protocol, eight weeks of formal resistance exercise training, and a one-month post-intervention follow-up.