Changes in resilience and masculine gender role stress following 8 weeks of maximal power cycling training in male university students: a single-group pre-post study

Yang Chen, Guoyuan Huang, Yixin Zhan, Wenjun Ren, Xiaofeng Niu, Hongtao Wang

Male university students commonly experience gender role stress derived from traditional masculine norms, yet there is a lack of targeted and acceptable psychological interventions for this population. High-intensity interval training, given its time efficiency and alignment with masculine values, may represent a potential strategy to improve resilience and alleviate gender role stress. This study aimed to examine the effects of an 8-week maximal power cycling intervention on resilience and gender role stress in male university students. Using a single-group pre-post design, 54 male university students were enrolled and underwent 8 weeks of Wingate sprint interval training (4 × 30-s all-out sprints, 4-min rest intervals, 2–3 sessions per week). Resilience (CD-RISC-10), masculine gender role stress (abbreviated MGRS), and rating of fatigue (ROF) were measured before and after the intervention. Paired t -tests, correlation analyses, and exploratory mediation analyses were conducted. Results showed that peak cycling power ( p = 0.0007) and duration ( p = 0.0018) significantly increased, resilience significantly improved ( p = 0.0039), and gender role stress ( p = 0.0150) and rating of fatigue ( p < 0.001) significantly decreased. Exploratory mediation analysis revealed no significant indirect effect of resilience on the relationship between power improvement and gender role stress reduction (95% CI included 0). Of note, because all variables entered the model as change scores (Δ) in this single-group pre-post design, the temporal precedence requirement for formal mediation analysis could not be met; thus, these findings are exploratory and should not be interpreted as causal. Under this single-group pre-post design, significant improvements in resilience and reductions in gender role stress were observed after the 8-week intervention, but these changes warrant cautious interpretation. Due to the lack of a control group, the results should be considered preliminary and exploratory, and causality cannot be established. Moreover, the mechanism does not appear to operate through a mediating pathway of resilience, it may involve more complex psychological processes such as behavioral activation and cognitive restructuring of fatigue.