It is common to hear someone say that they feel energized and motivated and overall better about themselves after exercising. I have definitely experienced this invigorating feeling after a successful and vigorous workout. Considering this, my curiosity brought me to the question of if there is any proven connection between exercise and someone’s mood. The findings of numerous research studies examining the effect of daily exercise on the mind and body shows a positive correlation between mental health and frequency of physical activity. In an effort to reconfirm these results, I did an investigation to evaluate the relationship between emotional and physical wellness involving the documentation of physical activity on a daily basis and the impact it has on someone’s mental well-being. * make it clear that I am carrying out an experiment***
Many aspects of wellness are interrelated and can easily influence one another. Physical wellness is involved in the experiment through the daily physical activity and analyzing the effect of daily exercise on the body. Physical wellness encompasses the overall health of someone and how well they take care of their body by exercising and eating right. A common definition of physical wellness is the body’s overall condition and the absence of disease, fitness level, and ability to care for oneself.
In addition to observing the effect exercise has on the body, we are looking at the effect it has on the mind, known as emotional wellness. A common definition of emotional wellness is the ability to understand and deal with your feelings. By filling out a chart asking for the participant’s mood in the morning, before and after exercise, and at night, emotional wellness is being evaluated. Emotional wellness could be described as being aware and in control of your feelings. I am carrying out an experiment to test the suggested connection between ones ability to take care of their body and their ability to be in touch with their feelings and emotions.
A study by Pennsylvania State University analyzes physical activity and satisfaction with life in emerging adults. Based on prior studies showing that engaging in regular physical activity is indirectly associated with improved satisfaction with life, they formulated their own experiment. Pennsylvania State University carried out two research studies evaluating satisfaction with life, physical activity, self-esteem, mental health, fatigue and BMI. The studies have many goals in mind, but overall they were looking for an association between physical activity and satisfaction with life in emerging adults. After concluding their two studies, Pennsylvania State University could report that there are established relations between physical activity and satisfaction with life. *make it apparent that there is a positive relationship-maybe a quote*author last name and page #* They found that making small or large changes to someone’s exercise regime has an obvious impact on their happiness.
In the European Journal of Public Health, Pamela Wicker and Bernd Frick investigate the relationship between intensity and duration of physical activity and subjective well-being. Subjective well-being is defined as a person’s cognitive and affective evaluations of his or her life. In a previous experiment executed by Downward and Rasciute, the role of participation duration and frequency is researched. After conducting a thirty-minute fitness program twice a week over a four-week period, they reported that the total minutes of sport participation at moderate intensity three or more times a week has a significant positive impact on an individual’s happiness. After researching this experiment, the European Journal of Public Health conducted their own experiment and found that the number of days people participate in moderate-intensity activity is positively associated with subjective well-being as well as the duration of the moderate-intensity activity.
After discovering many studies similar to the Pennsylvania State University and European Journal of Public Health, the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology raised suspicion to their validity. They claim that the relationship between exercise dose and psychological health is extremely complex and studies have shown mixed results. So the Journal of Clinical Sport Psychology examined frequency, duration, intensity of exercise, and omissions of planned-exercise sessions over a 2-month period of daily exercise self-monitoring. They hypothesized that greater frequency and intensity of exercise would be associated with better psychological well-being across all outcome variables and that duration does not relate to psychological well-being. The findings of this study suggest that higher-intensity exercise is associated with improvement in cognitive ability and mood outcomes. Overall, they discovered that exercise dimensions such as intensity, frequency and duration all have subtle yet detectable effects on measures of psychological well-being.
After considering all of the information from these studies and the conclusions that were made I decided to investigate the relationship between mood and physical activity for myself. For the month of October, I am participating in daily exercise and recording the physical activity along with my mood in the morning, before and after the activity, and at night. The daily exercise may consist of vigorous workouts such as fitness classes and team sports or it may consist of a walk around campus, as long as the exercise is of duration greater than thirty minutes it counts as exercise for the day. Then I will analyze the results to see the effect of daily exercise on the mind and body. I conducted this experiment in an effort to see a connection between physical and emotional wellness. One way in which I utilized the resources on campus was through the fitness classes that NSU offers. I am attending at least one class per week and attempting new classes each week to see which classes give me the bets workout and improve my mental health along with my physical health. I also always utilize the free gym offered to students to complete my daily exercise. I am expecting that daily exercise will have an apparent impact on mood and mental health. I predict that days when the exercise is more intensive such as cardio, there will be a greater impact on the mind and body. I believe that my mood will be uplifted and the body will feel invigorated and encouraged to take on any challenge when intensity and duration of the workout is increased.
After carefully analyzing the mood charts and physical activity schedule, I found that
**insert results and discussion of conclusion of activity**
Add paragraph of analyzing and connecting results to other studies
**embed and change thesis into conclusion after obtaining results*
Thesis: The findings of numerous research studies examining the effect of daily exercise on the mind and body shows a positive correlation between mental health and frequency of physical activity. In an effort to reconfirm these results, I am conducting a month long investigation to evaluate the relationship between emotional and physical wellness involving the documentation of physical activity on a daily basis and the impact it has on someone’s mental well-being.