Rough Draft 1

Introduction

Goal: How is fitness a stress outlet rather than a stress?  I want my audience to be able to relate with my article and see it as an easy read.  I want to target young adults and use supported information that encourages young adults and students to take up a physical activity.

For me I love to work out, it makes me feel good and I use it as a way to push myself to new lengths. This past summer running, became not only a thing I loved, but became a way for me to really deal with stress.  I enjoy doing aerobic classes and weight lifting as well but running is something I cannot live without.  This was not always my attitude.   Once I found my niche though and looked at fitness as something more than a way to achieve my body image everything else just fell into place. Yes, fitness is a great way to achieve those goals, but I found that making it fun and an interest of mine, made everything go a lot easier and more enjoyable.   Now I not only hit goals of my preference for body image, better my health, improve my stress and energy levels, but I challenge myself to distances I can run, reps I can do, and goals I can achieve.  It’s like a game ignoring all the other external factors and just allowing myself to go and seeing how far I can.  My attitude toward physical fitness is; it’s a hobby I have, that has tons of perks. 🙂

A similar perspective was found in an article that looked at female athletes, it said, “…Exercise activities have found that the presumed mental benefits of sport participation tend not to be experienced by individuals who are motivated to exercise for weight control or appearance-related reasons.” (Bruin ,Woertman, Bakker and Oudejans, 2008)   This quote suggests that there are mental benefits from doing physical activity.  The point it is proving is that when fitness is not just focused on for weight control the individual can enjoy and reap the psychological and physical benefits of it.  I completely agree and plan to elaborate three aspects that are majorly impacted from fitness.  I found this to very supporting to my point of finding a niche in exercise as well.  Athletes are often passionate and driven by their sport.  This makes them motivated to do their physical activity, and allows them to exclude external factors such as appearance and stresses of life.  I had referred to the idea of making my fitness a game and this is exactly what athletes do.

“Knowledge of and belief in the health benefits of physical activity may motivate initial involvement, but feelings of enjoyment and well-being seem to be stronger motives for continued participation.”(Rod K. Dishman, James F. Sallis, Diane R. Orenstein p. 162)  Once you find the exercise or activity for you that makes your body tick everything else comes after it, because then it’s not about body image and insecurities but it is something to be enjoyed. Also, once this activity that has become so enjoyable to you, helps obtain a physical goal whether it is what the scale says or how many baskets are made during a basketball game. It is motivating and encouraging because it’s something that is loved and has developed into a passion for doing it.  This is when Fitness becomes a stress out let and not the stress.

Ending: I stated my research question. I began to answer the question and started to forecast what was going to be coming up in the paper.  My audience is targeted by me discussing who I am directing my information.  My opinions are supports by two different sources.

Literature Review

Goal: My literature review will provide a guide for me as I write my paper and reflect back to the research I have already started.  For the reader my lit review will help them to understand my angle of my topic and will also forecast what my paper will be discussing.  It will differ from other sections of my paper because it will be, just the general knowledge summarized from my sources that will later be broken down and discussed.  By the end of this paper I want my reader to have a positive feeling about the word and action of physical activity/fitness.  This paper is targeted toward young adults.  I want to provide a laid back yet motivational tone about physical fitness for my readers.  I personally view fitness in a positive way and hope to persuade them to feel the same way.

“We now have evidence to support the claim that exercise is related to positive mental health as indicated by relief in symptoms of depression and anxiety.”(Landers, Daniel M.,1996) Fitness is not only good for your physical health but for your mental health as well, especially for self esteem, attitude and goals.  I first am going to focus on self- esteem.  Many people stress over going to the gym.  An article mentioned that body image is such a large focus of society, especially for young adults, which is whom I am targeting in my research.  This focus of society can be a set back on their self- esteems.  The idea of having the perfect body like so many celebrities or being super skinny is an extreme thought especially if the person is overweight.  Young men are pressured to have the perfect physique, and not be too skinny or too fat.   There are such drastic measures and the challenge to obtain the idle figure, can be overwhelming and discouraging to say the least.  Not only though do our minds keep us away from the gym, but also crowds do, and the fact that not everyone knows what they are doing, says American Council on Exercise.  I think these factors also deal with self-esteem.  The fact that some young adults do not know the machines or the right exercises, they may think everyone else does and this could definitely discourage them from going to the gym.  Also if a person feels unconfident about their skills they may feel intimidated by the large group and size of the gym. I still feel intimidated to walk over to the weight section where there are very few women and mostly men.  I’m the minority and can see how a person could feel intimidated.

In an article titled, Weight-Related Sport Motives and Girls’ Body Image, Weight Control Behaviors, and Self-Esteem, they conducted, The Contour Drawing Rating Scale and Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. The reason for these scales to be completed was to compare girls that were categorized as sport-participants with or without weight-related motives or as non-sport-participants.  The results were, “Weight-related sport participations were significantly associated with body dissatisfaction, more weight control and lower self-esteem,” (Bruin^, Liesbeth, Bakker and Oudejans^, 2008).   Concluding, when fitness is looked at as an activity that is participated in rather than about weight control method the participant’s self esteem is higher.  Another point that caught my eye, in this article, was how people that often work out for weight control who are older adolescents or adults that go to fitness centers are often associated with eating disorders.

That is why my topic is so important because yes, fitness is a good way to achieve and sculpt your body but there is more to it than that.  We all can go to the gym and kill ourselves trying to accomplish our goals but making it fun and to the point you forget your working out is what I am going for.  It is easy to feel the stresses of what I just discussed but there is no need to stress of the idea of working out in any shape or form.

“There have been six meta-analyses examining the relationship between exercise and anxiety reduction.  All six of these meta-analyses found that across all studies examined, exercise was significantly related to a reduction in anxiety. These effects ranged from “small” to “moderate” in size and were consistent for trait, state, and psycho physiological measures of anxiety. The vast majority of the narrative reviews and all of the meta-analytic reviews support the conclusion that across studies published between 1960 and 1995 there is a small to moderate relationship showing that both acute and chronic exercise reduces anxiety.”  (Landers, Daniels M., 1996) Proving that once exercise is done the anxiety of actually do it can be relieved as well as anxiety from other sources.  By definition anxiety “is associated with the emergence of a negative form of cognitive appraisal typified by worry, self-doubt, and apprehension.”(Lander, Daniel M., 1996)  I thought anxiety was a good step into one of my main focuses because it correlates to self-esteem.

Self-esteem is improved by working out.  One source used reviews of four meta-analytic reviews on this topic these “reviews found that physical activity/exercise brought about small, but statistically significant, increases in physical self-concept or self-esteem. These effects generalized across gender and age groups. In comparing self-esteem scores in children, Gruber (1986) found that aerobic fitness produced much larger effects on self-esteem scores than other types of physical education class activities (e.g., learning sports skills or perceptual-motor skills).” (Landers, Daniel M., 1996) This information directly connected with what research I plan on doing.  I will be asking the same age range but different genders questions about their self-concept. I want to see their point of view of the positive effects from exercising or not exercising.

Another article discusses psychological improvements for both long and short time periods.  They found, “exercise-induced increases in aerobic fitness have beneficial short-term and long-term effects on psychological outcomes.”  (DiLorenzo ,Thomas M., Bargman, Eric P., Stucky-Ropp, Renée, Brassington, Glenn S., Frensch, Peter A. and LaFontaine, Thomas. (1999) They conducted an observation and with participants first evaluating before the beginning of a, 12 week fitness program and then check their status at the end.   The results of self-esteem and concept all improved and then were checked again checked 12 months later to find the psychological improvements had maintained with the same or lesser amount of exercise.  This was great to hear because so many people discourage themselves from working out.  Really though once it is done, participants’ attitudes, and outlook of themselves change for the better.  I want to prove by giving out my surveys that young adults do experience these effects.  I found it interesting to evaluate participants at different times which I may do in my research.

I believe a person’s attitude of fitness changes when they become involved in an activity that interests and benefits them.  An article suggests this by interviewing a woman that participates in dance.  They described her motive as a way of, “seeking a form of mental renewal more than improved muscle tone or reduced low-density cholesterol” (Lawson, 2009).  Lawson’s article looks at the motives and attitudes of the dancers and how a group of dancers did not have the perfect body type or skill but still dances and pushed to succeed.  Her article is important with my thoughts of fitness because it looks past the demands of society.  I want people to use fitness as a way to let out stress for different external factors and this article examines a similar aspect.  By the dancers not having the exact body type of skills they still did this activity and reaped all the benefits of it.  Lawson’s research provides a valid example of how others’ pressing restrictions did not discourage the dancers’ efforts of being a successful dancer.

Attitude is improved by participating in physical activity and is currently because further researched but as I discussed, previous articles provided information on the decreasing of negative mood and anxiety.  These are closely correlated and are important because it is showing how exercise can provide a way to balance external factors and perceptions that benefits someone’s well-being.

This leads me to my last thought on the benefits of fitness, which is goal setting.  By these dancers beating the odds of typical dancers and letting their passion be their motivation it allowed them to feel a sense of accomplishment.  While taking part in exercise goals are met whether they are small or big.  Fitness is a proactive response to improving someone’s self-concept and attitude.  By achieving these goals of fitness the areas of physiological and physical are met and create positive effects in that person’s life.

This is what I want my readers to accomplish after reading my article.  I want my readers to have a sense of feeling they can find an activity that provides them with an out let of stress and enjoyment rather than torturing themselves with the idea that body image control is the only aspect of physical activity.  The point is to achieve a goal while doing something that is enjoyable, and appreciating the efforts that are put in to it rather than allowing external stresses to discourage those efforts.

Ending: My angle of my topic was forecasted by discussing how individual sources looked at how fitness improves self esteem, attitude and how goal setting is associated with it.  It gave a general over view of the direction my paper will taking by breaking down these three factors of benefits of fitness.  These factors are all was that major contributors to stress and I showing how fitness decreases the amount of stress an individual feels from these factors by participating in physical fitness.  Young adults are targeted in my paper because only am I a young female adult but the scales that were examined were taken from adolescent woman or young adults.  As I further my research I plan to give more specific information on males as well.

Methodology

Goal: Purpose is to determine; the main stresses of working out.  Why students work out.  What are the effects they feel once they work out (emotionally, physically) what are the effects they feel when they don’t work out (emotionally, physically). What makes them look forward to exercise?  What discourage uses them to exercise. Would they be more inclined to exercise if they were partaking in an exercise that was an interest to them?  If they play a sport does this have an effect on the reason they work out.  Does body image play less of a role when working out if the activity of exercise is an interest instead of just focusing on body image?

My Methodology was done by examining a segment of young adults.  I chose to collect my data by using a hand out of a survey to a variety of college students both male and female.  My participants were to measure their psychological and physical benefits from exercise.  They were also asked questions to so I could examine factors that help to encourage or discourage them from working out.  The point of collecting this data was to evaluate and analyze this information in a way that proves that there are psychological benefits to exercise, not just physical.  Also evaluating how finding an exercise that is an interest takes the pressure of body image away.

One source during my research evaluated different stresses for college students.  Body image was in the top eight.  This added feedback that I put in my survey.  This information provided that body image was not only a stress for college students but also a motive for working out.  People often work out because of body image but there are other reasons to work out besides this aspect.  Another source provided information about one of the questions I asked in my survey as well.  This source gave an example of female athletes being interviewed.  The study showed female athletes that were involved in sports that were not focused on weighted related reasons had much higher self esteems than those female athletes that were involved in sports related to body image.  This research was very important to my research because it is the main point I am examining.  I want my readers to see that when body image is not the main aspect of fitness there are a lot of positive aspects associated with exercise.

Questions answered in my survey that dealt with motivational feeling toward fitness were also researched in another article I found interesting.  This article also suggested that athletes were more motivated to participate in physical fitness due to enjoyment and intrinsic motives, where as those that worked out for appearance were more motivated on extrinsic aspects.  I found this to prove the point again that fitness is more enjoyable and beneficial psychologically once the exercise is looked at something more than just a way to improve body image.  Once fitness is linked with a passion, the rest will fall into place. The important thing is to find what exact physical activity does that.  Then my reader will see how to enjoy and do it, and then body image and self- esteem, and the relief of stress will come naturally.  Many people work out and look at it as if it is a negative thing because it has to be done.  This is why I stress that fitness is positive and that there are ways to make it positive.  No one has to necessarily be an athlete but it is a prime example at how physical activity is looked at in a positive way, that is encouraging and stress relieving, instead of a cause of stress.  My survey asked young adults to analyze their views of fitness not only to gain perspective but also to show how difference in attitude of the activity is a main factor in the enjoyment of physical activity.

Ending: My paper reviewed the purpose of my methodology not only proving it with my research but also with back up from other reliable resources.  I gave exact examples from those sources that directly answered questions that my participants will be answering in my survey as well.

RESULTS

My Research is not quit finished but the data I collected from both males and females was very beneficial to my research paper.  I will section my paper into the subject contexts as of now and later go into detail of the number of respondents for each gender.  My respondents answered the majority of my questions and provided good feedback for my topic of the physiological benefits of physical fitness.  My first section I will focus on is how individuals feel about working out.

After asking respondents this question of the feeling about working out many replied that they enjoyed the working out.  They used loved or liked to describe their feeling; of showing that physical activity strikes this reaction in them.  Other respondents described physical activity as a stress of a burden.  One respondent said they hated working out but wished they like it because of the benefits.  These respondents that expressed their feeling towards physical activity as a burden, seemed to feel though when they did, they wished they participated in it more often.

My next section focused on If people worked out, and why or why not.  Some of these responses were described in the responses to my first question of how people feel about physical activity.  Many said yes they work out to improve physical appearance but, all commented on the health and benefits of their mind.  When I say benefits their mind many mentioned they, felt over all better about themselves, relieved stress for them.    Others that said they did not work out stressed about the actuality of getting to the gym and that again they wished they made it their more.  It seemed that many respondents viewed working out only as being in the gym.  Others that saw other activities they engaged in as physical activity enjoyed it and saw the psychological benefits of engaging in an activity that stimulates you physically and emotionally, which is the point of my research.

My questioned that followed whether or not individuals worked out was whether or not they felt psychological benefits from working out.  Every respondent whether they worked out with regularity or not, said that when they have engaged in physical activity they reap psychological benefits.  Some benefits that were described were a feeling of accomplishment, a higher confidence and self image perception.  Also many felt a relief of stress, more awake, feeling happier was a dominate word choice in describing a psychological benefit.  One said that their sleeping habits were better because they were able release excess energy.  One respondent whom was female described as a way to get away from the daily stress and let her body go and do its thing. Attitude was a main aspect that people describe; one said they felt, “I feel like I can take on the world after I work out.”  Many felt a lot better about themselves and felt motivated or encouraged that they could do more and look better.

I asked also if there were long term benefits of physical activity because as a research I know that there is a rush after engaging in a physical activity.  A percentage of endorphins are released to make one feel happier.  I wanted to see though if individuals that participated in physical activity also felt long term psychological benefits.  Which I found many that participated in regular activity felt a more positively about themselves.  One male respondent called himself “in shape,” indicating that, that is a general feeling he has past the initial reaction of physical activity.

I was surprised to see that many felt the overall benefits from physical activity.  I myself work out for the physical benefits but the part that drives me to go the gym is the emotion benefit it provides to me.  I could see a difference in the respondents that engaged in this aspect of working out because their responses and feelings of working out were more positive than those who did not like it or thought of it only as a task.  Those that thought of it as something they had to do were less likely to go on a regular basis and did not feel the psychological benefits as

Conclusion

My hypothesis was that individual college students would reap psychological benefits from partaking in physical activity.  After collecting my data and seeing the results of the survey, my hypothesis was proven correct.  Many of Indiana University of Pennsylvania’s students found that when they participated in physical activity, they received benefits of their confidence levels, their attitude was more positive and they felt more accomplished.

The students seem to feel more confident with themselves in the aspect of body image, and ability of completing task.  Body image was a concern with many of the respondents but the respondents that reap the most psychological benefits seemed to have more of an emotional drive from physical fitness.  In either case of a positive psychological reaction is occurring.

When students were asked to describe the psychological benefits of physical activity, which I relate to their attitude and outward perception many had an increase of positive feelings.  Energy levels were said to of raised, their attitude about themselves and how they relate to stress was much more positive.  Stress was a big issue that students said working out helped with.  Also many students described themselves happier even after the initial rush after working out.  Another interesting point that I think could use some more focus, was sleeping patterns.  Some students brought up how they slept better at night and felt the difference in sleep, because they felt stored energy had been released after working out.

Thirdly students had said that after working out and getting themselves to the gym the immediately felt a sense of accomplishment.  This provided benefits as well in both the topics I just discussed.  Students felt encouraged to work out again and felt they were already on their way to accomplish a greater goal.  This brings me to another point that students often looked at physical activity as just a sense of hitting the gym.  If one was to read my paper I discuss how any activity that someone is physically active is physical fitness.  Those who looked at working out in a gym, and those who understood that other activities were considered working out provided the best information for my paper.  They were participating in physical activity they really enjoyed and because of this encountered more psychological benefits in all three areas.

In my research I describe how a dance team pushes themselves even though they are not the perfect dancers and how they felt once they accomplished that goal.  Many students who participated in team activities or activities involving another person as seemed to feel a better sense of accomplishment because as a group they were able to complete a goal, for example winning a game, or contest.

I would suggest in further research to analyze more of how individuals are affected by participating in physical activity when they do not even realize it.  A goal of my research to see how individuals were psychologically benefited from fitness when they were not feeling the pressures of doing it, which I received information on but wish to continue to further this research.  An error, thankfully that did not have too much of an impact was how a phrased my question.  I would rephrase my questions with physical activity rather than working out because some people automatically think the only work outs that occur are in the gym, which I do not agree with.  This may have lead respondents to broaden their minds and give a little more information about the types of activities they are involved in and why they do them.  Also a question I would add would be, does the type of physical activity that an individual is doing make a difference on their perception of working out.  These are just a few interests I would suggest to explore that could help to further the research in the psychological benefits of physical fitness.