Student Research Report: Exercise is Medicine
In Fall 2021, students in Dr. Emily Stark’s Research Methods and Design course completed multiple hands-on data collection projects. They were also assigned a blog paper where they discussed one of the topics they chose to research and explained their findings to a general audience. The goal of this assignment was to give students an opportunity to explore a different form of writing from APA-style research papers. Some of these blog papers will be featured here throughout the spring to showcase the students’ findings. Please feel free to contact Dr. Stark through the contact form on this site for additional information about this course or the assignments used.
By Riann Dietz
Have you ever experienced mood swings? The answer is yes, we all have. It’s unrealistic to expect to feel the same way all the time, and our ability to experience such a wide range of emotions is one of the unique characteristics of our species. There are endless factors that influence our mood throughout the course of a day, whether it be your thoughts, social interactions, experiences, or the weather. Some days it may feel like you have no control over your mood, especially if you are feeling sad, angry, or anxious, and if this low mood persists this could lead to a diagnosis of depression, or other mental health disorders which are often treated with prescription medications. However, many studies have found that exercise is an effective way to improve mood acutely, and over the long term.
More specifically, a study by Brand et al. (2018) aimed to explore the effects of a single session of moderately intense exercise on different aspects of psychological functioning. Patients with mental health disorders were asked to complete a questionnaire about their current psychological and physiological states before and after 40-60 minutes of exercise such as Nordic walking, working out/gymnastics, or ball sports. Results of this study found that a single session of moderately intense exercise improved participants mood, attention, physical strength, and appreciation of social interaction, and decreased rumination and tiredness. A subsample of the participants in this study were asked to complete the exercise and questionnaire a second time that week and further improvements in psychological functioning were observed, suggesting that with more exercise, comes more psychological benefits.
A study by Nieman et al. (2021) found similar results where participants’ mood and cognitive control improved with exposure to exercise. Participants in this study were assigned to either exercise for 20 minutes or read for 26 minutes on six separate occasions over the course of 2 weeks. A test was administered before and after each activity to track participants’ cognitive control, and 3 more times throughout the day. Participants in the exercise group showed improvement in mood and cognitive control immediately after exercise, as well as continuous improvements after each additional session of exercise compared to the reading group. These findings further support the known benefits of exercise on mood.
There are multiple variables within exercise that could contribute to the affect it has on one’s mood such as type of exercise, the time of day one exercises, the duration of the activity, and how many days a week they exercise. As someone about to graduate with a minor in sports medicine, I have learned the importance of maintaining an active lifestyle and I have personally noticed that the more consistent I am with my exercise habits, the better my mood is even on days that I don’t workout.
For my course survey project, I examined participants exercise habits, mood, and happiness. More specifically, I asked participants how many hours per week they exercised on an interval scale ranging from 0-9+, what their perceived overall happiness level was on a scale of 1-10, as well as what their self-reported mood is before and after exercise, both on a scale of 1-10. I hypothesized that participants who exercised more than 1 hour per week would be happier than those who exercised 0-1 hour per week. I also thought that participants would rate their mood higher after exercising compared to their mood before.
Results from over 200 participants confirmed my hypotheses. I found a strong positive relation between hours of exercise per week and happiness levels. The more one exercised, the happier they were. Further, both groups, those who exercised 0-1 hour per week, and those who exercised more than 1 hour per week both showed increased mood scores after exercise, compared to their scores before exercise. However, participants who exercised more rated their moods after exercise as significantly higher than those who exercised 0-1 hour per week. The more individuals exercise, the more likely they are to see and feel the benefits of exercise physically and mentally, whereas those who hardly exercise, aren’t going to notice these benefits and mood improvements to the same extent as those who exercise routinely.
My own research project confirms the supported concept of, “exercise as medicine.” There is much more research available on the specific types of exercise, duration, and intensity levels that provide the most benefit, but just getting your body moving in any way shape or form will benefit your mental and physical health. If you find yourself feeling sad, angry, or anxious, try going for a walk, or getting a workout in, and pay attention to how you feel afterwards! Whether you are a routine exerciser, or just getting started, try tracking your mood before and after you exercise, see if you can notice a shift in your mood! The more actively aware you become of the improvements in your mood, the more encouraged you will be to continue to engage in exercise because you will be able to feel the difference!
HelpGuide has a great resource on their exercise and fitness page about The Mental Health Benefits of Exercise and how it improves symptoms in depression, anxiety, ADHD, stress, and trauma. It also gives examples of how you can get started with implementing exercise into your daily routine while keeping it simple and fun!
The Better Health Channel also has a great fact sheet on Exercise and Mood that talks about the positive link between exercise and mood, what some of the research is already telling us, such as the fact that “16 weeks of regular exercise is just as effective as anti-depressant medication in treating older people who were not exercising previously” (Better Health Channel, n.d., para. 23), and other ways you can get even more benefits along with exercise!
References
Better Health Channel. (n.d.). Exercise and mood. Retrieved from https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/healthyliving/exercise-and-mood
Brand, S., Colledge, F., Ludyga, S., Emmenegger, R., Kalak, N., Sadeghi Bahmani, D., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., Pühse, U., & Gerber, M. (2018). Acute bouts of exercising improved mood, rumination and social interaction in inpatients with mental disorders. Frontiers in Psychology, 9(11). http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.00249
Nieman, T., Bergelt, M., Clancy, J., Regan, K., Hobson, N., dos Santos, A. and Middleton, L.E. (2021), Changes in cognitive control and mood across repeated exercise sessions. Applied Psychology: Health Well-Being. https://doi.org/10.1111/aphw.12275
Robinson, L. (2021). The mental health benefits of exercise. HelpGuide. Retrieved from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-living/the-mental-health-benefits-of-exercise.htm .