Impact of Exercise on People’s Moods, Research Paper Example

Physical exercise has always been popular because of the aesthetic effects on the human body in addition to the enhancement of one’s overall health and well-being. Steinberg et al. (1998) conducted a study in which they examined how exercise impacted people’s overall moods for a protracted period of time. While mood enhancement after a single session of physical exercise has been documented in the literature, there is a dearth of studies examining the long-term impact and efficacy of exercise on improving one’s mood (Steinberg et al. 1998, p. 271). The authors conducted an investigation in real-world settings where four different types of exercise classes–Beginners, Advanced, Callanetics, and Body Funk–took place once a week for seven weeks. Participants were assessed prior to and following the exercise classes by filling out a questionnaire that probed their negative and positive moods through the use of various words that connoted either mood. Those who attended the exercise classes five times or more in that seven-week period were used for this study.  The authors noticed that in all four of the exercise classes, the subjects’ positive moods were enhanced while their negative sentiments abated.  Exercise more acutely impacted the positive moods of the subjects over the negative ones. However, the positive moods subsided within a week after incurring more favorable feelings, so attending another exercise class was necessary in order to reinstate positive moods. Because the Callanetics class involved less physical exertion in comparison to the others, the authors note that prior to exercise there were far more negative moods detected, especially in the first three sessions of the trial period. These variances dissipated after exercising nonetheless. Steinberg et al. (1998) postulate that it is likely that the two groups engaged in less physically demanding classes may have built up a tolerance to the mood-enhancing benefits correlated with physical exercise because they had slowly become addicted to physical exercise (Steinberg et al., 1998, p. 271).  This observation regarding exercise and mood enhancement is validated both by personal experience and by scholarly, empirical research, which renders it a factual statement rather than one purely based in personal opinion.

References

Steinberg, H., Nicholls, B.R., Sykes, E.A., LeBoutillier, N., Ramlakhans, N., Moss, T.P., & Dewey, A. (1998). Weekly exercise consistently reinstates positive mood. European Psychologist, 3(4), 271-280.

Whitney, D.(2012). Exercise: Nature’s mood enhancer.  PsychCentral. Retrieved October 7, 2015 from http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2012/10/24/exercise-natures-mood-enhancer/