Running head: EXERCISE AND THE COLLEGE WOMAN



Running head: EXERCISE AND THE COLLEGE WOMAN

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Exercise and the College Woman

Rebekah Aakre

Minnesota State University Moorhead

Women continue to be encouraged to exercise whether it is by the media, family, friends, or self motivated. This paper examines why college woman exercise and the reasons behind what motivates them.

Literature Review

Every where we look there is advertisements of models that are size zero and weigh 100 pounds. Skinny is defined as the new beauty in America and continues to get smaller and smaller. How are college women dealing with the pressures that society and the media puts on them to meet the standards of beauty? Are they exercising in healthy ways in order to promote their overall health or are they exercising in unhealthy ways to try to meet the desired image of beauty?

Paul McCarthy (1988) conducted a study of 226 college freshman students about their weight, body shape, dieting, and exercise. He found that more women (48%) than of the men (26%) described themselves as overweight. When asked if they wanted to loose weight 85% of women said yes. Even among those who were within normal weight range for their height, 89% of women still wanted to shed pounds and had a negative body image. These statistics show how distorted a woman’s body image can be.

Epidemiologic data shows a decrease in the percentage of college students who participate in vigorous physical activity 3 or more days a week. The study discovered that students exposed to the discriminate messages were more likely to report positive changes in their self-efficacy and behavioral intentions to exercise. The discriminate messages were designed to increase the college students’ intentions to engage in physical activity and it did (Jung & Heald, 2009). I wonder what the emotional affects of the discriminate messages had on the individuals who began to exercise more often.

Body image continues to become more positive as individuals exercise increases. There are also many other benefits of exercising such as improving overall well being, increase in mental well being, decreasing stress, an increase in self esteem, and to reduce risk for hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior (see Savage, 2009 & Taliaferro, Rienzo, Pigg, Miller, & Dodd, 2009). Taliaferro et al. (2009) study also revealed that women who endorsed appearance-related reasons for exercise such as weight control, body tone, or attractiveness experienced increased levels of body dissatisfaction and reduced self-esteem. Even if women are exercising it is important for their mentality to be healthy. If the only reason women are exercising is for weight loss, they may become disappointed when they do not meet their goal or become obsessed with exercising in order to make their goal of weight loss. The motivation behind exercising is just as important as the act of exercising.

Social Physique Anxiety is a termed used “to describe the feeling of distress associated with the perceived evaluation of one’s physical self” (Fredrick & Morrison, 1996). A study conducted by Hui-Wen, Bushman, and Woodlard (2008), found that women appear to have a higher level of anxiety regarding how others evaluate their physique compared to men. Considering society’s focus on physical attractiveness, social physique anxiety may be a concern that can deter women from exercising because they are worried about a negative assessment when presenting their bodies. Understanding the reasons individuals participate, or do not participate in physical activity is important for health professionals, advertising, and the media to realize in order to encourage participation in a balanced exercise program.

Exercise and fitness professionals should be encouraged to use strategies that increase a woman’s self-worth and long term adherence to physical activity. Huberty, Ransdell, Sideman, and Flohr (2008) share five points that they feel could help women adhere to a long-term exercise program. The first point is to increase motivation and enjoyment relative to activity. Many women do not like to exercise and that’s why it is so important to find a physical activity that the woman enjoys to do. The second point is to make activity a high priority in everyday life. If exercise is not on the top of the list of a woman’s schedule it is a lot easy to skip exercising and compromise. The third suggestion is to improve and/or deemphasize body image. Women constantly have body image on their mind and it is important to make their body image more positive or to deemphasize it if it is consuming their thoughts. The fourth and final suggestions are to increase a woman’s ability to access support and facilitate the use of self-regulation strategies.

This paper seeks to show the pressures of exercising that college women face and to reveal healthy measures of exercising. Within the last 20 years, exercise has exploded in every part of our nation. From gym memberships, to marathons, yoga and Pilates, America has increased their need to exercise and not have a sedentary lifestyle especially with the increased amount of fat in the American diet. There has been an increase in the number of women who develop eating disorders and obsession with exercising. Could this be contributed to the way exercise is broadcasted in our media or is there an underlying motivation?

Method and Data

This paper examines the narratives of seven college women that are currently attending Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM). Interviews lasting from 20 minutes to 1 hour were conducted, and questions regarding motivating factors of exercise, the amount, why they exercise and how it affects their body image were asked. The interviewees were between the ages of 19-22 years old. There were three participants that were currently nursing students are MSUM, two education majors, one business major, and one music major. All participants exercise but varied in the amount per week that they exercise and the reason behind it.

Results

This study finds that body image affected every individual who participated in the study and exercise was a way to continue to get the body image they desired. Media along with friends were a factor in why woman exercise but many participants were self motivated in order to stay in shape, be healthy, and maintain a healthy weight and body image. Exercise was fun for a few but was more so an activity to do in order to keep their body image they have or to lose weight to get a body image they desire.

Body Image and Women

Body image continued to appear in every participants answer whether it was related to wanting to lose weight, staying toned, or maintaining a healthy weight. During the interviews, I only asked one question specifically on body image which was, “how does exercise affect you body image?” Here are a couple of the individuals’ responses on how they feel exercise affects their body image.

Sue: “A lot I guess. If I didn’t do it I would look a lot different and if I didn’t exercise I wouldn’t be in a healthy mentality. I try to eat healthier and be in a healthy mentality because body image is a constant thing. It’s good but exercise helps body image not be such an issue because I know I am doing stuff like exercising and eating healthy to keep my body healthy.”

Sue exercised roughly four times a week and exercise was a regular part of her routine. She enjoyed exercising overall but it did increase stress in her life when she got busy in school because it was one more thing to put in her schedule. She strived to eat healthy and wanted to exercise in order to stay in shape and for overall health. For her, body image was constantly on her mind. Exercise was a way to help decrease how often she thought about her body image and helped to increase her self confidence in herself and the way she looked.

Kari tired to exercise three times a week but it mostly depended on her work and school schedule. Her main motivating factor to exercise was weight loss but she also exercised because it was a stress reliever. She especially enjoys exercising with friends or taking an exercising class where the instructor is continually motivating them. “It’s more fun that way” she said.

Kari: “I think on the days I do go I know I have to go three days this week. I feel a lot better about myself than if I wasn’t able to go at all and then by the end of the week it’s like oh my gosh I didn’t work out all at this week. I almost feel guilty because you know your suppose to go. When you know your suppose to go, it’s almost a letdown. When I do go it’s like woo who I went to the gym I am doing what I am suppose to do.”

Kim: “I don’t really know if I have an answer for it. I guess I have emotional benefits and feel good about taking care of myself. It does make you feel good about yourself but not in a way that that’s the way I feel good about myself because of exercising.”

Kim was different than the rest of the participants because she hates to exercise and her exercise routine can vary from three times a week to one time a month. She was the only participant that said exercise brought about emotional benefits. It seemed that exercise was not a priority and was not in her regular routine. It was a way to maintain her weight if she gained. For her, exercise helped her body image by emotional benefits such as feeling like she was taking care of her body.

Another factor that contributed to how women view themselves was the motivating pressures of friends, media, magazines, and themselves. Kari stated that “when my friends exercise and I don’t, it’s like everyone else is doing it and you see it everywhere in the news and media, it’s just out there so you know you should do it.” Her statement reveals how her friends who exercise on a regular basis and the media affect how often she exercises and how she sees her body image. It is good that she recognizes how media can be a negative factor in a woman degrading her own body image because it does not compare to the images that are on television or magazines. For her, she is more concerned on getting back to a healthier weight range where she was in high school before she gained weight coming into college.

Olive felt that her body image was not negatively affected by the media. When asked if she feels pressured to exercise by an outside factor she answered:

“I think partly outside motivation because with friends exercising you don’t want to be lazy and sit on the couch. Both my roommates exercise and not really my family. They don’t exercise at all. So I would say friends, and maybe even like magazines and television. I think in a lot of ways it can be seen as negative but I take it in a positive way.”

As Olive statement shows, she is pressured by friends, magazines, and television to exercise. She feels that it is in a positive way but if she is continually pressured by outside factors rather than herself is it a positive pressure? I do not feel so. For the most part magazines are showing underweight models who should gain more weight to be in a healthy range. Models are finely sculpted with no fat or even muscle. In fitness magazines, the models may be more realistic but still have defined abs and no fat on them. For myself, I don’t know how this could be a positive motivating factor to exercise. It would only cause me to compare myself and realize I do not meet up to the standards of the women in the magazines.

For Kim she is pressured by her roommates who she considers “exercise alcoholics.” She sees them wake up early each day to exercise before class and is continually pressured to exercise because of their regular routine of going to the gym.

Kim exclaimed, “Yeah, I live with two exercise alcoholics. You get the idea that in our culture young women who dress a certain way and act a certain way are just expected that they take care of their body in a certain way to. I think there is that social pressure between women by asking how often they go to the gym.”

I would agree with Kim in that many women talk about going to the gym or an exercise class and invite each other to come with them. It can be a social activity for a lot of women but it can also be a negative factor when comparing how often they exercise or how much weight they have lost. Some women talk about exercise in a way to encourage the other and become accountable to one another to exercise but others may be negatively affected by it.

Sue is more internally motivated to exercise and is not pressured from any external factors. She states that the drive to exercise “is more internally motivated. It’s me saying I am not eating very well so I need to exercise but I am not telling myself I am fat, I just know I am not being healthy.” For Sue, she is motivated to exercise if she is not eating healthy foods and in order to stay healthy overall.

Kari felt that she was mainly motivated to exercise because of outside factors affecting her. She stated when asked what factors affects her exercising, “More externally because you see it more. It’s always reminding you.” Kari is motivated by the constant pressures of media, television, magazines, and everything around her that tells her she needs to exercise. This is a negative pressure in my opinion and is stemmed by the media in our society.

Out of the seven interviewees, three of them considered themselves to be more internally motivated to exercise but expressed that there are outside factors that do have an effect on them. All seven would agree that outside factors such as media, family, friends, roommates, television, and magazines do influence them in some way to exercise.

Weight Loss

To my surprise, only two participants’ reason for exercising was weight loss or weight management. Kari had gained weight when entering college and wanted to try to loose it. She said,

“In high school it helped me loose weight and then in college I gained it back, so it would be nice to loose it a again. I look back at pictures from high school and wish I still looked like that.”

Sue was active in high school with sports but her schedule changed once she entered college which started to affect the amount of time she exercised. She acknowledged,

“Now in college, I have more time, yet I use it to go to class, eat, sleep, and work. In high school, I was in softball, volleyball, and cheerleading and I was always on the go. Now, I don’t have every day built in with exercise so now I really have to try making time which is hard.”

A change of schedule and not having exercise built into their daily routine was a common thread for many of the participants. Many also started to work in college which added to their busy schedule of studying. Some of the participants dealt with this change and still prioritized exercise to be at the top of their list for the day and have not had any difficulties finding time to incorporate it into their daily schedule. Others have had to put more time into studying and exercise was not as much of a priority for them.

Kim has had a difficult time prioritizing exercise into a regular routine. She starts to exercise because it is a way of weight management. If she feels she has gained some weight, she hits the gym for a couple of weeks until she looses the weight and then stops. Her purpose for exercising is, “mostly like if I notice I have gained weight over the winter I need to get back into the gym. Mostly for weight management.”

This is a very common reason why many people exercise after Christmas and Thanksgiving. They realize the amount food they consumed and decided to cave into the many exercise commercials saying that this year is your year to loose weight. Make it your New Years resolution. Do media play into the American diet and ones self-image perfectly? I think so. They know how to market the day after New Year’s and promote exercise deals to attract the attention of individuals wanting to loose weight. They target the seasonal exercisers like Kim. Is this why Kim feels the need to exercise if she gains one to two pounds over the winter time or is it because she wants to stay in a healthy weight range? I think there is a little bit of both that are affecting her decision to be a seasonal exerciser.

I would theorize that weight loss or weight management is one reason why all of the participants I interviewed do exercise. Even though only two interviewees mentioned that their purpose for exercising is to loose weight, I feel it is on the mind of all my participants because they all felt that body image does affect them. An individual’s weight affects their body image.

For example, Ava was the participant who exercised the most, normally six days a week. Although she is currently training for the half marathon, she will continue to exercise this amount after the marathon is over. She said that, “It might be a slight addiction right now and I feel bad or guilty if I don’t go. It’s been a little bit bad.”

When I asked her what her purpose for exercising is she responded,

“I first started in high school because I quit the sports I was in but felt like I still needed to do something physically active to get exercise and then I stuck with it but really enjoy running. It is my main form of exercise and I really enjoy doing it! But also, I feel better and if I get sick, I still try to run because I feel like I heal quicker and I what to be able to play with my kids someday and not be overweight and not be able to go to the park and do things with my kids.”

Weight loss was not her primary reason for exercising now, but she wanted to maintain her weight and get into an exercise routine in order for her to continue with it even after she has had children. I did find it very interesting that she recognized the fact that exercising six days a week for at least an hour may be too much, especially if she feels guilty when she doesn’t exercise. Are her reasons for exercising healthy? I would say they are but it could end up being too much of an obsession which would be unhealthy.

Stress

Stress was another occurring theme throughout every interview. For some, exercise was a way to decrease stress and was one of the main motivating factors on why college women exercise. But for others, it increased their stress. It was one more thing they needed to try to fit into their busy schedule of school and work.

It is proven that exercise does increase the endorphins in the body which causes a decrease in stress and helps to regulate the body’s metabolism. Continuous exercise contributes to an increased production and release of endorphins, resulting in a sense of euphoria that has been popularly labeled “runner's high.” Endorphins also act as a pain regulator and are thought to be connected to physiological processes including euphoric feelings and appetite modulation (Quiet Safe, 2008). The thought of exercising is what was causing some of the participants to have increased stress when thinking about having to exercise, not the act of exercising.

All three participants that were nursing majors indicated that exercise decreased their stress and helped them to take a break from their studies. It was time to listen to music and get away from the stresses of life.

For Dana, who is a nursing major, her main reason for exercising is stress release. She said, “My purpose for exercising is stress relief, to stay fit and healthy and keep my heart healthy.” From my impression, Dana is motivated to exercise for healthy reasons. Dana also felt that she was self motivated and not affected by any external factors. Dana commented that she is, “More internally motivated person because I know I would feel so much better if I do.” She tries to exercise two to three times a week but it can be difficult if her school week is busy. The benefits she gains from exercising is not only stress relief but she is more relaxed, feels better about herself, and is overall happier.

One of Leslie’s main motivating factors to exercise is to decrease stress and stay in shape. She doesn’t want to be lazy and sit around all day studying. Leslie said, “It keeps your mind off of everything else. It’s another time to think or pray. It’s a times you can enjoy for yourself.” For Leslie, exercise is a break from life to enjoy some time to yourself and reflect. She tries to exercise three to four times a week and likes to incorporate a multitude of exercise routines in order for exercising to be more enjoyable. She bikes, runs, plays volleyball, swims, and uses the Wellness center on campus. Leslie said that exercise is a stress reliever for her and she likes it too!

On the other end, exercise can increase stress. For two of the participants, it is constantly on their mind and they have to try to put it into their schedule, which can be difficult. This causes them to become stressed about when they will have time to exercise. Kim said that “Sometimes I feel like it increases it because it’s one more thing I have to do and it is that much more difficult when your schedule becomes busy.” Sue felt the same way and exclaimed,

“I almost feel like it increases stress because if I don’t go I feel guilty for not going to the gym. In a busy week I feel like I am stressed out because I am trying to get to the gym and can’t. When I am in the rhythm of going to the gym, then its better and it doesn’t make me as stressed.”

Sue said that many weeks are very busy and it’s hard to get into the rhythm just for the sake of working out. It is easier for her to exercise if she has a goal in mind or a partner to go with her to exercise. A year ago, Sue ran the Grandma’s half marathon in Duluth, MN. She made a goal to finish it and try to run it within two hours. By having a goal, she was able to get into an exercise routine and stick to it. I feel it is important for women in college to have an exercise goal in mind. The goal may be to exercise twice a week or it may be to train for a half marathon. If you write down your goal and are able to have a workout partner to keep you accountable it is a lot easier to reach your goal.

Scope and Limitations

This project focused on using qualitative research techniques to assess the narratives on seven college women who currently attend Minnesota State University Moorhead. All interviews were conducted on a one-on-one approach with the researcher in a setting where the individual would feel comfortable to share. No follow up interviews were conducted. The sample size was relatively small which can limit the research in a variety of ways. This project is not trying to generalize the experience of every college woman who exercises and may not be relatable to each college woman.

Conclusion

Exercise does affect every college woman in some way whether it is pressure from their roommates, media, television, magazines, parents, or themselves. Although not all college women exercise they are confronted with it in some manner.

My research confirmed my hypothesis that college woman who exercise are affected by their body image in some way. It showed that some women felt that their body image is positive and tends to increase when they exercise more often. In addition, it revealed that there are many negative external pressures that affect an individual’s body image in a negative manner which can cause them to exercise. Many women do not even realize how these negative external factors affect their body image and how they take care of their body. I feel society needs to promote a positive body image by encouraging healthy eating and exercise in a positive manner with every day people who can relate to the average person and not just a skinny model. It is so important to instill healthy measures of exercising within the population of college women because they are the highest rate that develop eating disorders which include Compulsive Exercise. If they develop healthy exercising patterns in college they will have a higher rate of continuing these patterns throughout their life time.

References

Chu, H.W., Bushman, B.A.,& Woodard, R.J. (2008). Social physique anxiety, obligation to exercise, and exercise choices among college students. Journal of American College Health, 57. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

Fredrick, C.M. & Morrison, C.S. (1996). Social physique anxiety: Personality constructs, motivations, exercise attitudes, and behaviors. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 82. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

Huberty, J.L., Ransdell, L.B., Sidman, C, & Judith, F.A. (2008). Explaining long-term exercise adherence in women who complete a structured exercise program. Research Quarterly for Exercise and Sport, 79. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

Jung, T., & Heald, G.R. (2009). The effects of discriminate message interventions on behavioral intentions to engage in physical activities. Journal of American College Health, 57. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

McCarthy, P. (1988). Body beautiful. Psychology Today, 22. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

Quiet Safe. (2008). Endorphins: Feeling no pain. Retrieved on

April 29, 2009 from

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Savage, P. (2009). Reaping the rewards of better fitness. Mental Health Pracitice, 12. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

Taliaferro, L.A., Rienzo, B.A., Pigg, M.R., Miller, D.M., & Dodd, V. J. (2009). Associations between physical activity and reduced rate of hopelessness, depression, and suicidal behavior among college students. Journal of American College Health, 57. Retrieved May 5, 2009 from ProQuest Nursing & Allied Health Source database.

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