Post 6: Updated impressions on the research

After researching whether exercise has an effect on psychological well being the last month I have found that it has a big effect, and it is a beneficial one. Almost all the sources I looked at had huge bodies of research suggesting positive effects of exercise on psychological health. This goes for both general people and clinical patients suffering from psychological disorders. For clinical patients, exercise is a great way to treat depression and anxiety, especially paired with drug treatment. Findings have even suggested that exercise is the most effective because after a couple years, the drugs may not work anymore in relieving symptoms. The great thing about these studies is that the amount of exercise usually used was only walking for 30 minutes, 3-4 days a week. This is not a very hard thing for people to do, and with the wide range of psychological benefits, why not take 30 minutes out of the day to exercise. Although 30 minutes walking a day works in reducing depression and anxiety symptoms, exercising more is better. More research needs to be done on vigorous exercise, weight training programs, and intense flexibility training to see if these have better effects on psychological well being. Although all three have shown positive effects, vigorous high intensity exercise has shown the most promise, at least for the younger population who can participate in these kinds of activities.

The frustrating thing is that in general, people do not really know about the psychological effects of exercise. People need to know that exercise, whether it be walking half an hour a day, playing a sport, or going for runs, can help improve mood, self image, self esteem, troubled sleep, and reduce stress and anxiety. These are all problems that exist in peoples everyday lives, and many do not know how to fix them. This is why in my paper, I am going to explain that the number one goal for psychologists and kinesiologists at this point is to help make people aware of the results from their research, and to continue and expand the research they have done. This would hopefully help inform the public and eventually help to decrease psychological health care costs and create more psychologically healthy people.