Summary
Physical exercise has been looked at as not beneficial in some areas
among students and students don’t view physical exercise as a priority. This
report focuses on the benefit of exercise and how it affects students both
mentally and academically. It also addresses the issue of how it helps reduces
obesity among students which if not properly taking care of, can leads to other
forms of illness and diseases like depression and anxiety among students. This
affects the overall affair of the student and distort their focus in school which
then leads to poor performance in class. Regular exercise can help reduce this
problem and also helps improve your cognitive function making it easier for
students to assimilate faster. Physical exercise also helps reduce stress among
students. A lot of students get stressed up with school material which can be
frustrating sometimes but physical exercise helps reduce this stress and also
keeps your body fit for the day.
Introduction
Physical exercise has been known to be the cure of a lot of physical
and mental problems, but this report is going to focus on how it helps reduce
obesity, depression and anxiety among students. “Obesity is a global public health
challenge that increases the risk of various diseases including type 2 diabetes
mellitus, hypertension and cancer, and will in the future cause further increases in
the incidence of chronic disease” (Foss Brynjar, Dyrstad Sindre M, 2011, pg. 7-10).
Understanding the mechanisms of obesity is critical if we are to prevent and treat
this pandemic challenge. Researchers have found that physical activity such as
jogging, walking and swimming can help prevent obesity. Obesity is also a
situation that gives rise to depression among students. 41.2 percent of college
students are affected with anxiety and 36.4 percent of college students are
affected with depression (American Psychological Association, 2013, pg13). This is
an alarming rate that needs to be address to students. This is a situation that not
only affects the mental health of students, but also affects the overall affair of the
student when depressed. A lot of students are dealing with depression and also
obesity which is why it is important and significant to discuss about the
importance of exercise and how it could help cure this problem.
The question now is how does exercise benefit students?howdo we
tackle obesity and depression? and how does exercise help to cure this problem?
The purpose of this report is to help the students understand the importance of a
physical exercise and how it can help students dealing with depression or obesity.
This report is divided into different sections and will focus on how this problem
arises and how to tackle them, the benefit of the various type of exercise for our
physical and mental health, the cause of obesity among students, the
consequences of obesity if they are not properly cared for, how to take good care
of your body and one of the reasons of depression and anxiety among students.
This report will focus mainly on students and how obesity affects their state of
mind and will also focus on different type of exercise needed to help students and
not specific type of exercise.
The information will come from various secondary sources, most of
which will contain information from peer reviewed articles that made a lot of
research on this topic.
The benefit of exercise to the body
Exercise is very important to the body and it performs a lot of functional
needs that a lot of people might not realise to the body. Exercise helps improve
the mood of people, Free people from all kind of depression and also help reduce
certain diseases in the body. Physical exercise also improves your quality of sleep.
Below is a chart on how exercise is beneficial to both adults and teens:
Figure1: Data chart of how exercise is beneficial (American
Psychological Association, 2013).
Effect of exercise on your brain function
Sleep is a very important aspect of health which enhances how effective we
perform on daily basis. It is very important to students because they have to be
able to perform their daily task and be able to engage in a lot of school activities.
Physical exercise enhances that if done regularly. Poor sleep quality among
student have be found to be the reason in low GPA and also students engaging in
risky health behaviours such as drinking (Carter, Briana, et al.,2016, p.315+).
Down below is a chart of how exercise improves the quality of sleep:
Figure2: Chart of how exercise improves sleep quality (National sleep
foundation as cited by Sarah Klein, 2017).
Exercise also improves your memory and brain function. When you have
quality sleep, your brain tends to function well along with your body, and this
helps improve the performance of your brain. Students perform well academically
when their brains are functioning well and also think in the right direction making
the brain sharp which is why it is important to perform regular exercise. Physical
exercise also boosts the size of your brain which enhances your memorization skill
if done regularly. “researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that
gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the
hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning” (Godman
Heidi, 2014).
Effect of exercise on obesity
Obesity is an excessive fat accumulation which arises due to lack of proper
diet and regular exercise. A lot of students are dealing with this problem which is
why it is important to talk about what they are lacking. One of the causes of
obesity is lack of physical exercise. Researchers have found that regular physical
exercise are associated with controlling body weight (Robin P. Shook,2016).
Regular exercises such as jogging, walking or running are forms of exercises to
engage in to reduce obesity. Obesity is a problem not only because it isn’t good
for the body but also because it leads to other forms of problems like anxiety and
depression which are common among students.it could also lead to other form of
chronic disease which can be deadly. Physical exercise is not the only way of
reducing obesity or curing it. Obesity can also be cured by following a health
eating plan, monitoring your weight regularly, taking of drugs to reduce weight
and many others. The reason why physical exercise stands out from this other
form is because aside from it helping reduce weight loss, it improves the cognitive
function of students and also gives them a good quality rest. Engaging in physical
exercise also makes you more socially actives and gives you a lot of confidence
when approaching a lot of people and also makes you live longer.
Physical exercise also helps reduce depression and anxiety among students.
Depression and anxiety are another common problem among students. This are
problems that can arise due to obesity. Students get depressed when they don’t
feel good, healthy and most important when they feel stressed up. In accordance
with the American Psychiatric Association, a person dealing with a form of
depression along with willingness to eat more are mostly obese or likely obese
(Lazarevich Irina, Irigoyen-Camacho María Esther, Velázquez-Alva María Del
Consuelo,2013, pp.1892-1899). Depression is also a common illness that causes
suicide among students. Below is a chart of suicidal rate among university
students in England and Wales from 2013-2017:
Figure 3: A graph of the suicidal rate in England and Whales among students (ONS
as cited in ‘university student’,2018)
This is a suicidal rate that is appalling, and it keeps increasing every year. Physical
exercise can go a long way in eradicating this problem. Depression for most
people, is an emotional feeling or experience that can affect the mental health of
people and anxiety is a feeling of fear not to overcome a certain task which when
such fear rate increases, could lead to a lot of problems like psychological ones
(Wang et al, 2019). “physical exercise helps to relieve and improve depression and
anxiety, and make people feel happy, confident and satisfied” (Wang et al, 2019).
Exercise makes you live longer
Adults tend to live longer when they engage in physical exercise (Tonks
Allison, 2012). physical exercise keeps your bones joints and muscle fit and
healthy to perform your everyday activity. The more you keep the body healthy,
and all vital organs of the body are in perfect working condition, you tend to live
longer. Exercises like walking at least 75 minutes every week keeps your body fit.
(Tonks Allison, 2012). When your body is fit and healthy, there is a huge chance of
you not getting obese which also prevents other forms of diseases that can cause
the body harm. Below is a table of frequently caused death among men and
women is Germany:
Figure 4: Frequent causes of death among men and women in Germany in 2008.
This table is important not only to adults but also to students because we grow
every day, and it is important to be aware of how much physical exercise can help
reduce the risk of this diseases. Most importantly, if you don’t have this form of
diseases, there is a huge possibility you live long. “All-cause mortality is decreased
by about 30% to 35% in physically active as compared to inactive subjects” ( J
Aging Res.,2012).
Effect of exercise on pain, stiffness and stress
Physical exercises generally make your body health if done regularly and
relieve your body from any feeling of pain, stiffness or discomfort. Physical
exercise not only helps improve students’ performances academically by
improving their cognitive functioning but also by freeing them from any form of
stiffness and discomfort. Stress is another major problem that physical exercise
can fix. Taking a lot of classes on its own can be quite stressful to students and a
lot of them get frustrated. They also face a lot of stress through taking
examinations. Physical exercise controls the emotional and physical feeling of
stress and reduces them for students.
Conclusion
This report is important to students not only because exercise is generally
good for the health of the body but also because students have to be aware of
the importance of physical exercise for their wellbeing and conscious of the
reasons why certain illness leads to other forms of illness. This report addressed
the issue of benefit of physical exercise to the body in different areas. Physical
exercise was important to the body because it improves students sleeping quality
and enhances their brain functioning. A lot of students always want to work
efficiently in class and perform better. This is one of the reasons why physical
exercise should be done among them. Many other reasons and how sleep can
affect your everyday lifestyle was discussed in this report. Another reason why
physical exercise is important is because it helps reduce the risks of obesity
thereby reducing depression and anxiety among students. Obesity is a problem
that leads to other forms of diseases and illness which could all be alleviated by
engaging in regular exercise. This report also went over why physical exercise was
a better way of reducing obesity compare to the other forms which is because
physical exercise adds more benefit than the others. Another importance of
physical exercise is it makes you live longer. When you are able to reduce the
number of diseases or illness, you tend to live longer which is why it is important
deal with the problem before it leads to other forms of problems that could lead
to shorter life span. Finally, another benefit of exercise was it reduces pain,
stiffness and discomfort in the body and also reduces stress. This is important
because a lot of students go through different forms of stress because of the
workload of school and if there is a way to reduce that form of stress, it is
important to talk about it. Physical exercise helps in doing that by engaging in it
regularly.
Recommendations
I would recommend students engaging in more physical exercises every week
because it helps a lot in so many areas of your body and also keeps your body
healthy.
Appendix A
RCM 300 Formal Report Grading Criteria
Report Format (20%)
SIDCRA /25
Summary – summarizes all sections of the report
Introduction – includes background, purpose, significance, scope, organization,
sources and methods
Discussion – appropriate headings
Conclusion – includes a statement of logical outcome, answers the question
“what does this information mean for the reader?”
Recommendations – an appropriate response to the conclusion, appropriate tone
Appendices – references included, and any other material is correctly labelled and
cited
Professional presentation of formal report elements
/05
Letter of transmittal – correct business letter format, appropriate relation and
tone established
Correct order of formal report elements and page numbering
Formal report cover used; formal title page included
Table of contents – contains all headings and correct page numbers
List of tables and figures
Graphics integrated and labelled correctly
Grammar and writing style (15%)
/10
Varied and well-formed sentence structure
Absence of run-on sentences or fragments
Absence of unclear or awkward phrases
Proper punctuation
Effective and correct word choice (diction)
Document is carefully proofread
Citations and use of sources (15%)
/10
All source material cited when necessary and no missing citations
Use of signal phrases
Correct/accurate parenthetical citations in APA style
Balanced and varied use of sources (quoted, summarized, paraphrased)
Correct format of references page
Book-length source and academic journal use
Sources used to supplement or support writer’s argument (not merely relying on
the source’s arguments)
Minimum of seven cited sources, of which at least four are scholarly or peerreviewed sources
Body of report (50%)
/50
Research question (purpose) identified and adequately answered or responded to
Argument is clear and report content is effectively developed
Ideas and main points are fully explained and expanded; adequate content
Logical and coherent argument organization (including use of devices of
cohesiveness)
Meaningful and supportive source material integrated effectively and correctly
Headings focus and guide discussion
Document is engaging
Appropriate length (minimum of 6-8 pages, only counting the Introduction to
Recommendations)
Comments /100
Appendix B
Changes on Assignmnet#3: Report introduction
The report introduction had few changes:
it is focusing on benefit of exercise rather than exploring obesity and depression
among students as a topic on its own.
A reference was removed because I felt it wasn’t useful in the introduction, but I
used it in other aspects of the report.
Reference page
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American Psychological Association Monitor on psychology. (2013). Exercise: A
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https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/exercise
BBC. University student suicide rates revealed. (2018). Student suicide rate in
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Carter, B., Chopak-Foss, J., & Punungwe, F. B. (2016). An analysis of the sleep
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