Anaerobic Exercise

Kobe Ryan
11-17-09
KNES 342
Relaxation Paper

The method I chose as a relaxation/stress-relief technique is Exercising. Exercising is one the most important things to do to keep your body not only healthy physically, but mentally as well. I find myself going to the gym almost five days a week to relieve myself from the stressful environment that I endure every week. Whether it would be from work, school, or issues happening at home or around me, Exercising and going to the gym will help me clear my thoughts and keep my body physically in check. After I exercise, I find myself sleeping much easier with all the stress gone as my body becomes exhausted from the cardio workout that I have been doing. Exercising can be the cure of physical
impairment in the body and can help relieve you, even if it is for the moment, of unnecessary thoughts, depressing moments, and emotions that you are feeling. I have chose this method as a way to deal with my stress that I have been feeling, especially at night, that keep me awake and lead to sleep deprivation. There are many ways to exercise, but one type of exercise that I do every week are aerobic exercises such as running, specifically using the treadmill and stair-master, night-jogging, and bicycling.
Doing aerobic exercising not only helps improve my overall physical health, but it also helps improve my cardiovascular and circulatory system. The physiological aspects of improving your circulatory system by cardio workout is to help increase the heart to pump more RBC (red blood cells) that carry oxygen and distribute it throughout the body. I find myself losing more weight each week, which I plan on doing for the past year, build up my endurance, and help with cope with my breathing intake as I am working out. One of my stressors that I had been feeling for the past year is my low self-esteem due to my physical appearance. I was 50 pounds overweight and needed to trim down to fit into my old clothes again and feel good about myself. For the past month and a half, I have lost over 20 pounds and have moved back into fitting some of my old clothes again due to my constant routine exercises that I have been
doing.
There is a certain routine to my exercise that I usually do. First off, I begin with a quick 5-10 min stretch to relieve all the tension in the muscles, and it feels much looser in your body after your stretch is done. Next, I than begin with a warm-up, a light jog 2-3 min or a quarter-mile walk, to help build up my adrenaline and endurance before my workout. After the stretch and warm-up, I begin my cardio workout/exercise and end off with a protein shake or glass of milk in the end.
My experiences so far with this method have been nothing but positive thoughts. As of lately, with all of my hectic schedule set before me during the week, I manage to find myself in the gym or out running for at least an hour and a half each day to clear my head and focus on the exercise itself. It also helped me improve my breathing intake, which has been a problem for me in the past not only because of my weight but also because of my asthmatic condition. I have always exercised but not in its entire extremity since I was in high school. It was not until this year where I have been keeping up with my exercise routine, and ever since school started, I find myself more at the gym, sadly its late at night and not in the morning, to work out or run/jog. With the many different exercise programs out there, I found out that each type of exercise has a specific role to play not only to reduce stress but to keep myself healthy. For example, an anaerobic exercise such as weightlifting and strength performances helps to unleash my anger and frustrations onto the workout itself. The more I feel frustrated and stress, the more reps. I do into the workout itself. I also perform at a much stronger pace like increasing the amount of weights into the weightlifting exercise. If I cannot sleep and am feeling the need to run to escape, I run longer and faster to relieve myself of circulated thoughts in my head.
According to the journal of CSS institute, a study has been done and the barriers and motives of exercising in college students.
Research has shown that 66% of Americans are overweight and obese. The target group of this study is college students, and the results were most college students exercise as a mean to better their health and maintain their fitness. On average, a student who exercises spends about 220 min. a week exercising. The barrier that prevent them from exercising is simply the most common answer given, “no time to exercise.” I was part of the general population of students who find it hard to exercise due to school and work schedule. School and work are common stressors in a college student’s life. However, exercising does promote good health and will help a person feel more relieved of the stress it goes through. The more exercising a student does, the better they feel after, mentally and physically. Time is a factor, but you can always find time to fit exercising into your
schedule.
I can honestly see myself exercising more in the future not only as way to help reduce the stress in my life, but to keep myself healthier and live longer. It is definitely hard to work out when you are older, and no one gets younger. But, you can feel younger if you keep your body feeling young by performing at its best. I see my grandmother, at the age of 77, still jogging around the neighborhood and being able to move around and go places. I would want to feel like that when I’m older. Stress is good only when it serves as a good purpose for you. For the most part, I have plenty of distress that I need to cope with, and if I feel it, I would exercise to relieve myself from it. Of course, I won’t be able to perform all the exercise I do when I’m older, but I can still find new techniques of exercising. Exercising can help deal with the problems that I will encounter in my older age and help keep me looking younger too. If I find myself in a stressful situation, I can go outside for a walk or jog around the block to get myself feeling more relaxed and concentrate more on the exercise itself rather than the stress.