Week 2: What I Was Able to Workout

Hey Everybody!  I hope you all had a good and exciting week today! For me this week has been great! I was able to workout a general routine, while also making headway on my project.  For me,  a common day would be coming in and discussing my progress with my on site mentor then observing any willing clients and asking them questions and getting in the occasional workout. 

Before I get into nitty gritty details of what I did with my project, I wanted to share an exciting thing that I was able to do this week!  This week I actually worked with my site mentor. It was really fun because I was able to get in my daily exercise at my site and also learn some cool new exercises.  But wait…

What was different and more exciting this time was that I got to experience first hand on how fitness can affect mood. This week was very stressful initially as I was worrying about the logistics of my project. But after I exercised, I was less anxious and stressed; it essentially calmed me down. To see this happen live was very exciting! It also clearly showed how out of shape I was.

In addition to being able to get a daily workout in, I was also able to progress with my project. Last week I talked to my on site mentor and my faculty advisor about creating the questions for the surveys I wanted to give to the clients. Last weekend, I created a draft of the surveys. I sent this initial draft to my faculty advisor Ms. Afsa and she made some suggestions on the surveys. Of the edits she suggested, one major addition she proposed was a question that was similar “ Rate how you feel now on a scale of 1-10.” By adding this to the before and after surveys, I would be able to quantifiably compare how clients felt pre and post workout.  To me, it seemed that, despite the error that arises from quantifying mood, adding this question would help me better compare how clients are responding to exercise.  

Also, my on site mentor highlighted another major red flag. When I had showed him the surveys I had created, there were a total of four surveys: one background, one pre-workout survey, one post-workout survey, and one long-term survey. He explained how four surveys would be daunting and people and would dissuade clients from taking them. As a solution, he told me to combine some of the surveys. So far, I have combined the post workout survey and the background with the long- term survey and kept the pre-workout survey. However, I am still finalizing the format of the combined surveys.

Another task I had progressed on this week was deciding whom I wanted to give the surveys to and whom I wanted as my control group. I initially started with deciding whom I wanted to distribute the surveys to. After consulting with my faculty advisor, I decided to spread the survey to however many clients are willing to take it.  With regards to my control group, I have decided that I wanted two types of people. The first type consists of people who workout/exercise regularly and state they have low stress or are not in a disturbed mood state often. The second consists of people who infrequently workout and report that they have a lot of stress or are in a disturbed mood state often.  Thus, after conducting my research, I would be see if there is a relation between fitness, stress, and other disturbed mood states.

 Phew! That was super long and had so much detail. I hope I didn’t hurt your brains or put you to sleep!  This is what I was able to accomplish this week and although there are still some details to work out, the whole experience still thrills me. I am very curious to see what the results are and I hope you are as well! Tune in next week to see what I do next!