How to Help
College Students
Cultivate Exercise Habits?
Author:
楊子緯 Julia 詹蓓沂 Peggy
I. Introduction
Have you ever tried to cultivate exercise habits and build a perfect body? Although everyone knows that exercise is good for health, students in the universities somehow cannot maintain their exercise routines for a long time. The majority of students in universities in Taiwan do not exercise enough and the recent pandemic makes the situation even worse. According to the data from Sports Administration of Ministry of Education from 2020 (Figure 1), only 27% of the respondents in colleges and universities consider their time for exercising is enough. The number is significantly lower than the national average, which is 30.5%, and it demonstrates the problem that more than half of the students in universities in Taiwan do not conduct enough exercise. When it comes to the participation of extracurricular activities related to exercise, college students exercise even less frequently compare to high school and elementary school students (Figure 2). Moreover, due to the impact of the pandemic, nearly three quarters of the students in universities spend much less time on physical activities (Figure 3). In this essay, we will approach the issue and discuss three solutions to help students in universities to cultivate an exercise habit.
II. The Problem
In the survey we conducted on 59 students in National Chung Cheng University, 88.1% of the respondents admit that they have once tried to exercise regularly but nearly half of them failed to do so (Figure 4). The university provides several PE classes, but these courses do not encourage students to put exercising on their priority. Instead, 12 people stated that they are lack of motivation due to laziness and most of the students who failed to continue exercising state that it will be better for them to keep the habit if there are external rewards.
From the data above (Figure 4), it is clear that college students have not been doing enough exercise. The lack of exercise may have an impact on not only physical health but also mental health. Kayani et al. (2021) examined the correlation of physical activity (PA) and anxiety and found that mental health issues, such as anxiety, are influenced by PA. Also, according to Li, Lu, and Wang (2009), college students who are inactive have a positive correlation of lower emotional intelligence and lower health-related physical fitness. Inactive students also perceived lower levels in their general health and mental health. This indicates that lacking exercise among college students in Taiwan has been a problem for a long time and it should be taken seriously.
III. Solutions
One of the solutions for helping college students in Taiwan cultivate exercise habits is to optimize the physical education (PE) system so that students are motivated to do exercise. According to a report from Sports Administration of Ministry of Education (Figure 5), more than 65% of students in universities in Taiwan consider that it will be better if the PE classes can be arranged for more than one year. This shows the importance of PE classes and the change of PE system may help students exercise regularly. In the school where our survey was conducted, PE courses at National Chung Cheng University (CCU) arranged for two years. That is, PE courses are required courses for freshmen and sophomores. Additionally, there is no credit for freshmen for taking the PE courses, and they are forced to participate in the courses. In the survey we collected from 59 CCU students, it was found that 57.6% of them enjoy the present PE courses despite there being no credit for the courses (Figure 6). However, more than 77% of the respondents showed a higher willingness to engage in PE courses if the credits are offered (Figure 7). Thus, if the present credit system of PE courses can be adjusted, students may be much more motivated to exercise regularly by joining the PE courses in CCU.
Another solution to this issue is to find a partner to exercise together. If college students could exercise with their friends, families, or fellows, they will have a higher motivation to go to exercise. As shown in Figure 8, we found that 84% of the respondents think exercising with friends can help them cultivate the exercise habit. Most of their reasons are: “It can be more fun”; “There will be someone who monitors and encourages me”; and” I cannot be lazy if I work out with a partner together”. We can see that the companions of the others not only prevent laziness, the biggest reason for college students giving up their remaining exercise habit, but also motivate the college students to exercise in the long term.
Moreover, according to Weng (2013), Social Support has been proved highly related to exercising behavior, which refers to the companions of others. Compared to people who get lower social support, people with higher social support have a higher rate of regular exercise, and a larger amount of total exercise. Thus, college students can exercise more diligently and regularly if they exercise with their companions.
Last, improving the environment and the exercising behavior is also an effective way of helping to build the exercising habit. Exercising at a fixed time of a day makes people get used to doing physical activity regularly. Kelly (2020) points out that ”Regular exercise remodels the reward system, leading to higher circulating levels of dopamine and more available dopamine receptors” Once people are more sensitive to dopamine, the compound that makes humans feel rewarded and motivated, they become more and more likely to pursue it. When it comes to college students, they could set a fixed time in their school timetable to exercise to help them exercise regularly, because it activates their reward system. They are more willing to exercise next time since they can be rewarded by dopamine again. Besides, establishing an environment that people can easily access to exercise can also help college students to exercise regularly. Smith (2020) in The book The Happiness Advantage: The Seven Principles of Positive Psychology That Fuel Success and Performance at Work writes that if people want to develop a habit, it is crucial to decrease the distraction as much as possible. That is, students can make every effort to reduce the factor which cause their hesitation to go exercise. To be prevent from laziness, they should decide where to exercise and what kind of sport to do before the day they are going to go exercise so that they will tend to follow the plan without any other concerns. Preparing the sportswear and sneakers and carry it in the beginning of a day can let students apt to go exercise. If student avoid things that threaten their exercise habit, they are able to get exercise smoothly.
IV. Conclusion
To conclude, we proposed three solutions to help cultivate college students exercise. These include: the college providing the crediting PE class, exercising with others, and improving the exercising environment and behavior. After all, because exercising is a personal issue, college students should not expect the laws or education system to help them to get rid of their laziness, the factor which threatens their exercise habit the most. If students really care about their health and hope to improve it with exercising, to focus on themselves is the fastest and direct method. However, the first solution, the university provides the PE class with credit, needs too much external force to achieve it, and it also relies too much on the cooperation of the government and the university administration. Thus, to effectively cultivate the exercise habit, we recommend the second and the third solution. It is more doable for college students to work out with others’ companions and have themselves available to a better exercising environment and behavior because both of them could be achieved by students’ own effort.
References
Kayani, S., et al. (2021). Physical activity and anxiety of Chinese university students: meditation of self-system. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(9), 4468. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18094468
Kelly, M. (2020, January 6). Five surprising ways exercise changes your brain [Online article]. Retrieved from: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/five_surprising_ways_exercise_changes_your_brain
Li, G., Lu, F., & Wang, A. (2009). Exploring the relationships of physical activity, emotional intelligence and health in Taiwan college students. Journal of Exercise Science and Fitness, 7(1), 55-63. Retrieved from: https://primo.lib.ccu.edu.tw/permalink/f/1bn8d02/TN_cdi_proquest_miscellaneous_20116693
Shawn, A. (2010). The happiness advantage: the seven principles of positive psychology that fuel success and performance at work. Crown Business.
Weng, C. (2013). Factors associated with regular exercise behavior among the employees in workplace. National Taiwan Normal University. Retrieved from: http://rportal.lib.ntnu.edu.tw:8080/server/api/core/bitstreams/05aeec6c-4c9f-4dfc-b9ee-ecf9ff9b4817/content
Sports Administration of the Ministry of Education (2022). Student athletic participation survey for the 109 school year. Kaohsiung City: Sports Department, Ministry of Education.
Survey