Just a little exercise has been proven to boost the ego. You don’t even have to get real serious. A study, featured in the September issue of the Journal of Health Psychology suggests, though, that the psychological benefits of working out are not related to actual fitness. However, ‘even modest exercise boosts self-image.’
There are relatively fewer researches into the psychological advantages of exercise such as reduction of depression or confidence in body image, as compared to the studies done on exercise’s physical benefits.
After reviewing ‘57 intervention studies on the topic of exercise and how it makes people feel,’ Heather Hausenblas of the University of Florida concludes that ‘the simple act of exercise and not fitness itself can convince you that you look better.’ According to her, “You would think that if you become more fit that you would experience greater improvements in terms of body image, but that’s not what we found. It may be that the requirements to receive the psychological benefits of exercise, including those relating to body image, differ substantially from the physical benefits.”
Hausenblas further adds, “Body dissatisfaction is a huge problem in our society and is related to all sorts of negative behavior including yo-yo dieting, smoking, taking steroids and undergoing cosmetic surgery. It affects men and women and all ages, starting with kids who are as young as five years old saying they don’t like how their bodies look. People who say they have high body dissatisfaction tend to exercise the least, so we wanted to take it a step further and see whether exercise causes people’s body image to improve.”
Via Live Science
