Survey Report

Mohammad Hasan Alabandi

EAP1 – Section D

Our main target was to find out why students use The Recreation Center. My hypothesis for our main goal was “students use The Recreation Center for health purposes”. After survey both SIUC American and International students, we found out that it is true that students The Recreation Center to become more healthy; in addition, we had two more additional goals. First, we wanted to know who is more interested in going to The Recreation Center. My hypothesis was that American are using The Recreation Center more than Internationals do, and students’ responses were as expected. Second, we wanted to know why students do not use The Recreation Center? My hypothesis states that students have no time to visit The Recreation Center everyday. Most students’ responses matched my hypothesis, which made it true. Me, Mohammad Solan, Larissa, and john worked on this survey together. We collected our surveys from students around the SIUC campus, The Student Center, and The Recreation Center. We ended up with 82 surveys 48 of them are males, and 34 females. 42 are Americans, the rest are Internationals. There were 10 questions in the survey. 3 of them to prove our hypotheses, and the rest were chosen to know the students’ background about exercise.
In this survey I have learned a lot about Americans students. They were more concerned about health and exercise than the students in my country; furthermore, they consider time management a very important thing in their life, and rather have a regular exercise schedule than showing up at The Recreation Center randomly.
After I finished my survey, I found that the answers I had were so general and did not focus on the survey topic. I suggest for people who want to do surveys choose more narrowed questions about the topic, and try to avoid multi-answers question because it dose not give accurate answers. When I tried these questions in my survey, most students gave me some random answers because they were confused with which answers to choose.

Survey about Exercise and Stress

LARISSA VASCONCELOS


My group was formed by me, Solan, Mohammad and John. I went to the Business building to get my surveys answered. Our research was about how American and International people feel about exercises. We interviewed 82 students, 42 Americans and 40 Internationals. Of these people, we also divided by gender; 47 were male and 35 were female. The hypothesis is Americans like and practice more exercise than people from other nationalities.

The survey shows that, in general, men are more interested in exercise than women, whether American or International. According to survey responses, for women the main reason that keeps them away from Rec Center, for example, is that they do not have a partner. On the other hand, for men, the main cause is lack of time.

This study showed us some interesting aspects such as viewpoints between men and women, and Americans and Internationals. For women, 80% of Americans chose health and relieving stress as the thing more attractive in doing exercises, against 20% that chose socializing and having fun as a main reason. The international women showed a close percentage with the same opinion, with about 87% and 13%, respectively. While for men, Americans seem divided with 59% that chose health and relieving stress and 41% thinking that the more attractive thing is socializing and having fun. When we compare them with the International ones, there is a considerable difference, where 80% chose health and relieving stress as the first reason to do exercise against 20% that chose socializing and having fun.

Finally, this research shows that, according to students, Americans are more interested in exercises than Internationals. About 79% think that Americans are more interested against 21% of Internationals.

In short, this survey was very interesting because we could have some idea about differences and similarities among men, women, Americans and Internationals. When we consider the result of the survey, I must say that I was surprised about the indexes, which indicates that Americans like more exercise than another nationalities people. My surprise can be justified by the fact that many times we created stereotypes about some people, so this survey was important to show that this stereotype is not accurate.

My suggestion for future studies is that people should interview another age bracket. So, we would to be able to compare and to know if the results would be the same.

Should University Students Do Exercise on a Daily Basis?

Larissa Vasconcelos, Mohammad Alabandi, and I are interested to know whether student do regular physical exercises on a daily basis or not. We formulated our hypothesis, “Southern Illinois university students do exercises on a daily basis“. We created a survey to interview our respondents about the topic. We found that most of Southern Illinois students agreed with the benefits of doing regular physical exercises; however, more than a half of the respondents do not do exercises on a daily basis. It boiled down to this; the majority of the respondents were not in accordance with our hypothesis, on the other hand, there are some articles also support our initial ideas. In our survey we hypothesized that university student do regular physical exercises.

We asked 83 people in Southern Illinois University Student Centre, 35 women, and 48 men. We discovered that the American student do regular physical exercises more than international students. Most of the students agreed that regular physical exercises are important. Moreover, some students do not do regular physical exercises because they do not have time. We found that 9% only go to the gym every day. Our results hold up our hypothesis, and I wish this information could help many people to understand the ideas behind our hypotheses. We made 10 questions for 83 people, and, we collected within one week. Our questions will help us to give clear picture of Southern Illinois university student exercises. We met eighty people in SIU Student Center. We interviewed some of them, and we asked the other to fill out our survey; however some people refused to fill our survey

In our survey, we found that the main reasons that keep students away from recreation center are that they do not have time because they have full schedule. Some of them said they do not like to go to the recreation center without friends which main friends are supporting each other to do a sport. 53% said they have no time to go to the recreation center, and, 21% said that they only like to go to the recreation center with friends. The interesting point was from people who are less 22 years old; they have less time than the people who are over 22 years old. I think this is because people under 22 years old have more classes than people over 22 years old. We found that the results are not supporting our hypothesis; Southern Illinois university students do exercises on a daily basis. Interestingly enough, the majority of the respondents do not do daily exercises. Most of the respondents agree that the exercises are beneficial for them, but only a few numbers of them are actually doing regular daily exercises. The most interesting result is that the majority of our respondents know that physical exercises are important for their health and success; however, we found that only a few students do exercises in a daily basis. We found that the main cause that prevents them from doing physical exercise is time constrains. I think that the students need time management courses. For example, when students get time management courses, at that time they will be able to manage their time in appropriate way in order to have some time to do physical exercises.

I think the project was successful because we learned how to work as team, and how to share knowledge with each other. Moreover, it gave us more experience to do a professional research paper in the future. Also, we learned how to interview with different nationality students. For example, I was shy away from talking with foreign people; however, after this survey I learned how I could talk with foreign people very well.

The project would be better if we do it in different universities in order to know more about the students who do physical exercises. We would ask more students, and we would use a phone survey to get more information and to practice speaking with native speakers. In this project the time was not enough to discover more opinions.

Exercise and Stress - Survey

EAP1 - Core
Larissa Vasconcelos

Our research was about how American and International people feel about exercises. We interviewed 82 people, 42 American and 40 International. Of these people, we also divide in gender: 47 were male and 35 were female.
The survey shows that, in general, men are more interested in exercise than women, whether American or International. According to survey responses, for women the main reason that keeps them away from Rec Center, for example, is that they don't have a partner. On the other hand, for men, the main cause is lack of time.
This study showed us some interesting aspects such as viewpoints between men and women, American and International. For women, 80% of American chose health and relieving stress as the thing more attractive in do exercises against 20% that chose socializing and have fun as a main reason. The International women showed a close percentage to the same opinion, with about 87% and 13%, respectively. While for men, Americans seem divided with 59% that chose health and relieve stress and 41% think that the more attractive is socializing and have fun. When we compare them with the International ones, there is a considerable difference, where 80% chose health and relieve stress as the first reason to do exercise against 20% that chose socializing and have fun.
Finally, this research shows that, according to students, American are more interested in exercises than International. About 79% think that American are more interested against 21% of International.
In short, this survey was very interesting because we could have some idea about differences and similarities among men, women, Americans and International. When we consider the result of the survey, I must to say that I was very surprised about the indexes, which indicates that American like more exercise than another nationalities people. My surprise can be justified by the fact that many times we created stereotypes about some people. So, this survey was important to show that this stereotype is not accurate.

Why Should College Students Exercise?

Reference: Stuart (2010, May.17). Why Should College Students Exercise? Retrieved on (12, Feb. 2011, from http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/why-should-college-students-exercise-2386774.html

Summary:
The best ways to reduce stress and to enhance student’s performance are doing regular physical exercises that will make students active and energetic to cover all of their activities. Many kinds of exercise such as sport games help students to be alert and outstanding; on the other hand, students should manage their time to get the higher benefits of physical exercise. Moreover, student can control their widget by doing regular exercises, and they can control health problem when they eat fast food. In addition, in order to be successful, exercise will make more confidants to reach your goals.
Reaction:
In my opinion, I agree with the author in so many points. Exercise is one of the best ways to help students to be successful. Regular exercises give students bower, alert, energetic. Some students have problem to manage their time in academic live which is affect their performances, and their health. Lake physical exercise effects students health; on the other hand, physical exercises make students outstanding. As we know, that the stress reduce the immune system functions, which expose students to come down with a lot of diseases. At that time, these diseases sourly will affect their success. Exercises reduce the obesity of students; consequently, students will focus in on their goals instead of stress that comes from the obesity. From my opinion I recommend all students to do regular physical exercises to be alert, confident, healthy and successful. I like what the people said in the past “sound mind in a sound body”. In the end, what is the first step to be successful student? I am very sure that doing regular physical exercises is the first step to be successful.

What does it take to get us off the couch?

Lindel, R. (2011, Jan. 26).What does it take to get us off the couch? Retrieved on (feb.01, 2011) from: http://www.vancouversun.com/business/What+does+take+couch/4172026/story.html.

Summary:
Some people are really busy in their career which makes their life without exercises or sport activates. Some people changed their life style by some motivations such as family, value passion. Most of the people agreed that exercise is very important, but they do not understand the meaning, or the benefit of exercise. Many academic people give some solutions to be active. Fortier Research center shows if the people associate the exercise with value. Many advise that ideatry to help us to get off the couch. For example, write your expectations and work on them. Use internal motivations, think positively, and make daily schedule.

Reaction:
In my opinion, I agree with the author in many points. The people should concern seriously about their lives. To be exerciser is not easy it needs a lot of effort, big motivations, and faith. We have to look for something that can attract the people to get off the couch. I believe that the social activities can help the people to become exercisers. Also, I think the enjoyment is very important to be in exercise activities. One more, competitions are one of the best reasons that can help the people to do a lot of exercise. I believe that a lot of people want to do exercise, but how they get off the couch. As we know, we face many diseases every day such as heart attack, stroke, hypertension, and cancer. However, regular exercise helps the body to prevent a lot of this disease to kill us. Some factors such as stress, studying, job and family problems stop us to think about exercise. On the other hand these factors might make us lazier, and we want to go bad habit such as drink, or smoke. We have to put exercise on the top of our priorities if we are really wanted to be healthy.

If You Are Fit, You Can Take It Easy

Mohammad Hasan AlAbandi

Reference:

Reynolds, G. (2010, Dec. 29). If You Are Fit, You Can Take It Easy. The New York Times, Retrieved on (Feb.13,2011) from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/29/phys-ed-if-you-are-fit-you-can-take-it-easy/

Summary:

The article was talking about several studies that showed the motivations to exercise and how we can get its benefits by doing a little bit of exercise. The first study was done with a group of retired athletes, some of whom stopped doing exercise, another of whom remained physically active. The study was done to determine how long the benefits of exercise can be useful; the results were as expected. The sedentary group was more likely to get more diseases; consequently, retired athletes do not get the benefits of exercise if they stayed the whole day on the couch.

Another study was done with two groups of adults. One group was in their 20s to 30s, the other group was in their 50s to 60s. All the volunteers took a four-month program and had acquired strength and big muscles. After four month the researchers divided the groups. One stopped their exercise completely; therefore, they lost all their new muscles, strength, and aerobic capacity. The second group visited the gym only once a week. This study showed that those people were able to keep their newly acquired muscles and strength; in addition, the younger people had gained more muscles during this program while the older people had not gained any more muscles and they had lost some of their strength too.

Based on these studies, the human body can get the benefits of exercise if it is used to exercise; therefore, if you are tough enough to maintain your strength, you can reduce the number of visits to the gym.

Reaction:

I would definitely agree with this article; all that it contains makes sense. The first study showed that no matter how much you exercise, if you do not stick with it, you will lose the benefits of it; for example, athletes who stop exercising off-season usually lose some of their strength and aerobic capacity; consequently, they will not preform as well as the athletes who stayed active.

The second study showed some interesting facts; the group of people who quit their exercise completely had lost all their newly acquired muscles; it is similar to the first study’s results. That gives us more proof to keep going with exercise; otherwise, you will lose everything. The second group of people showed some remarkable results. It showed that you can stay away from being out of shape by doing a little bit of if you adjust your body to maintain strength. This could be useful for people who have time problems; for example, high school students can visit the gym 4 to 5 times a week on the summer vacation to adjust their body for the new routine. After exercising regularly, the body will be able to maintain the muscles and strength for longer periods of time; therefore, the student will be able to reduce his visits to the gym by 1 or 2 times a week when he is back to school. As a result, the student will be physically and mentally fit with less work at the gym; furthermore, he can focus more on his education and future.

Phys Ed: What Exercise Science Doesn't Know About Women

Larissa Vasconcelos

Reading Reaction Journal #3

Reference

Reynolds, G. (2010, June 30). Phys Ed: What Exercise Science Doesn't Know About Women. New York Times. Retrieved February 8, 2011, from http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/30/phys-ed-what-exercise-science-doesnt-know-about-women/

Summary

This article shows a study on the role of protein in recovery from hard exercise. A study indicates that the protein is thought to aid in the repair of muscle damage after hard exercise. It also discusses how women's bodies respond differently compared to men's bodies when they are submitted to certain exercises. Why women respond differently seems obvious, because of the hormones. However the big surprise in the search results was the women, differently from men, showed no clear benefit from protein during recovery.

Reaction

The research shown in this article is very interesting, specially for female athletes. Usually scientists rely on male subjects exclusively, particularly in the exercise-science realm, where, numerically, fewer female athletes exist to be studied. Thus usually the female athletes tend to follow the same "recipe" given to male athletes. However, according to results found in the research, women often react quite differently. Women have the hormone estrogen, which, according to some new science, has greater effects on metabolism and muscle health.

Based on the difference shown by the survey, it is clear that there must be continuity in the studies presented in order to improve the performance of female athletes. The findings need to be replicated and the female athletes should view with skepticism the results from exercise studies that use only male subjects.

Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen

Larissa Vasconcelos

Reading Reaction Journal #2

Reference

Lewin, T. (2011, January 26). Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen. New York Times. Retrieved January 27, 2011, from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges

Summary

This article discusses the influence from stress on emotional health of college freshmen. According with survey showed by the author, the emotional health reached the lowest level since the collecting data started, two decades ago. Information is given that this index represents a common situation that more students are entering the universities with problems. The economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on these students who are worried about their own college debts and job prospects when they graduate. There is also a gender gap. The women have a less positive view of their emotional health than the men.

Reaction

I was very interested in reading about the theme discussed in the article considering that this is a current problem which we encounter in various universities regardless of their location. This article gave me some new informations. The fact that students are worried about their economic situation is harmful because each one of them already has a very large load of stress during their university life. The students should learn to cope with the pressures and worry about work, exams, and their future professional life.

Another interesting aspect for me was how women and men's reactions are different in how they spent their leisure time. The men tend to spend more time in activities that relieve stress, like sports, while women tend to take activities that include more responsibilities, that do not relieve stress.

Maybe universities should be more worried about the emotional health of their students. Investing more in recreation centers and creating psychological support centers could be a good start.

Men More Dependent on Exercise Than Women

Mohammad H. AlAbandi

EAP 1 – Section D

Reference:

Stannard, P. (2002,Oct.23), Men more dependent on exercise than women, UF study shows, Eurekalert, Retrieved on (Feb.02,2011) from http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2002-10/uof-mmd102302.php

Summary:

This article is about the studies in the University of Florida. The studies show that although women care more about their appearance, men are more likely to be addicted to exercise. It also says that men become furious and frustrated when they miss their scheduled exercise; furthermore, the researcher divided men into three groups, and state that men who care more about health are the most addicted group to exercise; however, the article quotes Heather Hausenblas as suggesting “Remember that too much of a good thing can have harmful effects on well being”.

Reaction:

It seems like the author has some good points; however, there is one point I disagree with.

The article state that men are more dependent on exercise than women, which I think is true. On the other side the studies show that men who work out to be healthier are more dependent than men who care about appearance or improving their technique. This is the point I disagree with. What I feel is that men trying to improve their technique are more likely to depend on their exercise than the others, because they have many reasons to exercise more and stick with it. First of all they will be enjoying what they are doing and that will increase the chance of sticking with it longer; furthermore, it has the element of competition. It’s more fun to be playing with friends than exercising alone; also, being a good player could bring you to a bright future. You may join the national team, get money and become famous, which could be inspirations for you to exercise more.

On the other hand men who exercise to be healthier may give up any time soon.

When you exercise to be healthier you will exercise not because you love it, but because you want to reach a goal. Some people may do it even if they don’t like it but to stay healthy. They may face some barriers in their way and give up soon. One of the problems is when you exercise to be healthier, you would expect yourself to be healthy all the time; therefore, when you get sick from influence or another reason you may be disappointed and get stressed; therefore, that will not help you to exercise more.

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This blog is for EAP1 students who are posting articles about exercise and stress. To post, log-on is cesl06@yahoo.com...password is a familiar building we all know.