Research Topics: Exercise And Weight Loss

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE   Introduction               It is believed that exercising is an important aspect needed by an individual for body structure and vital organs.  Exercise which is done properly and consistent can help one control weight, and also promote over all good health.  There are two types of exercises that benefit an individual: aerobic exercise and strength exercise.  Aerobic exercise is a helps improve cardio vascular and cardio respiratory functions. It is also a good way to loose fat, and keep a lean body while strength exercise helps build muscle and lose body fat.  In addition, it helps improve strength, balance and flexibility in joints.               Aside from the physical and health related benefits that exercise can give; there are other reasons why there are people who spend more time in exercising specifically women. Hence, the goal of this paper is to determine the reasons why women exercise.   Women and Exercise               There are many reasons that can be considered on why women exercise. One of the important reasons is for their physical and mental enhancement. It is said that exercise helps the body as well as the brain.  Through exercise, women are able to maintain their body figure.  Most women exercise to achieve the so-called ideal feminine body.     According to feminist cultural studies, exercise can be a very powerful means for women to challenge themselves, attain a sense of identity and determine their physical capabilities (1993).  On the other hand, exercise can be suppressive as women used this as a way of achieving the ideal feminie body.  According to  (1995), ideal feminine body is described as a series of contradictions or opposition: “firm but shapely, strong but thin, fit but sexy.               In the Western societies, women often try to sculpt their bodies to gain such feminine standard or criterion ( 1998).  To achieve this, sometimes women do it in unhealthy ways (1994); however, these ways could not guarantee that women will really achieve such ideal feminine body. Hence, their last option is still through proper diet and exercise ( 1995).               Women always say that the main reason why they exercise is to lose weight and tone their muscles to improve their body shape and to enhance their attractiveness and appearance (1992).  Accordingly, women concentrate more on the beauty benefits of exercise that the healthy sides (2000).  Moreover, women who exercise more also stressed the value of avoiding too much muscularity, which is regarded as masculine and unappealing (1998).  Such toned but not too muscular shape of the body is described as the double body image ( 1995), which empowered and at the same time oppressed exercises.               Those women who do aerobics aims to challenge the conventional ideal beauty by toning their muscles and engaging in oppressive feminine activities like dieting ( 1995).  Hence, there is a tendency that women may gain some of the physical and mental advantages of exercise. Nevertheless, the ideal female body still limits them as they could not become too muscular and they may use unhealthy ways to attain such ideal.  As women tries to achieve cultural ideal female body, and have an attractive body figure, women examine their bodies to see if there are flaws (). Women who are really conscious are quick to identify different flaws on their body.  These include bulging belly, fat thighs and flabby triceps.             Study shows that an essential aspect of aerobic exercise was spot toning of specific body parts including butt, stomach and thighs.  In that sense, the popular media, specifically women’s magazines identifies such areas as problems and give easy-to do exercises for those spots that will reshape and enhance the body which promise a healthier and more appealing body (1994).                Contemporary women are now conscious on the body figure that they try to monitor their body shapes, find ways to achieve ideal body shape and bale them when they do not achieve such ideal figure (1994). Moreover, many believe that in order to fell good about them, an individual need to look good. This is done by taking good care of one self by being health and beautiful.               Different success stories which can be read in different journals or magazines for women, connects losing weight, toning muscles, proper dies and enhanced exercise helps women to solved personal dilemma and improve their perspectives for life. Another perceived reason why women exercise is in line with the emotional aspect.  It has been said that exercising has a positive effect on individual’s emotional aspect (1988).  Particularly, there are major benefits that can be achieved in exercising: increased self-esteem, well-being and motivation. It is noted that exercising is an essential factor for the development of status of an individual (1998).              In the study conducted by  (2000), they found out that exercising affects an individual’s well being, physical competence and self-esteem.  Self-esteem is considered as a critical component of any activities purposing at self-improvement like exercise. It is the appreciation of your own value, worth and importance and include accountability to oneself as well as consideration of other with whom a person interacts.   Different studies show that the greater levels of self-esteem is connected to increasing physical activities like exercise ( 2000). It is noted that women who are obese or do not have the so-called ideal female body have low self-esteem because they think that others view them as unappealing and unattractive.  On the contrary women with ideal female body have more self-confidence and high self-esteem. Through proper exercise obese women may achieve such ideal female body and eventually develop a high self-esteem and confidence.   Exercise not only affects the level of self-esteem among women but it also affects other emotional components.  There are studies that show how exercise has improved the mood of an individual, reduce anxieties among women, enhance the ability to handle stress and enhance sleep patterns. Throughout the years, different studies have been conducted to see the connection between exercise and self-esteem.               A research conducted at the  in Boston has investigated the effect of exercise on overweight women.  Accordingly, obesity can contribute to low self-esteem which is one characteristic of depressions.  In this study, eight women who are overweight are enrolled in an exercise program. At the end of the six-month program, only one of the eight respondents remains to be depressed and the majority have been able to cope with such depression. Thus, exercise really helps women to achieve high self-esteem.                         In young women, it is noted that through exercising the level of their self-esteem and body satisfaction have been enhanced ( & 2000), The reasons is that many women see exercise as a way of speeding up the weight loss process and acquire its primary strategy for altering the shape of their body ( 2002).               Moreover, aside from the reason for improved self-esteem another reason why women exercise is because of the notion of self-objectification. Objectification theory means that it a Western society, people tends to sexually objectify the female body.  In this manner, women experience objectification or center of attraction through constant evaluation usually done by male and the entertainment as well as advertising media.  This connotes that women should be valued not for who they are but for what they look like. In particular, those women with a thin beauty ideal constantly received glorification and other women tend to believe that in order for them to be valued as well, they must have such ideal body or look.               Furthermore, the theory also implies that the continuous exposure to the socio-cultural premise that women should be judged by how they look leads female to perceived other’s views of them. Such process is called self-objectification ( 1997).  Self-objectification means that a person comes to perceived that they are indeed the object to be looked at and evaluated.  With this, more women have become conscious on the way they present themselves especially their physical appearance and body figure.   Because of the notion of self-objectification many women especially those who are mostly affected by it tends to find ways to enhanced their body shape and exercising is one of it. It has been assesses that high self-objectification was linked with exercising for appearance-related reasons (2003). Hence, self-objectification can affect women to exercise and achieved a body which is ideal for many people.   Conclusion             It is recommended by health authorities that exercising is really good to improved once health.  However, because of different reasons, exercise is not only seen as a way of improving the health of an individual but also a means of having a quality living. In particular, women have been able to have different reasons why they engage in exercise program.  In this paper, there are three perceived reasons why women are exercising.  One is to improve their body figure and achieve the so-called ideal female body.  Women think that having a body that will be attractive and appealing is achievable by proper exercise.               Developing high self-esteem and well-being is another reason why women engaged in exercising.  For them, if one is confident about their looks and physical appearance, this will help them to develop self-esteem and enable them to interact positively with other. In addition, if one has a high self-esteem other emotional related problems such as depression, stress and others can also be handled by women easily. Lastly, the theory of self-objectification can be considered as another reason why women exercise.  Since women feels that they are always the object of evaluation, they are being conscious of their body shape and image resulting for them seek for ways in improving it. And through exercise, most women had been able to achieve their goal of having an ideal image. Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE Introduction It is believed that exercising is an important aspect needed by an individual for bod...

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE

WHY WOMEN EXERCISE Introduction It is believed that exercising is an important aspect needed by an individual for bod...

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