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Ethan Smith

UWRT 1103

October 27, 2019

Lifting to Higher Grades: Exercise and Stress Relief

Have you ever found yourself in an undesirable situation often involving work,

education, or other tasks? In most of those situations a college student’s worst nightmare, stress,

is a result. Since this is such a widespread issue, many college students ask questions like, “Why

are assignments so unrealistic?” and “What can I do to lessen the stress I experience from school

work?”. Many students find themselves accepting stress as a normal thing while few find the

answers to these dilemmas through experimentation in the world of hobbies, exercise, and

past-times. Without proper care, unhealthy habits like binge eating and sleep deprivation could

be induced by stress resulting in academic and health issues.

What exactly is stress and what conditions promote it? First and foremost, stress is

defined as “a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or very

demanding circumstances (Lexico Dictionaries).'' It is quite obvious this signifies stress is a

common problem among individuals exposed to a high workload, such as students. The ways in

which stress is developed is commonly through a situation in which an individual is tasked

heavily, or through experiencing failures such as missing class, failing a test, or submitting a late

assignment. According to Youki Terada, a writer with Edutopia, “...students remain fixated on

the setback and have difficulty moving forward”. These fixations are turning short term episodes

into long term anxiety, which hinders a student's ability to do well in future situations. Stress is

quite residual as well; for example, after a student completes an assignment that was stressing
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them out, their stress is not completely absent. Their body will subconsciously continue being

impacted by the situation. It is important to note these stressors will build up into a much larger

problem.

How does stress negatively impact a person and why does this happen? Contrary to

popular belief, stress is an important human function essential to well-being. Without stress, the

body would not know how to react to certain situations. Once stress accumulates to excessive

levels, bad things start happening, unhealthy habits are developed to cope with these adverse

conditions. Among students, the habits formed to cope involve procrastinating, binge eating,

sleep deprivation, etc. Mood is impacted greatly; those who are heavily stressed are usually more

tired, irritable, bipolar, and hopeless. These mood changes can affect the learning process of a

student, possibly inducing further stressful events. It has been found that stressful habits can

become more permanent the longer a person lives with them. Patricia Ferone, a contributor to the

Huffington Post, states, “As with most habits, the longer you have a stress habit the harder it is to

break and the worse it becomes”. Behaviors such as these make stress a potent and difficult thing

to overcome. It is very important to realize these habits and correct them early on before they

spiral out of control.

Many individuals have a daily routine, be it studying, yoga, jogging, and many other

activities that help someone clear their minds of stress. It is often debated which activity is most

impactful in its goal to help clear one’s mind. Statistically and scientifically, physical exercise is

the most impactful activity on stress. The ADAA (Anxiety and Depression Association of

America) seems to agree on this perspective by stating, “While all of these are well-known

coping techniques, exercise may be the one most recommended by health care professionals”.

This means physical exercise is the most accepted and supported form of stress relief. To add to

that, aerobic exercise seems to be the most effective out of the physical exercises. Erica Jackson,

a Ph.D. focusing on a study in similar topic areas, states, “Exercise and stress research has

typically focused on aerobic exercise”. This makes sense as we will explore in a later section.

Although physical exercises are the most studied and accepted forms of stress relief,

massive benefits can be seen from other activities as well. In a survey of students within the

writing program of UNCC, all respondents named other activities they have had experience with

relieving stress. These activities include, but are not limited to, reading, yoga, meditation,

healthy eating, listening to music, and playing instruments. As with exercise, these activities

utilize the same brain functions to relax the mind of stress. Some would argue the more relaxing

activities to be superior to exercising. These activities are especially useful in those who are not

physically able to exercise.

It is important that exercises must be executed in the manner in which an individual is

actually calmed and not further aggravated. Especially with weight training, those who are

looking to obtain a certain max weight can negatively impact their stress levels if they
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concentrate on that goal too much and become upset from results. To combat this, exercise must

be approached as a means to relax, not to create more work. Furthermore, an exercise must

create a break from work. In a study done on female college students by Breus MJ and PJ

O'Connor, it was found that participants who took part in studying while exercising maintained

higher stress levels than those who took a full break from studying and just exercised.

One may find themselves asking, how exactly do these activities help? What is the

science behind this process? The human brain operations on an electrochemical level; certain

moods and feelings create respective chemicals that impact your body as a whole in some way.

Stress is related to a natural chemical called cortisol. Excess cortisol commonly causes countless

problems associated with depression. When performing stress-relieving activities, cortisol

production is inhibited and endorphins, a chemical that elevates mood, is produced. Along with

the chemical benefits, individuals exercising usually perceive themselves with a better mental

image, elevating self-esteem (Harvard Health Publishing). Since everything in the body is

connected in some way, the benefits can cause a person to feel better in multiple areas. Also

important to add, the dynamics discussed are all dependent upon each other. For a student to take

advantage of exercises for stress relief, they must completely commit to the process.
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How exactly does this apply to a higher education setting? As mentioned before, students

are among the most stressed individuals in society, this trend is on a heavy incline as time moves

forward. Since there are so many elements to be worried about within higher education, a

student’s mind can often become clouded and preoccupied with work, causing them to ignore

cues of their unhealthy habits. For example, a student may have a work-filled week and have to

miss out on sleep to complete a paper, or to study for an exam. These unhealthy habits build up

and subconsciously make it difficult to continue with the constant cycle of work.

It is essential to incorporate workouts into studying and assignments. Students often

believe schoolwork is too time absorbing, unrealistic, and tedious. In reality, the reason their

work is so hard to complete is that they have ignored the essential processes for maintaining a

healthy mind. Schoolwork seems to be an exponentially time-consuming activity when it is

viewed from a stressed point of view. Whenever a student feels this way, it is important for them

to set the work aside for around 30 - 60 minutes and participate in their favorite exercises. Once

this has been completed, the mind has been refreshed through the inhibition of cortisol, creating

a fresh approach for the student to work with. After utilizing exercises, an assignment that was
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supposed to take around 60 minutes could now be completed in as little as 20 minutes. Along

with the time advantage, the student would most likely be able to absorb learned material much

more effectively.

Stress has always been an overlooked factor in our mental and physical health. Being a

natural process essential to survival, it is not malicious, but it can lead to adverse situations.

Students are among the most impacted by stress, and to truly maintain a healthy mental state,

they must commit to methods such as exercise to lessen the impact of excess stress. This

widespread problem will most likely be never solved but it is a good idea to explore methods for

stress relief in preparation for future situations.

Works Cited

Breus, M J, and P J O'Connor. “Exercise-Induced Anxiolysis: a Test of the ‘Time out’

Hypothesis in High Anxious Females.” Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, U.S.

National Library of Medicine, July 1998, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9662680.

“Cortisol - The Stress Hormone Explained.” Emed,

https://www.emed.com.au/conditionsemed/sleep-stress-and-anxiety/stress/cortisol-the-stress-

hormone-explained/​.

“Exercise for Stress and Anxiety.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA,

https://adaa.org/living-with-anxiety/managing-anxiety/exercise-stress-and-anxiety​.

Fogle, Gretchen E., and Terry F. Pettijohn. “Stress and Health Habits in College Students.”

Scientific Research Publishing, Scientific Research Publishing, 30 Apr. 2013,

https://www.scirp.org/html/1-2250026_30651.htm​.

Harvard Health Publishing. “Exercising to Relax.” ​Harvard Health​, 11 Feb. 2011,

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/exercising-to-relax​.

Jackson, Erica M. “STRESS RELIEF: The Role of Exercise in Stress Management : ACSM's

Health & Fitness Journal.” LWW, 1 May 2013,

https://journals.lww.com/acsm-healthfitness/Fulltext/2013/05000/STRESS_RELIEF__The_

Role_of_Exercise_in_Stress.6.aspx​.

Koschel, Tessa L. “Examining the Impact of a University-driven Exercise Programming Event

on End-of-semester Stress in Students.” International journal of exercise science vol. 10,5

754-763. 1 Sep. 2017

“Physical Activity Reduces Stress.” Anxiety and Depression Association of America, ADAA,

ADAA,

https://adaa.org/understanding-anxiety/related-illnesses/other-related-conditions/stress/physic

al-activity-reduces-st​.

“Stress Can Have Both Positive, Negative Effects on Mental Health.” The Campanile, 22 Feb.

2013,

https://thecampanile.org/2013/02/22/stress-can-have-both-positive-negative-effects-on-menta

l-health/.

“Stress: Definition of Stress by Lexico.” Lexico Dictionaries | English, Lexico Dictionaries,

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/stress.

Terada, Youki. “The Science Behind Student Stress.” Edutopia, George Lucas Educational

Foundation, 24 Aug. 2018, ​https://www.edutopia.org/article/science-behind-student-stress​.