A Study of Aerobic Workout on Health Promotion in Young Women

Kim, Sook Jung

Abstract

Currently, health promotion is an important issue in health policy for world citizens. Aerobic workout may be one way to attain health promotion. In recent years, there have been many studies to evaluate the effects of exercise on obese people and various patients. However, there are few studies in which both physiological and psycho-perceptual aspects of health romotion for healthy people have been evaluated. PURPOSE: This study focused on evaluating the holistic effect of an 8 week aerobic workout for health promotion in young women. METHOD: This quasi-experimental study was designed as a nonequivalent control group pre-post test study. Forty healthy college women, aged between 20 and 25 volunteered for the study. Twenty women took 30 minutes of exercise a day for five days a week over 8 weeks with Jane Fonda's aerobic workout program. Twenty women participated as controls. The aerobic workout program consisted of warm-up for arms, waist, abdominal, leg, hips, buttocks and cool down exercises. RESULT: After the eight weeks of aerobic exercise, changes in health related fitness components through the In Body Test, skin fold, circumference of body, Body image, Self concept, Mood and Self-efficacy were compared. The results areas follows; 1. Following the 8 week aerobic workout, health related body components, and fitness scores, increased significantly (p<0.05) and skin fold for four sites (right upper arm, scapular, abdomen, supra ilium), and circumference of mid thigh decreased significantly (p<0.05, p<0.005, p<0.001) compared to the control group. 2. Following the 8 week aerobic workout, there was a significant increase in Self-concept and Mood (p<0.005 and 0.001) compared to the control group.
CONCLUSION
According to these results, it is concluded that 8 weeks of aerobic workout have a positive effect on young women's holistic health promotion.