Ever since I came to college, I feel like I have been more lethargic and lazy than normal. I feel like back home I was more productive, was more active, and got more done in school and around my house. I realized the one thing that changed was my environment and my physical activity regime; I was not working out! I knew I needed to do something regarding physical activity and exercise. However, this is such a broad topic. I did not even know where to start. I wanted to test the correlation between productivity and physical exercise.
While I was brainstorming for my personal inquiry experiment, I was intrigued with the topic of physical exercise so I wanted to do something that made me more physically active than usual because I have felt rather lethargic the last few weeks. For my experimental procedures, I thought along the lines of walking to class on different routes, going on runs, and going out of my way to be less lazy. I realized I may need to start going on runs, riding bikes, and even doing different types of exercises.
I started my experiment on Sunday morning by going on a three mile run. My legs felt like they were still asleep almost thirty minutes into the run and I could feel my lungs inhaling and exhaling the entire time. I came back to our fraternity house, gave my body about an hour to recover, then I thought about what else I could do to be more active. My body felt like it did not want to move for at least another hour but I knew I needed to do something. I noticed other guys in my house playing basketball on the court outside so I thought it would be a perfect opportunity to go out of my way to be active. I played three ‘pickup’ games of basketball and called it quits. My body was officially exhausted. The aftermath of my day was great; I felt accomplished, active, and relaxed. I felt like my mind was sharper and quicker, even.
On Monday, for my portion of the experiment, I rode my bike in the morning and I also took longer routes to my classes. I biked for four miles and I felt fantastic afterwards. I did not feel extremely tired, in fact I felt rather awake and energized so I decided to study and prepare for my classes that day. I then decided to walk all around campus for a total of thirty minutes before class started. For what I thought was going to be an awful time actually turned out to be very relaxing. It was nice to feel the breeze and get fresh air before my classes. It cleared my mind before class, was peaceful, and made me feel active. After my classes and at the end of the day, I was once again very satisfied with myself and my productivity throughout the day.
On Tuesday, I began my day by going to the recreational center before my classes started. I did a lot of exercises at the recreational center as well as played basketball with some friends. As I was walking out of the recreational center, I felt like my body was trembling and weak. Knowing my body has been working very hard, I was rather happy and proud of myself. I went to campus early and did my routine walk around before class began and after class ended I returned to the house. After I returned to my room, I reminisced on my day. It felt rather long and tiring, I was wiped out to say the least.
On Wednesday, to be completely honest, I was feeling extremely worn down. I did a handful of push-ups, sit-ups, and pull-ups. My workout lasted around forty-five minutes and was actually pretty tiring. After my workout I felt energized and awake, although sore. I was once again very proud of myself. I then took my extra long route to my classes for the day. As I walked into class, I realized how much I was beginning to enjoy my additional time walking around campus and being active, rather than sitting on my couch before class started. During this time, I would always think about what I did in my previous classes to mentally prepare myself for what we would be doing in my upcoming class.
On Thursday, I woke up and went on another run. This was absolutely the hardest day for me. Not only are Thursdays my most exhausting days of classes but it seemed I was just having an off day. My run was a distance of two and a half miles and the fact that it was very cold out and I was underdressed made it a rather unfortunate start to my day. I realized my run was cut short this morning due to rolling my ankle so I thought about what I could do to make it a complete day of productivity. I knew I should try and keep most my weight off my ankle, so I decided it would be most logical to go on a bike ride. What I thought was a thirty minute bike ride turned out to be an hour and ten minutes. I biked back to the house and, like always, reminisced on my day. I realized that I faced a good amount of adversity during my physical activity throughout the day which made me even more proud of myself for overcoming it and continuing to live an active week.
On Friday, I knew I was going to have a very busy day. I woke up at 7:30am to get a run in before my 9am class. I thought this was initially going to be a very bold decision but it turned out to be a phenomenal start to my day. My run was a brisk mile and a half but it was fast and tiring. My run really woke me up and mentally prepared me for the day. It cleared any fog I still had from my sleep and cleared my mind. Afterwards, I headed back to the house where I played 4 pick-up games. I knew my day of activity had ended. I went to bed and prepared myself for the final day of my experiment.
It was finally Saturday. I woke up and immediately thought, “thank God.” I enjoyed my week of
being physically active because it made me feel accomplished, very productive, and also rather fit. I
woke up and went on a run to start my weekend. I ran for about a mile only and made an impulsive
decision to run to the recreational center. While I was there, I worked out my chest, forearms, and
back. I was extremely worn out. I went back to our house and realized that my experiment was
almost over so I rewarded myself with a small nap. I woke up after about two hours and then
proceeded to play basketball before going out for the night. After my day of activity ended, I thought
about my overall week. I realized that I felt more productive, I slept better, was less lethargic, felt
more ‘awake’ and alert, and am even more optimistic.
No comments:
Post a Comment