This study compared the aftereffect on women of using a mind / body approach in teaching aerobics classes versus a conventional approach on the following variables: general self - esteem, physical self - esteem, and state - trait anxiety. Sixty - eight female college students participated in the study. The seen treatment assemblage certified a mind / body teaching approach based on the neuromuscular integrative rush model while the standard treatment guidance chain acknowledged a conventional teaching approach based on current aerobic dance instructional methods. An ANCOVA analysis of the data showed that the treatment gang acceptance a mind / body approach scored significantly lower on trait anxiety measures than the standard treatment bridle company, which had accepted a conventional approach. Qualitative analysis of core groups supported the finding that women in the mind / body approach aggregation had higher quality their anxiety coping skills as a close of the mind / body aerobics class.
Over the foregone 15 elderliness Americans have contemporaneous taking a more active racket in health than ever before. The physiological benefits of exercise are now well - documented and substantial evidence indicates that aerobic enterprise performed on a regular basis will aid in the reduction of risk factors that may lead to cardiovascular disease. 1 Recently, however, a new emphasis is being placed on the psychological benefits of aerobic bustle. Studies have found that not only does one ' s physical health benefit from aerobic exercise, but also one ' s mental health. 2 Earlier anecdotal reports of post - exercise positive effects have been confirmed by gobs practical investigations. 3 Specifically, exercise appears to have a tranquilizing and antidepressant development on participants. 4
Due to the need of research examining the psychological effects of different types of aerobic dance instruction, this study focused on the effects of two different teaching methods in aerobic dance classes on general self - esteem, physical self - esteem, and state - trait anxiety.
Observation and Significance
Three centuries after Descartes, the sciences of medicine and health promotion are still based on " the impression of the body as a machine, of disease as the consequence of breakdown of the machine, and of the doctor ' s assignment as repairer of the machine. " 5 This paradigm has led to a prominence of " healthism " in the United States, a confidence in which a physically fit body is equated with total health and wellness. Not only is a physically fit body considered the key criterion for health and wellness, it has become a good imperative. 6 Forasmuch as, in their efforts to promote health, fitness professionals have focused on changing physical characteristics such as body fat rate, weight, resting heart proportion, and aerobic capacity.
By emphasizing physical goals, fitness programs teach persons to value discipline, self - restraint, denial, and out check. This value system has led to the development of crowded diet programs and books which sponsor restrained eating, self - discipline, and a regimented eating style in aligning to achieve a seemly physical state. It has also led to the increase in personal fitness trainers who are hired to design exercise programs and motivate their clients who explore right physical outcomes. In the stadium of aerobics classes, this value system has led to a teaching style in which the instructor leads the class in uniform movement, focusing on isolated parts of the body in assortment to achieve rightful physical outcomes. 7, 8 There are many criticisms of this approach to health promotion: the increasing cipher of persons who exercise violently, 9 the rising incidence of eating disorders10, and the promotion of a thinness standard of body grace as a panacea for life ' s difficulties. 11
Aerobic Dance Instruction Guidelines
We followed aerobic dance instruction guidelines from The American Council on Exercise Aerobics Instructor Manual 12 and The Exer - Safety Association 13 when teaching the standard treatment driver's seat groups. For the empitic groups, we followed a mind / body approach based on Neuromuscular Integrative Deal ( NIA ) that was designed specifically for the animus of this study. This approach combined guidelines from yoga, 14 martial arts, 8 and mind / body fitness instruction. 15
Mind / body Approach to Aerobic Dance Instruction
The mind / body approach as choice in this study is represented in the literature by Yoga, martial arts, and Mind / Body Fitness instruction. Yoga creates a mind / body connection by using awareness of the breath and concentration of the mind throughout the poses. Unlike the conventional instructional approach in aerobic dance class, participants are cheerful to stir according to their own breathing patterns instead of to the beat of the music. Also, unlike the conventional instructional approach, there is not a inventory of contraindicated movements. Instead, participants are sanguine to shift within their own comfort realm in adjustment to prevent injury. 14
In a mind / body approach, exercises are haggard from ancient disciplines such as yoga, tai chi, and aikido as well as from latest systems, such as Feldenkrais and Alexander techniques, and from dance movement therapy. Exercises in a mind / body class are not designed with specific body - centered objectives as found in the conventional aerobic dance guidelines. Instead, objectives build, but are not limited to, enhancing awareness of breathing, increasing ability to breathe, sensitivity the connection of feet to the ground, experiencing the interplay among the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of well - being, motility powerful and reaction graceful. 15
The aerobic portion of this type of class allows creativity and spontaneity to emerge in students. Instructors are merry to design choreography to inspire a sense of letting go, and to recall that students have special rhythms. Consequently, choreography is simple in sequence to acquiesce students to explore how the movement feels moderately than just go through the motions. If possible, instructors are to have students turn away from the mirrors in codification to help them feel the movements quite than timepiece them. It is more important in this type of class that students feel the movement quite than learn complicated steps. 15
Standard
Public and Exemplification Selection
The populace used for this study was female students, 18 elderliness of age and older, enrolled in aerobics classes at Texas Woman ' s University. From this plebeians, a convenience exemplification of 77 subjects was recruited from four physical motion classes. Subjects in two classes were red-letter as the seen passel and subjects in the other two classes were definite as the standard driver's seat faction. The 37 subjects in a standard dominion combine were divided into two classes: one class of 18 and one class of 19 students. The 40 subjects in an pragmatic syndicate were divided into two classes of 20 students each.
Procedures
Both groups, two classes per crowd, participated in a one - hour aerobics classes twice a era for seven weeks. Classes were canceled for two days during the treatment name due to weather conditions; so, the treatment consisted of 13 sessions. The same instructor taught the observed party using a mind / body approach and the standard treatment clout category with a conventional approach.
Instrumentation
The following three kit were used in this study: Field and Steinhardt ' s Physical Self - Esteem Scale, the Rosenberg Self - Esteem Scale, and the State - Trait Anxiety Brochure. Field developed the Physical Self - Esteem Scale and Steinhardt. 16 It is an 11 - item scale constructed to measure physical self - esteem. Using data placid in this study, the alpha coefficients for the pretest and posttest were. 87 and. 91 respectively.
The Rosenberg Self - Esteem Scale was originally developed by Rosenberg. 17 It consists of ten items with four response choices and is designed to measure self - esteem. A reliability analysis of Rosenberg ' s Self - Esteem Scale using data blase in this study produced superb alpha coefficients in the pretest and posttest of. 85 and. 91 respectively.
The State Trait Anxiety Guide ( STAI ) developed by Speilberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene18 was used to measure the dependent variables, state and trait anxiety. The alpha coefficient calculated in this study for A - State was. 93 in both the pretest and posttest. For the A - Trait scale, the alpha coefficient was. 91 in both the pretest and posttest.
Treatment of the Data
Using pretest army as covariates, ANCOVA was calculated to determine differences in posttest means. The level of significance used for all analyses was. 05. Also, the backlash of oldness of friar aerobic dance seasoning was used as a factor in an ANOVA analysis of the total pretest and posttest army. In the two legion that were significantly affected by the figure of oldness of aerobic dance skill, a post - hoc analysis using the Student - Newman - Keuls test was conducted to determine which groups were significantly different. For the reason of this analysis, the participants were divided into three categories of patience level: 1 ) participants who had no abbot aerobic dance experience, 2 ) participants who had one to two dotage of experience, and 3 ) participants who had more than two age of experience.
Spotlight groups were high at the extreme of the treatment thing. The recording - recorded content of the locus groups was analyzed by discerning prevailing themes in the discussions and counting the frequency of statements made per keynote party.
Descriptive Characteristics of the Model
The age of the participants in this study ranged from 18 to 51 oldness with a parsimonious age of 22. 2 senescence, a mode of 18 senility, and a standard change of 5. 89. The 31 participants who were assigned to the standard treatment upper hand shooting match had a scrimpy age of 23. 2 senility with a standard divergence of 6. 9, and the 37 participants assigned to the seen treatment collection had a greedy age of 21. 32 dotage with a standard inequality of 4. 72.
Tests of the Hypotheses
ANCOVA analyses were conducted to compare the posttest army of the two treatment groups using the pretest swarm as covariates. The results showed no symbolic difference between bevy multitude on physical self - esteem, general self - esteem or state anxiety. However, there was a statistically powerful difference between fit-out myriad on trait anxiety.
In an ANOVA, it was tenacious that the pretest score means for trait anxiety of 46. 13 for the standard treatment management assortment and 45. 95 for the observed treatment bundle were not significantly different, p>. 05. However, an ANCOVA analysis found that the posttest score means of 47. 29 for the standard treatment restriction society and 45. 05 for the treatment troop were significantly different, p<. 05.
Locus Band Analysis
Following Krueger ' s19 suggested format, a bull's eye group was conducted at the deadline of the last class for each of the four classes. The standard treatment supremacy polestar groups had 14 and 15 volunteers respectively, representing 78 % of the total band. There were 13 and 14 volunteers respectively in the seen treatment focus groups representing 67 % of the total set.
When asked how they felt right after this class, 71 percent of the standard treatment oversight band responses referred to physical conditions, such as being out of breath, tired, or hungry. Eighty - seven percent of the practical treatment club responses dealt with emotional conditions, such as touch sagacious, less taut, relaxed, slow, elevated and light. They also verbal they felt like they had more energy and strength, and felt more energized. All of the practical suite responses to the dispute, " How did you feel right after class? " were positive in nature.
When asked how skill in this class had affected other areas of their lives, the majority of the standard treatment guidance group’ s answers, 75 %, had a physical constitution topic and was positive in nature. The responses included: " I slept better; I ate better; and I lost weight. " Of the responses that were emotional in nature, half were positive, such as " I felt good about myself for working out, " and half were negative, such as " I felt fettered if I ate bad food whereas I had worked out ". The observed treatment band responses were evenly divided between positive physical statements and positive emotional statement. Their responses included: " during stressful times it has helped me to carry forward my body and breathe; I stretch when I feel strained while enterprise on the computer; I am moving to round up in good looks better; I use the breathing when I get bonkers and it helps soothing me down.
"
When asked what feelings they lettered during this artistry, the majority of the prevalent treatment government category answers, 75 %, dealt with emotional issues. Forty - four percent of the responses mentioned frustration. For propose, they clear-cut excitation " confusion; frustrated thanks to I couldn ' t keep up; taut to keep up with everyone added; disadvantageous; uncoordinated; and struggling. " There were a few, however, who felt skilful when they sometime " got " the steps, and that the winsomeness was a dissolution of frustration and advance. Conversely, 77 % of the empirical treatment category ' s answers focused on feelings of " joy, belief, and adulation for my body, moving freely, rejuvenation, power, and charm. "
Aerobics instructors can learn from this study that when participants are optimistic to listen to their own mind and body signals, the movement in delicacy can conclude more than the physical goals of increasing aerobic capacity and burning body fat. Hopefully, aerobics instructors and health educators twin will be upbeat to learn doctrine techniques that enable the participants in their classes to find directive from within themselves rather than from foreign sources.
Findings
Although studies have shown the positive effects of aerobic motion on psychological well being, the literature fails to prepare label of the chain reaction of different styles of feeling aerobic motion on psychological variables. The analysis of the the latest in this study revealed information marking the conclusion of a mind / body impression approach as compared to a conventional viewpoint approach on selected psychological variables.
Habitual Self - Esteem
Although there were no weighty changes in characteristic self - esteem as a issue of the seven - point exercise sessions, several studies have shown improvements in customary self - esteem adjoining exercise programs. 20 These studies ranged in infinity from 12 weeks to one present, as variant to the study cited in this free, which was seven weeks. This indicates that a seven - interval treatment interval may not be capable to outcome in changes in self - esteem.
The post - hoc analysis of unvaried self - esteem posttest host showed a forceful difference between the pack of participants who had zero years of aerobic dance ( niggard = 23. 33 ) and the crew that had more than two agedness of experience ( mercenary = 25. 17 ). Now there were no pregnant differences in the pretest horde among these groups, the post - hoc analysis suggests that those with religious aerobic dance experience are more future to improve routine self - esteem as a end of task in aerobic dance than those without prior aerobic dance experience.
Dishman 2 who stated “ it seems unlikely that all types, hangout, and settings of exercise will affect all aspects of mental health for all people” supports this finding. Also, we capital that the target clump members who made comments such as " I wouldn ' t have done it if I hadn ' t have had to come to good looks " and " I was frustrated since I couldn ' t keep up " were those who had not participated in aerobic dance classes in the recent.
Physical Self - Esteem
The analysis of Physical Self - Esteem posttest swarm indicated no compelling difference between the treatment and colloquial treatment guidance fit-out. For the spacious cordial pressures for women to achieve romantic beauty standards, a 14 - convocation barrage was probably not long enough to influence physical self - esteem attitudes, and perhaps only agonizing body awareness.
Interestingly, the post - hoc analysis did flash that there was a rich difference in the beggarly pretest myriad for Physical Self - Esteem between the sort with zero elderliness of aerobic experience ( beggarly = 30. 93 ) and the groups with one to two ( niggard = 35 ) and more than two senescence ( tight = 37. 22 ) of aerobic dance experience. These results evidence a relationship between action in aerobic dance and physical self - esteem however causality cannot be confessed.
State Anxiety
A review of the literature shows that aerobic exercise ranging in life from eight weeks to one time indeed affects state anxiety. 21 Single to the motion used in this study, the researchers in previous studies have measured the fallout of aerobic liveliness on state anxiety by administering the pretest and posttest promptly coterminous an exercise rap session. In this study, the tests were administered abbot to an exercise meet. Thanks to the participants in this study were college students, the pressures of guide may have impacted state anxiety. Many of the students had mid - term examinations on the day of the posttest administration. This could be the instigation that there were no meaning differences in posttest state anxiety multitude.
Shape Anxiety
In this study, the Nature Anxiety posttest multitude were significantly different, p<. 05 ) between the treatment and characteristic treatment clout groups. Both groups ' grain anxiety myriad did not decrease, however. Instead, the standard treatment clout crew score increased while the treatment coterie score decreased.
Results from the focal point groups foothold the findings in this analysis. Seeing members of the standard treatment upper hand sort stated that they felt " rushed " when class was over, " authoritative " if they ate a fattening food, " haggard to keep up with everyone new ", the members of the treatment batch stated that they felt " less haggard ", " relaxed ", and " calm " when class was over, and that they had learned to " use the breathing " techniques whenever they felt boiling or taut frontage of class, and that they had learned to " let go " while participating in this class.
Discussion
Berger and Owen22 compared the relative tenor benefits of swimming and Hatha yoga and found that yoga participants focus inbound to physical sensations in computation to stretch their muscles as far as possible and after all avoid coming a point of painfulness. Although yoga is not an aerobic bustle, Berger and Owen23 found that both swimming and yoga were effective in reducing stress. They theorized that the gospel that both activities facilitated abdominal breathing was the mechanism that helped lower stress in the groups.
The mind / body teaching approach used in this study also used abdominal breathing and emphasized tuning entering and moving in comfort. The spotlight clutch responses from the mind / body groups means the theory that abdominal breathing and marking internal stress cues is pragmatic in reducing trait anxiety.
Based on the results in this study, recommendations can be made for health educators and aerobics instructors. Health educators should be aware that when they are teaching people to increase physical life that some activities may be more kind to cut people cope with stress more effectively in their lives, and other activities may in reality add stress to their lives.
Recommendations for Further Study
On the basis of the data and findings presented in this study, the following recommendations for eventual study are made:
1. Replicate the study using a larger and randomly selected exemplification in setup to increase the power of the study.
2. Replicate the study with treatment duration of at initial six months in symmetry to increase the event of the treatment.
3. Replicate the study using other aerobic activities that are led by an instructor to determine if the results of this study can be indefinite to other activities.
Implications for Health Educators and Aerobics Instructors
This study has several implications for health education in general, and fitness education in particular. Based on the results of this study, and fitness polished may hankering to learn how to deliver mind / body aerobic dance programs, and health education professionals may preference to act as a resource in semanship clients to these programs.
This study is the first quasi - seen design research to compare a mind / body teaching approach in aerobic dance to a conventional approach. In this way, the results contribute to the literature, which examines the relationship between aerobic life and psychological variables. Further, this study provides qualitative click into the assumptions that aerobic movement improves psychological well being by manifestation that the positive psychological effects may differ depending on the teaching approach that is used in the aerobic activity.
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