Undergraduate Research and Creative Activities Journal

The current study had two goals: (1) to investigate how acute exercise can improve short-term mental health in an ecologically valid setting and (2) determine whether different forms of acute exercise (aerobic vs. anaerobic) affect mental health differently. To explore these questions, we recruited participants from various exercise classes at the UCSB Recreation Center and the Robertson Gym. Participants were given one survey before their exercise class and one after. Both surveys had indices that measured four aspects of mental health: perceived stress, anxiety, positive affect, and negative affect. To answer question one, we analyzed how these indices changed from pre- to post- exercise class across all participants. To answer question two, we analyzed whether or not there were greater improvements in the four indices depending on the exercise type (anaerobic or aerobic). Based on prior research, we predicted that perceived stress, anxiety, positive affect, and negative affect would improve from pre- to post-test and that aerobic exercises would produce more improvements than anaerobic exercise. Consistent with our first hypothesis, we found statistically significant improvements from pre- to post- test across all four measures. However, we did not find statistically significant differences between acute aerobic and anaerobic exercise in modulating improvements to mental health. Our results indicate that exercise is an effective way to improve short-term mental health. Further, either form of exercise (anaerobic or aerobic) can be performed to similar effect.