a research into exercise habits of freshman students at national economics university

Not only that, but this study also wants to improve health by giving students a suitable form of exercise.. LITERATURE REVIEW...52.1Definition of physical activity...52.2Benefits of exer

National Economics University

International School of Management and Economics

A RESEARCH INTO EXERCISE HABITS OF FRESHMAN STUDENTS AT NATIONAL ECONOMICS UNIVERSITY

Student code: 10210770 Student name: Nguyễn Ngọc Tuấn

Instructor : Nguyen Thi Hong Hanh, MA, MSc

Ha Noi, 18th December 18, 2021

I would like to thank my family, who has given me full support during

my time of writing this dissertation Their patience and detailed advice along the way have been of huge help that got me to this point, and for that, I deeply appreciated it

ABSTRACT

After reading an article saying that Vietnamese people are among the laziest people in the world, we were curious and decided to survey to verify it Not only that, but this study also wants to improve health by giving students a suitable form of exercise But because surveying the whole country takes a lot of time and resources, we chose a group of 18 IBD students to study After comparing the data with the criteria set by WHO and experts from Vietnam, we realized that the above statement should not be accepted

Table of Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 2

ABSTRACT 2

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION 4

1.1 Background 4

1.2 Statement of the problem 4

1.3 Purpose of the research 5

1.4 Research questions 5

2 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW 5

2.1 Definition of physical activity 5

2.2 Benefits of exercise 6

2.3 The recommended level of physical activity 6

2.4 The most suitable form of exercise for students, particularly IBD students 6

3 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 7

3.1 Participants: 7

3.2 Research tools: 8

3.3 Data collection procedure: 8

4 CHAPTER IV MAJOR FINDINGS & ANALYSIS 8

4.1 the active level of IBD students 9

4.2 IBD students' most preferred type of exercise 10

5 CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS 11

6 CHAPTER V CONCLUSION 12

7 APPENDIX 12

8 Reference 13

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

People in modern civilized society with high knowledge are increasingly aware and more deeply understand about improving the quality of life through regular exercise Especially during the pandemic, people are advised to exercise regularly to improve their immune systems

However, the sedentary still attract the majority of young people in Vietnam in particular and the world in general, It can be the cause of serious diseases In particular, inactivity is also the cause of common diseases such as joint pain, stress, etc All of these can lead to poor health, mental stress, seriously affecting the quality of life The less physical activity, the more lazy people become In Vietnam, according

to a survey by the Vietnam Heart Institute and the Nursing Institute in 8 provinces and cities, currently, the rate of people with cardiovascular disease (age 25 and older) is 25.1%, the rate of people suffering from cardiovascular disease is 25.1% obesity is 16.3% Besides nutrition, inactivity is one of the main causes of these two diseases and the risk of many other diseases.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Today, 30% of adults lack physical activity, Vietnam is one of the 10

most sedentary countries in the world (Thuỳ An,2019 ) Young people in Vietnam are generally sedentary, focusing on working people,

adolescences and even children Since exercise contributes to an

enhancement of health in all people, we propose the research’s subject is

to discover the attitude of people toward exercise habit However, within the limited scope of this research, we may focus only on group of subjects, those are students, primarily IBD students The raised question

is which type of exercise is most suitable for the IBD students who are beginners?

1.3 Purpose of the research

Realizing how dangerous a sedentary lifestyle can be, we decided to conduct this study Firstly, we would like to know how active IBD students are The second task is to find the most suitable type of exercise for those who are new to exercise/beginners to have them start training

1.4 Research questions

The research is going to answer the following research questions:

- How active are IBD students I18?

- Which form of exercise do IBD students think is the best for beginners?

2 CHAPTER II LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Definition of physical activity

WHO defines physical activity as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that require energy expenditure Physical activity refers

to all movement including during leisure time, for transport to get to and

from places, or as part of a person’s work Both moderate- and vigorous-intensity physical activity improve health

Popular ways to be active include walking, cycling, wheeling, sports, active recreation and play, and can be done at any level of skill and for enjoyment by everybody

Regular physical activity is proven to help prevent and manage non-communicable diseases such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and several cancers It also helps prevent hypertension, maintains healthy body weight, and can improve mental health, quality of life, and well-being ( WHO, 2020 )

2.2 Benefits of exercise

Physically, exercise is necessary for maintaining body shape and contributes positively to maintaining a healthy weight, building and maintaining bone density, muscle, and joint strength, mobility,

promoting physiological health, reducing the risk of surgery, and strengthening the immune system Mentally, exercise increases blood and oxygen to the brain and increases brain chemicals that improve cognitive abilities such as dopamine, glutamate, and serotonin

Therefore, exercise helps to reduce stress and discomfort Not only that, but exercise also makes you more confident in your appearance and thereby more confident in front of people Exercise leaves you with more energy to stay awake, plus you'll have a better night's sleep and start your day with more energy

2.3 The recommended level of physical activity

The question "How much is enough" can be answered depending on the exercise types and from different groups of people WHO recommends

at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity throughout the week, or do at least 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity physical activity throughout the week, or an equivalent combination of moderate-intensity and high-moderate-intensity activity For additional health benefits, adults should increase their moderate-intensity physical activity to 300 minutes per week or equivalent Moreover, 150 minutes of

moderate-intensity, steady-state cardio per week is highly recommended for everyone For most people who have never done much cardio before, being told to do 150 minutes per week can be shocking It’s definitely way more than the zero amount of cardio most people do( Doucette,

2020 )

2.4 The most suitable form of exercise for students, particularly IBD students

The first one on the list is calisthenics Calisthenics is strength training using bodyweight only Calisthenics can help strengthen your muscles through the anaerobic activity that uses your bodyweight minimum equipment and space On the other hand, one disadvantage of

calisthenics is the lack of increases in weight resistance( Wolfe, 2020 ) Secondly, Gym is strength training using free weights Although Gym may sound like a great idea to reach your ideal physic, it is not

affordable to many students The last one we have cardio.Cardio is anything that raises your heart and breathing rates, and improves the function of your heart, lungs, and circulatory system Despite bringing health benefits like weight management, cardio makes students dampen because of the long period Besides the health benefits such as lowering blood pressure and heart rates, increasing mobility, or improving your coordination, etc, the main reason why people are attracted to martial art

is self-defense skills

Like any other physical activity, martial arts pose some risk of injury which include: strains, Hyperextension of the joints, Fractures (from falling), etc (Morin, 2021)

The health benefits that sports have are similar to fitness and martial arts However, The disadvantages include acquiring injuries, the expense

of buying equipment and joining clubs the time used up practicing and traveling to matches or competitions, as well as dealing with antisocial opponents, such as bad losers ( Goodman, 2021 )

3 CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 Participants:

The respondents to this survey are NEU IBD students, which cover the age range between 17 and 21 The test subjects are good representatives to the young adult group and thus are a good fit for the subject

3.2 Research tools:

Questionnaire is sent to IBD students online

Additionally, knowledge gleaned from other surveys, relevant records, and inquiries about the attitude toward exercise habit will aid in gaining additional information

3.3 Data collection procedure:

To check if you are right that Vietnamese are the laziest people

in the world, we chose a group of 18 IBD students to easily collect information In it, we asked questions to better

understand the duration of the workout To make comparisons easier, we averaged the training time of IBD students and then compared them with the standards set by the experts Not only that, to test whether the gender factor influences the decision about the favorite type of exercise, we chose half of the survey participants to be males and the rest are females Girls and then

give 3 types of exercise such as Fitness, Sports and Martial Arts for them to choose During the survey, we encountered a few problems such as the number of samples received seemed a little low, or we had to do research without studying probability, statistics, advanced math.

4 CHAPTER IV MAJOR FINDINGS & ANALYSIS

4.1 the active level of IBD students

To determine how active IBD students are, we ran a survey on how often they exercise which was measured by the number of days in a week and the duration of each exercise session By taking the total exercise day of each candidate, multiplying with the duration of each exercise session and then dividing them into the number of candidates who took the

survey, we now have the average amount of exercise of an IBD student

in one week The 18 to 20-year-old age range is merged with the 17-year-old age range because the candidates who filled the survey all are college students The data from the survey shows IBD students meet the criteria in terms of doing enough exercise On average, IBD students exercise for approximately 5 days a week and spend 58 minutes on each exercise session, so that would be 290 minutes a week or 41,4 minutes a day According to WHO, adults aged 18-64 years should do either 150–

300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity, or 75–150 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity; or an equivalent combination of moderate- and vigorous-intensity activity throughout the week It can be seen that this particular group of IBD students satisfies the criteria that WHO mentioned In VietNam, Doctor Tran Khanh Van, Deputy Head of Department of Micronutrients, Institute of Nutrition advises exercising 1-2 hours a day ( Thuỳ An, 2019 ) On the report to the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, students are encouraged to spend 2-3 hours a week or 120 - 180 minutes a week to participate in extracurricular sports activities in clubs, sports classes ( Bộ Văn Hoá, Thể Thao và Du Lịch,2014 ) So according to the Vietnamese specialists, the IBD participants have exercised enough Taking deeper analysis, 7 out of 18 or 39% of IBD participants exercise every day while there is only 1 student who has never exercised before Moreover, the percentage

of students who exercise 1 to 2 days a week is equal to the total

percentage of students who exercise 3 to 4 days and 5 to 6 days a week, which stand at 27,8%, 11,1%, and 16,6% respectively Besides that, 39%

of the participants spend 30 minutes on each of their exercises session, while 28% and 33% of them spend 90 minutes and 60 minutes respectively on each session Therefore, it can be seen that students are mindful of the benefits of exercise, so they are aware of self-discipline

as well as taking time to exercise

4.2 IBD students' most preferred type of exercise

This section answers the question of which type of exercise is preferred from an IBD student's perspective To decide whether gender is related

to the option of exercise, we conducted a survey in which half of the participants were male and the other half were female Overall, 72,2% of IBD students preferred Fitness, 16,6% preferred Sport, the percentage of the participant who chose martial art is equal to the one who didn't have

a preferable type of exercise at 5,6% Compare to the Survey conducted

by Q&Me in May 2021 about understanding more about the exercise behavior of Vietnamese people, we have found out the outcome is similar to mine The three main forms of practice are Fitness, sports, and martial arts Fitness is the most popular form with 85%, sports is second with 37%, and martial arts with 11% ( Minh Châu,2021 ) Taking a closer look into the IBD survey, the data shows all females chose fitness

as their favorite type of exercise, 4 out of 9 males were on the same page with the females and also preferred fitness Besides that, 3 out of 9 males thought sport was more suitable for them, and there was only 1 male who did not have a preferable type of exercise as well as there was only

1 male who thought martial art fitted him Understandably, females adore fitness more than males Scientists say that the female body tends

to accumulate more fat, not only that, this fat is more difficult to remove than the male body Specifically, the normal percentage of body fat in women is between 21-31%, while this percentage is only 14-25% for men ( Phạm Hằng,2020 ) The underlying reason for this is to prepare for future pregnancies To achieve low body fat and a slim physique, females are attracted to fitness It is also noticeable that only the males picked sports and here is the explanation According to the Evolutionary Behavioral Sciences, women's lack of participation in sports is not due

to discrimination, but because of the fact that they simply do not care about sports ( Sputnik, 2016 )

5 CHAPTER IV RECOMMENDATIONS

Physical capacity plays a very important role in life, work, work, and study Having good physical capacity will help people overcome all difficulties and complete all jobs well If you want to have a good physical ability, you must be persistent and determined in the work of exercising your body President Ho Chi Minh himself had times of weakness, but he still tried to get up and move, practicing some gentle exercise movements