Life Sciences Commons^™

Fitness And Exercise As Linked To Overall Stress And Physiological Stress Responses, Justine Monthony

Honors Theses

Exercise negatively correlates with physiological stress responses, but there is less research on short-term stress hormones for this response. For this thesis, I hypothesized that exercise and fitness levels would be negatively correlated with perceived stress and with physiological stress from a standard stressor. Undergraduate college participants reported their chronic stress, current mood, past week’s physical activity (amount and intensity), perceived physical fitness, and demographic characteristics. Participants also engaged in a social stress task, on which they had limited time to prepare a speech with no notice or resources that was given in front of peers who were ostensibly analyzing …