07/01/2020
Two interesting research articles point to the conclusion that how we perceive our daily physical activity can support or hinder our health in the long run.
The first study performed at Harvard by Crum & Langer in 2007 investigated 84 hotel room attendants to understand the role of psychology as it relates to physical activity. Half of these participants were informed that their daily job duties satisfied the daily recommendation for physical activity, while the other half were given no information. After 4 weeks of observation, with no changes in daily physical activity levels in either group, the informed group saw decreases weight, blood pressure, body fat, waist-to-hip ratio and body mass index, while the control group saw no changes in these categories. These finding demonstrate that how we view our activity may certainly play a role in our outcomes.
In a more recent 2017 study by Zahrt & Crum, a nationally represented sample of 61,141 US adults were studied to further understand the role of mindset towards exercise as it relates to mortality. The authors share that “individuals who perceived themselves as less active than others were up to 71% more likely to die in a follow up period that those who perceived themselves as more active.” Further “the participants perceptions of physical activity strongly predicted mortality, even after accounting for the effects of actual physical activity and other know determinants of mortality.”
These studies demonstrate that our mindset supports and facilitates our health, possibly to a further extend that we even are aware of.
Crum AJ, Langer EJ. Mind-Set Matters. Psychological Science. 2007;18(2):165-171. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01867.x
Zahrt OH, Crum AJ. Perceived physical activity and mortality: Evidence from three nationally representative U.S. samples. Health Psychology. 2017;36(11):1017-1025. doi:10.1037/hea0000531
