Essential Question: How are the limitations on exercise and physical activity during the coronavirus pandemic impacting mental health?

As a part of my project I have been conducting interviews with my friends, family, and other members of the LREI community regarding the changes to their exercise routines and mental health due to the coronavirus pandemic. This has been a great way of exploring my essential question. So far, everyone that I have talked to has managed to exercise and stay active, however the types and amounts of exercise they are doing varies greatly. As for mental health, I have found that, while some people are using exercise to relieve their stress, for others exercise is actually causing additional stress. Since most people don’t have access to gyms and certain equipment, they are stressed with finding other ways to work out, feeling like they are getting out of shape, and are generally anxious to get back to their previous routine. Additionally, some people feel nervous about being exposed to the coronavirus when exercising outside. This is an aspect of my question that I didn’t initially consider and I would like to further explore. It was initially a challenge for me to find ways to ask about people’s mental health without being too invasive, however so far everyone has been very open and forthcoming. I have also found some other patterns within my interviews. Most of the adults/older generations are not using technology as a resource for exercise. Out of the younger generations, I have found that, out of the people I have interviewed so far, only females are using online exercise resources. I found this interesting, and started to notice that most of the online exercise resources that I have personally been exploring seem to be geared towards women. 

I have also been doing a lot of online research to answer my essential question. I have been researching the links between exercise and mental health by reading studies and articles on what happens in the brain and other systems in the body during exercise as well as the science behind different types of exercise, such as yoga, weight-training, and cardio. Initially, I felt challenged by the fact that this research doesn’t directly answer my question and wanted to make sure that the work I was doing was relevant. However, I realized that this research has added to my understanding and ability to effectively explore my question, which ultimately benefits my project.