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Physical activity helps you be happy
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
If your day is not going well and nothing around you makes you happy, there is a way out! Scientists from the University of Pennsylvania claim that increasing your usual workout regime by a few minutes can restore a person's zest for life.
“We found that people’s life satisfaction was directly related to their daily physical activity,” said Jacqueline Maher, co-author of the study. “These findings support the idea that physical activity is important for well-being and vitality. This should be taken into account when developing national policies to improve life satisfaction.”
A team of scientists studied the impact of physical activity on life satisfaction among experiment participants aged 18 to 25. This age group was not chosen by chance. According to experts, it is at this age that young people are most often subject to thoughts of dissatisfaction with life.
“Young people are going through a lot of changes during this period, with college admissions, job searches, and many other changes to their normal lives,” says Dr. Maher. “As a result of these disappointments, their life satisfaction may be declining. That’s why we decided to focus on this category.”
The researchers recruited two groups of students from Pennsylvania State University. The first group, 190 people, kept diaries and recorded information about their well-being and attitudes toward life for eight days. The second group, 63 people, did the same for a little longer - for 14 days - and entered all the data into a secure website.
At the beginning of the study, all subjects completed a questionnaire that gave scientists an idea of the level of satisfaction with life of each participant, as well as information about the level of physical activity and self-esteem.
Based on the results of the second group, the experts wanted to determine whether the participants' improvement in well-being and their attitude to life was actually due to physical exercise or whether this was due to the elimination of factors such as fatigue and nervousness.
By controlling for these factors, the scientists were able to determine that even a few extra minutes at the gym could significantly improve life satisfaction.
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