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Promoting Exercise Analysis

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Yeonsu Shin
Promoting Exercise
My days used to be packed with hours in a dance studio, rehearsing, stretching, choreographing and taking classes. I did not consider it to be exercise, because in my head, working out was something that you did not enjoy, but was essential for your health. I had no need to actively go to a gym because of the amount of physical energy dance required. I was forced to quit dancing a year ago due to my academic load in senior year. It was a huge change for my body, as I had been dancing full-time since I was 8. However, since I did not have a previous habit of going to the gym, I had a difficult time developing it anew. I decided to use this opportunity to help myself create a new routine in my lifestyle.
I wanted to experiment with both positive reinforcements and negative punishments. My positive reinforcement was to be time spent with my significant other and my negative punishment was the lack of a nightly shower, which would force me to wake up earlier in the morning. I discussed my plan with both my roommate and significant other, and they agreed to help me enforce these conditions. I planned to use negative punishment in the first week, then …show more content…

On the days that I could not take a shower in the evening, I had expected that I would wake up earlier before my 8am classes in order to fit in a shower, but instead, I woke up at a normal time and took a shower after class. This did not provide me with enough incentive to exercise since I always knew that I could shower in the morning. Although I went to the gym 4 out of 7 days that I applied negative punishment to, I visited the gym less later on in the week and it was not as effective as I had expected. If this portion of the experiment was repeated, I would not allow myself to shower at all, instead of providing myself with a backup solution that I came to depend

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