Analysis of Self Compassion and Self Esteem between Adolescents Engaged in Physical Exercise in the Form of Gym with Those Having Sedentary Lifestyle

INTRODUCTIONPhysical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that result in energy expenditure. The energy expenditure can be measured in kilocalories. Physical activity in daily life can be categorized into occupational, sports, conditioning, household, or other activities. Exercise is a subset of physical activity that is planned, structured, and repetitive and has as a final or an intermediate objective the improvement or maintenance of physical fitness.Exercise in GymThe major motive of the physical workout in the form of gym was added as a variable in the study in order to have a concrete base of the exercise or physical activities that women are engaged in day to day basis. The sample included those women who have been working out in the gym for at least 6 months, with 30 minutes of workout each day for at least 5 days a week. It is expected that if the person has an enrolled membership in the gym there are greater likelihood of they being more involved with the similar kind of activities. Another vital reason to include those adolescents only who were actively involved in physical activities through gym was that there will be more uniformity in terms of the quality of the exercise regime that is followed. Having said this, adolescents who were involved in physical activities in the form of other forms of exercises like aerobics, yoga, zumba and so on were excluded from the study for the above mentioned reasons.Sedentary LifestyleA sedentary lifestyle is a type of lifestyle with no or irregular physical activity. It also refers to a group of behaviors that occur whilst sitting or lying down while awake and typically require very low energy expenditure. Sedentary activities include sitting, reading, watching television, playing video games, and computer use for much of the day with little or no vigorous physical exercise.Self CompassionSelf-compassion entails being warm and understanding toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or flagellating ourselves with self-criticism. Self-compassionate people recognize that being imperfect, failing, and experiencing life difficulties is inevitable, so they tend to be gentle with themselves when confronted with painful experiences rather than getting angry when life falls short of set ideals.Self EsteemSelf-esteem reflects a person's overall subjective emotional evaluation of his or her own worth. It is a judgment of oneself as well as an attitude toward the self. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs ("I am competent", "I am worthy") and emotions such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) defined it as "The self-concept is what we think about the self; self-esteem is the positive or negative evaluations of the self, as in how we feel about it. "AdolescentsAdolescence describes the teenage years between 13 and 19 and can be considered the transitional stage from childhood to adulthood. The physiological changes that take place can lead to confusion, anxiety over bodily issues. The physical appearance is one of the apparent reasons for the self-esteem in adolescents. Constant evaluation by peer groups, perception of the romantic partner's idea about the body can lead to a lot of pressure. Thus the external appearance tends to naturally increase in importance for sometime during a teen's journey toward adulthood.Need for StudyWith increase in awareness about health, healthy lifestyle, and anxiety about self - image, body, varied ailments, it is important to study various psychological factors related to exercise. The way these factors are related to the adolescent population where self-evaluation of body image, evaluation of self-image, it calls for the attention in how factors like self-esteem and compassion are affected through all this. Self- esteem and self-compassion has been closely related to exercises in the previous findings related to health, exercise and other related factors. …