Effect of Aerobic and Anaerobic Exercise on Psychological Well-being of North Indian Young Adult Males

Objective: To assess the effect of types of exercise on the psychological well-being (PWB) of North Indian young male adults. Method: The psychological well-being of the participants (n = 101, age range = 18-25 yrs.) divided into three groups, aerobic exercisers (n=35), anaerobic exercisers (n=32) and non-exercisers (n=34) was measured by Scale of Psychological Well-Being, SPWB (Ryff, 1989). Results: Exercisers (aerobic & anaerobic) experienced greater PWB than the non-exercisers, further, aerobic exercisers experienced greater PWB than the anaerobic exercisers. Conclusion: The present study has corroborated the existing research findings as it has also shown that exercisers (both aerobic and anaerobic) experienced greater PWB than the non-exercisers. However, another finding that aerobic exercisers experienced greater PWB than the anaerobic exercisers are in contrast to most of the existing research. Hence, the present study may be seen as a valuable contribution to the existing knowledge repository. Nevertheless, the research conducted so far has not established a causal relationship. Rather, it has suggested an association between the “physical exercise” and PWB. Hence, it may not be ruled out that in the present study, the PWB could be a contributory factor in the choice of exercising behavior rather than an outcome of a specific type of exercise!