Impact of enhanced community quarantine on achieving physical

body composition on collegiate athletes

I. Introduction

The enhanced community quarantine was implemented for the safety of the people as we fight
the invisible enemy named COVID 19 which killed people for these past few months. The virus
originated in Wuhan City, China and later, caused this global pandemic which pushed the humanity on
these trying times.

Last March 2020, the government of the Philippines decided to force the Filipinos to comply to
the “ECQ Protocol” in order to halt the spread of virus and for the safety of everyone. This enhanced
community quarantine becomes the way of our fellow countrymen to discover many things about
themselves. Some of them learned how to cook, sing, dance, draw etc. While other people view this
pandemic to discover their talents, other people decided to get fit to achieve their ideal physical image
especially the athletes hoping to add attractiveness to themselves and condition themselves.

People tends to see this pandemic as a break to the real world and while having a break, some
of them plans to have a better posture or image when this situation is over. They wanted to use this to
reach their ideal image and so, some of them were engaged on different workouts or exercises. Having
this type of mind set is not bad at all, during this world pandemic we must be fit and healthy in all times
because it makes our body immune to the virus. Staying healthy should be our number one priority and
nothing else. “Health is wealth” is the best advice that we can tell ourselves because at the end of the
day, our physical health is our only shield against the virus knowing that we don’t have a vaccine or cure
yet.

The objective of this research is to determine whether the people thought of using this
Enhanced Community Quarantine to do some work outs or exercises to reach their ideal physical body
composition rather than doing things bad for ourselves such as too much eating, drinking, playing
mobile games etc. Through this, we will be able to determine how many people has a mind set for
having a healthy and ideal image during this quarantine and people who just decided to sleep on the
couch all day watching movies and playing online games.

The study will be anchored to the drive theory of motivation by Clark Hull and Kenneth Spence.
This theory stated that people are motivated to take actions to release the internal tensions that are
caused by unmet needs. From the confinement brought by the pandemic, this research assumes that it
gave internal tensions to the athletes which motivated them to achieve their ideal body composition to
release the uneasiness they’re feeling. In line with this, this research aims to determine whether the
quarantine urged them to make a change whether it is to have a positive effects or negative effects on
their physical image.
II. Review of the Related Literature
1.

Zhai & Du (2020) there is value in remote learning which includes college students experiencing
less anxiety by being able to “sustain their academic routine”. Although this added value might be
true for some individuals, the transition to the online format for course delivery could also cause
some college students to feel uncomfortable, especially if they do not have the proper technology
needed to properly engage with their classes.

2.

According to American Psychological Association stated that college students might be

experiencing increased stress, anxiety, uncertainty, and sadness during this pandemic due to a
number of causes including changes from seated to virtual classes, moving back home, missing
friends, job loss, and family responsibilities. While being instructed to participate in public health
measures such as social distancing, it is expected that the spread of COVID-19 will trigger mental
health issues resulting in larger feelings of isolation, worry, stress, depression, anxiety, and financial
distress.

3.

According to National Collegiate Association of Athletics (NCAA) addressed the disruption that
COVID-19 has caused and the negative impact it has made on both physical and mental health of
athletes. The executive summary of the NCAA study, “The NCAA Student-Athlete COVID-19 Well-
being Study,” was based on the results of over 37,000 student-athletes among all three divisions.
This study examined mental health concerns of student-athletes, living environments, barriers to
athletic training, the impact COVID-19 had on academics, ability to maintain athletics connections,
and the resources desired by student-athletes and served as a strong reference for comparison of
results related to this research study. The NCAA also provided resources for all three divisions which
include daily strategies to assist student-athletes and coaches in coping with the pandemic. One of
the suggestions is that student-athletes become aware of their mental health during this time and
understand the degree of impact this situation might have on aspects of their life, such as
motivation.

4.

In accordance to Wong (2020), COVID-19 is a droplet-transmitted potentially fatal coronavirus

pandemic affecting the world in 2020. In the span of three months, the World Health Organization
has declared the COVID-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020. The WHO recommended social
distancing and human-to-human contact was discouraged to control the transmission. Due to the
safety measures implemented, participation in sports and exercise, typically regarded as healthy
activities, were also limited to make sure that the virus will be sustained. It was also discussed that
aside from watching professionals exercise, many people opted to hike in the countryside during the
weekends to avoid city crowds. This led to a widespread discussion on the issue of wearing a
facemask during outdoor activities.
 In order to investigate the physiological effect of wearing a facemask during exercise,
researchers conducted a controlled laboratory, within-subject, repeated measures study of 23
healthy volunteers of various sporting backgrounds. Participants underwent graded treadmill
walking at 4 km per hour for 6 min with and without wearing a surgical mask in a randomized order
with sufficient resting time in between trials. The heart rate and the rate of perceived exertion (RPE)
were recorded. Upon the conclusion of the study, results suggested that the infection risk was high
for the players, even without spectators. The laboratory study to investigate the physiological effect
of wearing a facemask found that it significantly elevated heart rate and perceived exertion.
Although moderate-levels of exercise can boost overall immunity, it is important to know that
intensive and prolonged physical exertion has been proven to be linked with an ‘open-window’ of
impaired immunity up to 72 hours after the exercise.

It was also highlighted in the study that those athletes or active people participating in exercise
need to be aware that facemasks increase the physiological burden of the body, especially in those
with multiple underlying comorbidities. Elite athletes, especially those training for the upcoming
Olympics, need to balance and reschedule their training regime to balance the risk of deconditioning
versus the risk of infection. Amidst a global pandemic, it was noted that though this is affecting
millions, participating in physical activities is good but we also have to know the effects it can cause.

5.

The Corona Virus (COVID-19) has a huge impact in society; it has been intense and fast
paced, especially for college students who immediately transitioned to distant learning that lead to
raising numerous health concerns. The spring athletic season was cancelled and led to mental
distress of the student athletes that may affect their future. The National Collegiate Association of
Athletics (NCAA) addressed the disturbance that the pandemic has caused and the negative it has
been made for both the physical and mental of athletes. This research aims to study the mental
distress and programming needs of Division III student-athletes in response to COVID-19. Using
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 7-Item Scale (GAD-7) and the Coronavirus Anxiety Scale (CAS), anxiety
was assessed among each participant. Both gender and academic years have experienced some
level of anxiety during this pandemic and has to be addressed and explored at a higher level.
Significant findings reveal that the female participants were more likely than male participants in
effectively managing their schoolwork, use of social media atleast and four hours each day. They
express worry for the future related to COVID-19, dealing with challenges in staying at home and to
utilize mindfulness practices. Mental distress was associated with lack of resources and the absence
of available facilities to train for their sport. This setback led student-athletes to experience
decreased levels of motivation, increased feelings of stress, and general feelings of helplessness.
According to a study conducted by Cao, Fang, Hou, Han, Xu, Dong, and Zheng, college students
reported that they experienced anxiety symptoms related to concerns regarding “academic delays,
economic effects of the pandemic, and impacts on daily life”. Additional struggles for college
students could include issues with moving home, lack of resources, having to stop internship
programs and research projects, and increased worry about a depleted job market after the
pandemic is over. These challenges could lead to college students experiencing decreased
motivation to take part in their studies, issues with sticking to a daily routine, and heightened
pressure to perform at the same level in which they were performing prior to the pandemic.
Disruption to normal routine due to the pandemic can lead to mental distress and lack of normative
coping mechanisms such as physical exercise and mindfulness activities, which includes an
individuals’ ability to act moment-to-moment in non-judgmental awareness.

6.

Today obesity is one of the major public health issues worldwide. Before 1980s, the prevalence
of obesity is very stable, but as time goes by it increased dramatically worldwide. According to the
2014 World Health Organization (WHO), there is 600 million estimated obese adults worldwide.
Chinese nutrition survey shows that the prevalence of overweight and obesity was 19.2% and
15.0%, respectively. Obesity is one of the serious problems that we have to take seriously because
of the increasing possibility of a wide range health consequences. Obesity may cause hypertension,
insulin insensitivity, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, and sometime of cancer. Obese
patient cost of medical care is 30% higher than the people who have normal weight. Composition of
Human Body is one of the branches of human biology, to study the change rule of the number of
body composition in human body, the influence of various factors in vivo and in vitro on the
quantitative relationship between components, as well as in vivo determination of human
components. In this study, body fat in men and women were 18.33 and 19.82. The body fat
percentage in men and women were 25.74% and 34.01%. They found out significant change were
observed for body fat, body fat percentages and visceral fat area for both genders with age and both
genders with BMI. In order to prevent weight gain you have to focus on the obesity related lifestyle.

7.

The study aims to investigate differences in the frequency and types of engagement in sports
before, for the duration of and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) stay-at-home order in
Tyrol, Austria. They conducted population survey. During the stay-at-home order, members engaged
much less in sports activities than earlier than and after the restrictions. However, within-group
analyses revealed increasing sport participation in less active corporations when comparing the pre-
and post-COVID-19 period. Despite the restrictions in the course of the stay-at-home order,
respondents did engage in sports activities and promoted their health. Nevertheless, it is
nonetheless necessary to investigate the long-term outcomes of the COVID-19 disaster on sports
and workout behaviour as properly as the extent to which sports activities policy measures can also
be capable increase sports participation.

According to the director of the Loyola Schools Physical program, Torres W., people who remain
active tend to rely on the internet to obtain different physical activities and to also contact personal
trainers to stay fit amidst the pandemic. This means that even though the people’s resources are
very limited, they can still look for a way to be engaged to physical activities as long as they’re
committed to achieve their goals. He stated that people will always find a way to stay fit regardless
of their situation because it is natural for them to achieve the body composition that they always
wanted

According to the World Health Organization, having a healthy routine during the pandemic is
very vital especially to the ones staying at home. It is very important to keep one’s body in a good
shape because it is the best way to strengthen our immune system. With this statement directly
from the W.H.O., some people were encouraged to be engaged in physical activities to keep their
bodies in check. This turned out a two-way advantage for the people. The first advantage was having
low risk contamination of the virus while the other advantage was achieving their own ideal body
composition. This statement by the WHO will help strengthen the goal of this research for it focuses
on different reasons why people got more engaged in physical activities and this also answers the
question on why people decided to stay fit not just because they want to achieve their ideal body
but to also stay healthy.

10

According to the study of Global Web Index, more people got engaged to physical activities
since the start of the pandemic. Before the pandemic happened, people tend to rely on technology
as their means of transportation and because of the law which requires people to distance
themselves from one another, the use of motorcycles and PUV’s were limited causing them to use
the only left option which is walking or cycling. In addition to that, people see it as a way to improve
their physical image and to stay healthy. This became the daily routine of the people and especially
the ones who needs to work from afar to avoid risking being affected by the virus. This statement
supports the idea on how people changed their daily routine during the pandemic considering
different factors such as safety, staying healthy and achieving their physical ideal body composition.

11.

From the study of Female Network (2020), during the pandemic, most people had more time for
themselves than when we are at the normal state. In line with this, people looked for a way to be
productive every day and one way that they come up with is maintaining their shape by working out
and creating to-do list. By coming up with this idea, they were able to create their own healthy
routine. The study said that people realized that they have no other choice but to stay home so
instead of being bored, they tend to look for a way to entertain them by doing recreational activities
indoor.

12.

Gualtieri (2020) state that there are two major influences that affects our physical body
composition during this pandemic. First, staying at home which includes digital-education, smart
working, limitation of outdoors and in-gym physical activity and stockpiling food, due to the
restriction in grocery shopping or hoarding. In addition, the interruption of the everyday work
routine caused by the quarantine could result in boredom, which in turn is associated with a greater
energy intake. In his research it also states that reading continuously about the COVID-19 from
media can be really stressful and we all that stress leads subjects toward overeating, especially
‘comfort foods’ rich in sugar defined as food craving. Those foods mainly rich in simple
carbohydrates that leads to greater weight.
 13.

Mikic (2015) claimed that there are 4 reasons on why people decide or motivate to go to fitness
center. First on the list is health, this reason is logical because the results will be achieved already in
next few days or weeks. The second motivation is physical appearance because whenever a person
sees improvement in their body, they become more confident. The third reason for them going to
the gym is to improve their individual motor characteristics it includes speed, endurance, flexibility
and strength. Socialization comes in the list because one of the instances in exercising was to be in a
good camaraderie, since work outing takes a lot of interaction with other people in gyms or fitness
centers.

14.

From the study of Ho (2016), she stated that people tend to change their body build whenever
they wanted to copy some artists, singers, actors etc. which they idolized so much. They become
very motivated to be just like their idols to the point that their body composition is just like the
celebrities. Females usually copy the products of their idols while the males usually copy the build
of the person they’re looking up to. Also, the social media is a big factor on why the people chose to
improve their looks. People nowadays usually seek for approval of the community through social
media just to have the feeling of satisfaction. This kind of attitude pushes people to improve
themselves but it also has a set-back which is being too much self-conscious in everything that they
do.

15.

According to the American College of Sports Medicine (2020), people should have at least 4 ½
hours to lose weight and to maintain a healthy body especially the middle ages. In addition to that,
the diet will play a big role to the progress of the well-being. Even though a person is doing work
outs or recreational activities regularly to lose weight, as long as they’re not into a healthy balanced
diet, meeting the ideal outcome would be impossible. Lastly, the person must be willing or
motivated enough to change in order to achieve their goals.

16.

According to the study of Baum (2016), mostly, there are many reasons why people are having a
hard time to put their own body in shape and one of the reasons is they fail to define their own
goals. For him, working out to achieve the self-image that a person wants will be really hard and so
it will really take a big amount of motivation for that to happen. By having a clear goal, a person’s
mind will be well conditioned and that is more important before doing physical conditioning. Lastly,
he mentioned to create S.M.A.R.T. goals which means Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic
and Time-Based.

17.

From the study of Grieger (2018) people are no longer ignorant to the fact that exercises or
work outs cannot be experienced or learned through the gym only. Her study stated that internet
connection plays a big role in this issue. Whenever a person wants to learn different exercises or
work out to stay in shape, as long as they have internet connection, they are able to access different
programs provided by the gym instructors. In a deeper sense, through this advantage given to us by
the internet, a person can do work outs wherever they want to as long as it is not disturbing other
people. Lastly, she stated that it is not time consuming and it is very helpful especially for the
students.

18.

While other people were being bored inside their houses, some people used the enhanced
community quarantine to stay healthy according to the study Combs (2020). From his study, he
stated that people realized the importance of being healthy and fit because the virus can easily
infect the people who have weaker body. In addition to that, people are not only looking up to being
healthy only, thus, they also want to improve their physical looks so that after the quarantine,
people will see the changes that happened to them within the span of the pandemic. To end his
statement, he gave emphasis on how to be committed on one’s goal by pursuing what they want to
happen to their bodies and to never forget the restrictions or rules during the CoVid 19 pandemic.

19.

III. Statement of the problem

1. What is the impact of the Enhance community quarantine to the athletes in achieving their ideal
body composition?
2. What is the perception of the athletes on reaching their ideal body composition during the
enhanced community quarantine?
3. What were the challenges that the athletes encountered in reaching their ideal physical body
built?
4. What were the participants' adjustments and changes in their lifestyle or physical activities
during the quarantine?
5. How did the quarantine motivate the participants to reach or get closer to their ideal body
composition?
IV. Assumptions of the study

One assumption of the study is the enhanced community quarantine has maintained their
ideal body weight, because most of them are able to track their time and are more disciplined in
terms of eating, exercising and getting their sleep on track. Lifestyle can lead to serious deficits
to the quality and quantity of training, with further distancing of the athlete from the reality of
their daily training in the traditional preparation sites and uncertainties about the future. During
this home confinement, athletes try to perform the technical movements of their sport,
although this is limited in many cases due to dependence on the opponent, such as team sports,
need for equipment, or practice location, such as swimming, basketball, volleyball. The study
believes that the quarantine motivated the athletes to grind in order to maintain or achieve
their body composition amidst the absence of their training coaches. The study visualized that
the participants were motivated enough to create their own routines and own diet to ease the
boredom brought by the pandemic.
V. Epistemology and Theoretical Perspectives

In a simple way to define epistemology is that, it is the investigation of what distinguishes

justified belief from opinion. After discerning the impact of enhance community quarantine on
achieving body composition on collegiate athletes and after gathering the basis for this paper, the
structuralism is best suited to further investigate vis a vis.

As defined by Britannica, another important theoretical approach to the concept of social

structure is structuralism (sometimes called French structuralism), which studies the underlying,
unconscious regularities of human expression—that is, the unobservable structures that have
observable effects on behavior, society, and culture.

Using other point of views, considering all people involved, including the mass media handling
their sources and information to further investigate the sports realm which also affect collegiate
athletes greatly during enhance community quarantine.

Presented by Guilianotti and Collison (2020) in their paper, in regard to academic literature on
Covid-19 and sport, it is too early to provide any substantive overview and analysis of published
work in this field, particularly research that draws on social scientific perspectives. Published
academic work thus far has largely focused on the direct health, social, and organizational impacts
of Covid-19 on sport, such as the suspension or cancellation of elite sport events and activities, and
debates on their future resumption; how best to provide professional support for elite-level athletes
during the lockdown; and, the role of physical exercise and activities in maintaining health and well-
being during quarantine

One aspect of the sport-Covid relationship that is unlikely to receive much systematic academic
investigation involves mass media coverage of the issue. This relative lack of interest may be
understandable given the pandemic's pressing impacts in these other fields. However, any
continuing lack of research into mass media coverage of the sport-Covid nexus represents a
potentially significant academic lacuna for at least four reasons.

First, the mass media is a highly important research domain in its own right, as it has become
increasingly central to sport, particularly in the intensified globalization and commercialization of
elite-level sport, since the early 1990s.

Second, during the Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing lockdowns, the mass media sought to
play crucial roles across the public sphere, notably in communicating government instructions and
strategies, and scientific advice, to diverse audiences, and also spotlighting the unfolding social
disaster that was occurring particularly in hospitals and care homes in the UK context also applicable
in the Philippines.

Third, as we discuss here, the mass media were highly active in seeking to frame and to narrate
the sport-Covid interrelationship. This work included disseminating information on changes to the
sporting calendar; reporting on the virus's impacts on the sporting world; and, advancing diverse
opinions and analyses on how sport was and should be responding to the pandemic.
 Fourth, at the same time, mass media organizations were required to make large adjustments to
their own structures and activities, due to the closure or postponement of so many sporting events,
upon which so much of their work, content and revenues are reliant.

This was crucial especially for the part wherein collegiate students tend to lose their body
composition when enhance community quarantine hits the world. On the structuralism perspective
of the researcher of this paper, enhance community quarantine somehow contribute to collegiate
athlete’s body composition although mental health concerns are still present where ECQ promotes
laziness to athletes rather than motivation to maintain good body composition.

VI. Significance of the study

Athletes- This will benefit the athletes because it tackles how the participant athletes were
motivated to maintain and reach their ideal body composition. It will made them realize that amidst
the pandemic, it is possible to stay in shape by simply making their own routines even without the
help of their sports coaches or fitness coaches

Coaches- this will benefit them in terms of knowing the diet or the routines that the players did
during the lock down to maintain or to achieve their body composition. It is a big help to them
because they might find some programs out of the statements or data gathered from the research

Parents- this will help the parents of the athletes and also the parents of regular students by gaining
knowledge that aside from playing computer or mobile games and sleeping all day, their children
can do something to improve their lifestyle even with the pandemic.

Physical Education Teachers- through this study, the teachers from this field can find their
importance even with the quarantine. By knowing a study like this, they will be able to know that
their assistance may sometimes be needed in doing exercises for the people doing it to have a
proper posture and avoid injuries