Anna Reihl
Anna is pursuing a Bachelors in psychology. Her current career goal after completing her degree is to pursue graduate school in sports or exercise psychology or take a gap year to gain more experience and insight into other potential career paths. She believes that being physically active is an essential aspect of a healthy lifestyle and can aid in the prevention or decrease of many chronic illnesses. So, ultimately, she wants to help individuals learn and engage in different forms of physical activity to hopefully improve their mental health and well-being, especially for marginalized or underrepresented communities.
In the past few years, she’s become more interested in exercise, nutrition, and overall well-being. She took a couple of kinesiology classes in her sophomore year, which increased her interest in movement and the importance of being active. She thinks that the mind and body are holistic rather than separate, so she wants to enhance my knowledge of how movement can impact mental health. The RESIST study interested Anna as she was a competitive swimmer for over a decade, so she has gained personal insights on how mental health and sports are intertwined. She is excited to see how resistance training impacts individuals with chronic and acute illnesses!