Farideh Sharififar - Department of Physical Education and Sport Sciences, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Froozan Sharififar - Department of Business Management, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Maryam Khademi - Department of Applied Mathematics, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Introduction: Mental health is a combination of emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects the way of thinking, feeling and acting. Mental health is very important at every stage of life and it could be affected by physical activity. Therefore in the current studey, the effect of stretching exercises education on mental health and learning strategies was investigated. Methods: In this quasi- experimental study, ۱۰۰ online management courses students were selected and divided randomly into two groups of exercise and control on the same subject. The exercise group were asked to practice selected stretching exercises that were made available to them as movies on their given break time after ۴۵ min since start of the class before continuing their study again. Both groups answered the Weinstein (۲۰۰۲) learning strategies questionnaire at the beginning and the end of the course. All data were analyzed using SPSS ۲۳. Kolmogorov-Smirnov, paired sample t-test, independent samples t-test, and Pearson correlation coefficient, were used for data analysis (p≤۰.۰۵). Results: There was a significant difference between learning strategies (p=۰.۰۰۱) in two groups of exercise and control. Also the subscales, attitude (p= ۰.۰۰۳), information processing (p= ۰.۰۰۱), study aid (p= ۰.۰۰۳) and time management (p= ۰.۰۰۱) had a significant chenges on post-test. Conclusion: Improvement of mental health increases the effect of learning strategies. Applying stretching exercises on educational content can improve mental health which results in increasing the productivity of work and achieving educational goals.

Mental Health, Learning Strategies, Stretching Exercises, e-learning