Sport And Exercise Psychology: A Critical Introduction

First, why do so many people fail to take up the healthy habit of regular physical activity?
In addition, why do they find it so difficult to maintain the habit of exercise?

Exploring people’s exercise behaviour

At the beginning of this chapter, we learned that most people in industrialised countries
do not take enough physical activity to gain significant health benefits. This finding is as
perplexing to health promotion campaigners (who have bombarded the public for decades
with information about the advantages of regular physical activity) as it is to exercise
psychologists. Nevertheless, these groups differ in their approach to the problem of
exercise initiation. Specifically, whereas health promotion campaigners rely mainly on
descriptive methods (e.g., surveys) to identify demographic correlates of people’s
propensity to engage in physical activity, exercise psychologists have developed
sophisticated theoretical models in an effort to understand why people vary in their levels
of physical activity. To illustrate the latter approach, Spence and Lee (2003) pointed out
that analysis of “individual” barriers to exercise account for at best 20 per cent to 40 per
cent of the variance in physical activity. Accordingly, these researchers suggest that an
ecological approach to the problem of exercise initiation may prove fruitful. This
approach is based on the assumption that a person’s level of physical activity is not just
determined by individual intentions but also by environmental factors such as the
availability of safe and pleasant spaces in which to engage in exercise behaviour. Until
recently, this ecological perspective on physical activity has been neglected.
Although health promotion campaigners and exercise psychologists adopt different
theoretical perspectives on the issue of exercise initiation, they have similar views about
the desired outcome of any physical activity programme—namely, the inculcation of an
active lifestyle (Buckworth and Dishman, 2002). This shift from fitness to health as the
optimal goal of physical activity occurred gradually between the 1970s and the 1990s.
Thus Blair, Kohl, Gordon and Paffenbarger (1992) distinguished between exercise that
improves fitness and that which promotes an active and healthy lifestyle. This latter type
of exercise consists mainly of a moderate type of physical activity that can be
accumulated over the course of a given day.
Having sketched some background information on the exercise initiation problem, we
should now consider what research psychologists have discovered about people’s reasons
for, and barriers to, an active lifestyle.

Taking up exercise: reasons and barriers

As one might expect, people take up exercise for a wide variety of reasons. According to
Biddle and Nigg (2000), among the most popular reasons given by exercisers are that it is
enjoyable and challenging, potentially beneficial to health, and that it offers new social
outlets and opportunities. Perhaps not surprisingly, these reasons tend to vary with age
and gender. In particular, whereas younger adults tend to be motivated by perceived
fitness benefits, older adults are more concerned with the apparent health advantages
arising from physical activity. Also, more women than men tend to emphasise the value
of exercise for weight control and improved appearance.

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