We all know we should do it regularly, and know exactly how regularly - 4 times a week for 30 minutes a day. Yet how many of us actually achieve that exercise goal listed in Canada's Physical Activity Guide? Many of us will offer "no time" as an excuse, yet there are some folks out there, busier than most, who are able to meet these requirements and make it look seemingly effortless. How do they do it? The research says they may have these initial motivating factors as their purpose for starting exercise programs. These factors help them stay on the metaphorical "wagon," and regularly attend their planned sweat session. 

1. Enjoyment

Dr. Richard Ryan and fellow researchers at the University of Rochester provided initial "Motivation for Physical Activity Measure" questionnaires to students signing up at a fitness facility, and repeated those questionnaires after each workout for one month. They found that those who initially reported that they enjoyed the activity they were partaking in, adhered to the program, and had longer workouts

2. Competence/Challenge

Interestingly, students who initially had an itch to pursue a challenge/sport or add a new skill to their repertoire, also adhered more to their month long program. In previous studies, men have been found to use this as an exercise motive more often than women, who increasingly cited body-related, extrinsic motives as reasons for commencing fitness programs. We'll get to that later...

3. Social

This one is not a surprise - the social atmosphere of a sport or exercise class was enough to get students to stick to their month-long fitness program. Perhaps the people we meet in such environments are like-minded, linked to us by a common thread, and therefore we like them, pushing us to attend. Or that we'd not just be letting ourselves down, if we stopped attending, we'd be letting them down too! Birds of a feather do flock together...

The Skinny:

The Shocker: The usual motives used to get ourselves in shape: Fat loss, Muscle gains, Maintenance of cardiovascular health, were not as positively associated to adherence or attendance for the gym fitness program in the study. However, most men and women did include these reasons for joining the gym in the first place. Researchers reasoned that as body-related motives (appearance, health & fitness) were extrinsic in nature, meaning they were used to gain rewards separate from the behaviour of the exercise itself, they were not sufficient to drive a person to adhere to a program. Rather, it was the intrinsic motives such as enjoyment, challenge, and social engagement, that linked to adherence, and attendance. Intrinsic motives are related to the satisfaction one gains from participating in the activity itself.

The Point: Although exercise motivation is multifaceted and involves much more than the 3 positive motives above, it is a great start to learning how to get your family, clients, patients or yourself more active. If you want to lose weight, or lower your high blood pressure (both body-related, extrinsic motives), choose an activity that you not only like, for example, tennis (enjoyment); make it fun by grabbing a tennis partner (social), and get excited to knowing you'll be learning a new skill (an overhand serve). Try it, and you'll be happy you did.

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