Experts are looking at nontraditional programs to convince people that moderate physical activity can be fit into even the busiest schedule.
Initially, even just thinking about exercise is a good sign, says Patricia Dubbert, chief psychologist at the Jackson VA Medical Center in Mississippi and a longtime exercise adherence researcher.
"You're getting ready,'' says Dubbert, who with colleagues contends that becoming an exerciser is not an overnight process, but involves many stages, including precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance.
Anything that inspires people to exercise is okay with James Sallis, a San Diego State University professor of psychology who also researches exercise adherence. But anyone under the influence of, say, the magnificent display of athletics during the Olympic Games should inject some realism into the fantasy. "Role models are most effective when they are most similar to you,'' Sallis says.
Learning to make exercise a habit is just as difficult as quitting smoking, says Andrea Dunn, a researcher at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas. In a study of 235 men and women ages 35 to 65, she compared two types of two-year interventions to persuade people to become more active.
During the first six months, one group was asked to work out at a gym at least three times a week for 20 or 30 minutes, working up to a traditional five-day-a-week workout goal. The nontraditional group attended weekly discussion sessions and learned how to overcome obstacles to exercise. This group could work out at a gym or on their own.
Preliminary results from the study suggest that both groups improved their fitness, although the gym-based group had better results. Members of both groups had equal improvements in blood pressure and total cholesterol reduction, Dunn says, proving the nontraditional approach shows promise.
An organized program is often important for novices. "When we structure exercise classes as part of a treatment program for (overweight) women, it seems to work well when they come three times a week as part of a study,'' says Ross Andersen, assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, citing results of his study of 128 women, published in the Journal of Clinical and Consulting Psychology.
But as soon as the participants are "cut loose'' from the schedule, Andersen says, their exercise habits disintegrate.
Motivation to exercise is very individual, Sallis says. "For some people, it's having a group or a buddy. For some, it's the pleasure of being alone with their thoughts for a while.''
Once people become regular exercisers, they share certain characteristics, such as:
Resources:
American Council on Exercise
http://www.acefitness.org/
American Heart Association
http://www.americanheart.org/
CANADIAN RESOURCES:
Canadian Public Health
Health Unit
http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/pau-uap/fitness/
Last reviewed January 2009 by Robert Leach, MD
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