If Only You Just Liked to Exercise: How to Make It Happen
You know exercise is good for you and you want to do it, but… you don’t want to do it. So, you’re experiencing ambivalence? Yes . . . and no. Understanding your inner conflict and how to relieve that tension is key to your enjoyment of and desire to exercise.
The Conflict
How is it possible to want to do something and not want to do it at the same time? This internal tension is rooted in a conflict between the two components that make up our exercise-related attitudes: exercise beliefs and affective exercise experiences.
Beliefs
Our beliefs are what we think about exercise, what we know to be true. There is indisputable research that exercise is the single best thing that can be done for health and prevention of disease, among other benefits. When asked about their exercise attitudes, most people will give a list of these benefits of exercise. Simply put, most people have explicit beliefs that exercise will bring good to their life and they want to exercise for those reasons.
Affective Experiences
Our affective experiences are the pleasant and unpleasant exercise responses that we’ve had throughout the course of our lifetime. When you hear the word exercise, it’s like your mind recalls each of the feelings that you had during your previous exercise experiences and adds them all together. This is the affective component of your exercise attitudes.
As a comparison, have you ever looked at a picture from years ago and felt a rush of feelings? It could be pictures of your wedding, your children as babies, or yourself graduating from high school. Those feelings could be positive, negative, or both at the same time. When you looked at those pictures, you felt that way because your mind was recalling the feelings that were associated with the experience in those pictures.
In a similar way, we all have feelings that we associate with exercise from our own unique experiences. Even if you are not a current exerciser, you have had previous exercise experiences and associated feelings.
Were you punished with exercise in PE class? Part of your mind will associate exercise with shame and punishment.
When I was playing dodge-ball as an adult volunteer at a youth event, I once knocked the glasses off of a little girl’s face (not my proudest moment). She likely experienced pain and embarrassment. Despite knowing this activity is good for her cardiovascular system, she may experience anxiety at the thought of playing such games again.
Personally, I like exercise and generally have a positive attitude toward most modes. My attitude toward co-ed sports, however, is not good. I’ve played co-ed basketball, volleyball, and soccer. Without fail, there is always some man on my team who stands two feet from me to intercept any ball that comes my way to make sure that I don’t mess up the play. Step in front of me when a ball is clearly coming my direction and you will very quickly see a not so pleasant side of Kira Werstein! 🙁 As a result of my infuriating experiences and my ensuing negative attitude, I won’t play co-ed sports unless I’m the captain and can hand pick my teammates.
Exercise Beliefs + Affective Exercise Experiences = Exercise Attitudes
Exercise attitudes are important because they influence motivation and ultimately our intentions to and adherence of a long-term exercise regimen. The good news is that, we can rewrite our exercise attitudes with reflection and new experiences.
How to Recode Your Exercise Attitudes
1. Design an enjoyable regimen.
Mode: There is a false belief that running is the best type of exercise. Instead, any mode of exercise has benefits. Choose one that you enjoy. Examples include: walking, swimming, group dance or fitness classes, weight training, etc.
Intensity: You do not have to do high intensity exercise to gain benefits to health and well-being. Therefore, choose an intensity that you enjoy. Low-moderate intensity exercise for a longer duration provides the same health benefits as high intensity exercise.
2. Increase your volume gradually.
If you are a beginning exerciser, start your exercise bouts with a low volume and build your frequency, intensity, and duration gradually. Doing too much too soon leads to excessive soreness and injury.
3. Choose enjoyable company.
Depending on your personality, you may enjoy solitude when you exercise or the company of friends.
4. Focus on the task instead of the outcomes.
Instead of exercising for outcomes like weight loss or prevention of disease, try enjoying exercise in and of itself. When we exercise for outcomes, exercise is the means to an end. It becomes a chore, something we have to do. When exercise is the end, it can become something that we enjoy.
When you design an enjoyable exercise regimen, over time you will have more enjoyable and fewer awful exercise experiences. Eventually, these positive exercise experiences will tip the balance and your beliefs and affective exercise experiences will be cumulatively positive. With that, you will truly have the positive exercise attitude that you always wanted.
Reference:
Ekkekakis, P., Zenko, Z. & Werstein, K. M. (2018). Exercise in Obesity From the Perspective of Hedonic Theory. In Razon S., & Sachs, M. L. (Eds.), Applied Exercise Psychology (pp. 289-315). New York: Routledge.
Thanks for reading! 🙂
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