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stick with your exercise program
dont drop out-persist. self-efficacy is the key What's the most important thing about an exercise program? Burning fat? Gaining strength? Staving off heart disease? Toning muscles? The answers are many, and as varied as the individuals who get out there and puff, pump, and climb.
Jeff Schlicht, M.S., Jeff Godin, M.S. and David C. Camaione, Ph.D., propose that a person's perception gets in the way of success at staying with an exercise program. "One of the greatest barriers to exercise is the perception that it takes special skill, ability or knowledge to have a successful experience," says Schlicht. "And we know that the most important thing a personal trainer or exercise leader can do is help people overcome that misinformation." Half of all persons who get to the point where exercise is a regular part of their lives quit within six months. Even after contemplation, preparation, payment and action, they still drop out, and the authors suggest that self-efficacy is a powerful way to turn around this dismal statistic. They point out four important methods of establishing self-efficacy, and explain what to work on in those crucial six months. Self-efficacy combines with outcome expectation to predict success or failure, which is another way to say that if you think you can't, you can't. The four ways to build exercise self-efficacy and therefore increase likelihood of success are: |
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1) Learn the techniques and principles of exercise, then practice for mastery. Watch a fitness professional demonstrate the technique or machine, then work on it while he/she watches you and comments on body alignment, breathing, and other principles. Self-efficacy will build as you practice performing the exercise correctly. 2) Observe other regular exercise enthusiasts who have become successful and stuck with their program for a while; find someone in your age group if possible, or someone who has been in the same condition you are in now. 3) Expect positive verbal feedback from the exercise leader or fitness professional you are paying; this encouragement is important and should be specific. Focus on how lively and energetic you feel. Later, fitness tests that assess physical improvement will work to reinforce positive expectations, but the improvement won't be dramatic until that six-month hurdle has been passed. |
4) Learn about the disease risk of sedentary practices. Nothing so galvanizes self-efficacy as knowing that exercise modifies the health risks associated with inactivity.
The self-efficacy of special skill, physical ability, and knowledge are available, say the authors. Select an exercise you enjoy. Be aware that changing from a structured exercise program to working out on your own can present a challenge to continuing. But if you learn to do the exercises correctly, watch individuals who have been in the same physical condition as you do them correctly, get encouragement and praise for doing them correctly and staying with it, and internalize the positive reasons for continuing, your success will lead you naturally to continue your exercise program. After that, you'll serve as the example to someone else coming along who wants to establish an exercise program but just can't seem to stick with it.
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As our bodies change and age, our exercise regimen and outlook must change as well. Athletes need to hone their workouts for what they can do now – not what they were once capable of.