Posted on January 10, 2017 by Jenny Cromack
Barriers to Exercise
There are many determinants to exercise, stereotypically January is the one month that we don’t struggle to exercise. Most people are feeling sluggish and guilty about their Christmas overindulgences. Often, in other months, excuses are made and exercise is pushed to the back burner. To stay motivated, it’s important to figure out what’s stopping you from exercising?
When examining why there is a high proportion of sedentary individuals in the UK, looking at what the barriers or determinants to exercise are is usually a good place to start. Broadly speaking the determinants to exercise can be placed into 1 of 3 different categories: Cognitive, Individual and Environmental. Let’s now dissect each category and see what barriers goes into which category.
Individual
This category is all to do with your individual make-up. So simple factors such as your age, gender, economic status, genetics, ethnicity and occupation just to name a few. Barriers that are classed as previous or present lifestyles would be placed in this category also. So whether the individual in question was talented at sport as a child or the individual’s marital status and history. Unfortunately these determinants are the hardest to alter, and to add insult to injury, gender and ethnicity are consistent predictors of physical activity (US Dept. of Health and Human Services, 2009).
Environmental
Not related to the temperature outside or whether it is raining or snowing … Environmental barriers include daily working hours, social life and events, the effect of friends and family on their lifestyle and geographical position. The last of these barriers can be one of the most important. Much research promotes the positive implication of ‘green’ (the term for countryside, forests, grass, rivers, parks, etc.), it has been hypothesised that exercises or even surrounding yourself in ‘green’ can buffer stress levels and lead to fewer illness and great enthusiasm. (Kaplan, 2001).
Cognition
Finally, cognitive barriers, these are the feelings and thoughts of the individual. These can differ between different individuals, it can be negative attitudes, lower self-esteem, low self-efficacy, perception about social norms, stress, anxiety or a combination of these. Self-efficacy is the beliefs about your personal skills rather than actual skills. Many people do not exercise because they are worried about how others will perceive them.
Very simply the more barriers perceived equates in the lower likelihood of physical activity. The first steps to becoming more active and less sedentary is to identify which barriers apply to you! Once you are happy you have done this, take step to try to alter you behaviour.