The Psychology of Exercise: Self Determination/Motivation

Good Sunday Internets

This week we are going to start to explore the world of the psychology of exercise, motivation, self esteem and behaviour change.

As some of you may know, this topic is what gets me out of bed in the morning (no pun intended). Don’t get me wrong, I love program design, working out and nutrition, but where my passion really lies (or at least at the moment) is why we do what we do and what keeps us doing it.

So there are a lot of theories out there on why people are physically active, why they continue to be physically active and how to get those who are not physically active to start.

For this blog, which I will consider part 1 of many parts to come, I am going to focus on Self Determination. Hopefully this will help some of you understand the underlying processes of becoming and staying motivated while on the journey to living a healthier lifestyle.

Note: there are many many many other theories out there, but I’m just going to touch on this one at the moment because you’ll be reading for 5 years if I carry on.

Motivation Trouble

Self Determination:

This theory is basically the theory of motivation itself. So what is motivation? Well it means a lot of things to a lot of people, but I think we can agree that motivation is when we are influenced either by external (outside) or internal (inside) forces to start, perform and continue doing something, for example running.

So how does one become self determined to exercise? Well that’s an excellent question! A lot of researchers have put a lot of time in to determining the answer to this question. From my readings I’ve come to the conclusion that it seems to be specific to the individual or exercise group. This is not a one size fits all world, especially when it comes to motivational psychology.

However, rather than leave you in the dark about how to become self determined to perform and keep performing your activity of interest, I will give you two important ideas of how to become motivated.

1.       Focus on Aesthetic Goals Initially:  If you have never worked out before, research suggests this is the #1 motivation to start becoming physically active.

 It goes against pretty much everything I believe in when it comes to physical activity, but let’s be honest here, people in general are not (or at least seem not) to be inherently motivated to exercise. If they were we wouldn’t have over 50% of the Canadian population not meeting the daily requirements for physical activity.

Research has shown that the internal motivation (i.e. not aesthetic or external rewards) will come once one has become engaged and continues to work towards initial external goals.

So if you are a new exercise set yourself an obtainable, measurable short term and long term aesthetic goal. Take the steps to first reach that short term goal, and then work towards the long term goal. However, be cognisant of how you start to feel internally about exercise while on your journey. You may find yourself pleasantly surprised.

2.       Focus on Fulfilling Your 3 Psychosocial Needs:  Motivational Psychology researchers have purposed that we have three psychosocial needs that need to be met in order to become motivated to initiate, perform and continue to exercise. These are;

1.       Competency: This need is essentially that we want to interact effectively with our environment. If you think about this from an exercise stand point it makes a lot of sense. You are not going to want to continue to exercise if you feel like you suck at it!

So how do you get to a place where you feel effective and competent in an exercise setting? You get help of course! I find our ego gets in the way sometimes, which makes us hesitant to admit we need help. People will also come up with excuses to mask the fact that they don’t know what they’re doing to protect this ego. For example, “exercise is too expensive”, “I don’t have time” or “I don’t like sweat”.

So drop the excuses, admit you were not born with all the exercise knowledge known to man and get some help! This doesn’t have to be an expensive process. The interwebs has lots of quality information out there if you look for it.

Another good way to feel competent about working out is to join a class! This also does not have to be expensive, as many Universities allow community members to join their classes for very cheap. This way you will have quality instruction to help you to become more comfortable working out.

2.       Relatedness: This is the need to feel part of a group or important to other people. A good fitness instructor will facilitate this within their classes by using techniques such as team building.

However, you can also take charge of your own life and make sure you fulfill this need while being physically active yourself! For example, get your family or friends involved in being physically active. By doing this, you will be more self determined to initiate physical activity and so will your significant others.

You can also find others who are already on the right track if you feel that at this point in your life you are not ready to take charge and step into a leadership role. There are many self determined people within the community that are not fitness instructors or personal trainers that can help. To find them I suggest joining a walking, running, biking, swimming....ect club. Make friends and use them as your leaders on the road to becoming motivated to make healthier lifestyle choices.

3.       Autonomy: This is the third and final need that needs to be fulfilled to become self determined. Autonomy is the desire to be self regulating in one’s own actions.

This also makes a lot of sense when thinking about how to be motivated. Of course you are going to be more motivated to do something if you feel you are in control of what you are doing. Let’s look a little deeper at this need though...

Say you get a personal trainer, which a lot of new exercisers do, and they are very overbearing, which can happen. You choose this trainer because of their no-nonsense, tough love demeanour because that’s what you think you need... someone to kick your butt and take no excuses.



Make Sure Your Trainer Understands Your Needs



However, with a trainer like this you can easily fall into feeling like you don’t have control over your workouts, which has been shown to be de-motivating.

So, when choosing a fitness professional, ask them how they are going to help you fulfill your autonomous need to keep you motivated. If they draw a blank, I suggest moving on.

Now, to fulfill this need without a professional just make sure the activity you are doing is your own idea and you enjoy it. Now, even though you didn’t invent P90X, if you actively choose to do it and enjoy it you are fulfilling you need for autonomy.

On the other hand, if you start running because you think that’s what you are suppose to do, or will lose weight the fastest, but you hate every minute of it, you’re setting yourself up to fall off the wagon again.

So there you go! I hope this post has been enlightening for you. The reason I am writing about psychology is because the more you know, the more you can identify what you do or don’t do, why that is and hopefully try and fix it.

My goal for you this week is to try using the information from this post to become a little more active. You can do this however you want, but purposely target what I’ve been talking about and see how it works for you.

This week’s Vlog will also focus on motivation, so stay tuned for that.

As always, comments, suggestions and questions are very much anticipated and encouraged.

Stay Strong

Byn