Karen Rickel

Exercise Adherence: Promoting Exercise Through Philosophy, Life Stories &technology Karen Rickel

How many people have started an exercise program onlyto stop after a few days or weeks? How many havesigned up for a gym membership only to never swipetheir shiny new cards? And how many have thrownmoney away on exercise DVD?s still wrapped incellophane? People typically have good intentionsbut cannot seem to continue or sometimes even beginto exercise. Shouldn?t we want to exercise and wantto feel good? While people may realize theimportance of physical activity, they have difficultyadhering to an active lifestyle. For many is not whatthey need to do, but rather how to incorporateregular physical activity into their already busylife narrative. An intervention curriculum wasdesigned to facilitate an increase in objective &subjective commitment to physical activity &implemented using class instruction & lessons onlineconsisting of new ways to view exercise and movement. The focus is on shifting thoughts of exercise to alife story approach, and this appears to have aneffect on the values of participants. For thoseinterested in finding a way to stick with exercisewithout dreading it, for researchers or practitionersinterested in increasing exercise adherence.