Title |
Exercise habit formation in new gym members: a longitudinal study
|
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Published in |
Journal of Behavioral Medicine, April 2015
|
DOI | 10.1007/s10865-015-9640-7 |
Pubmed ID | |
Authors |
Navin Kaushal, Ryan E. Rhodes |
Abstract |
Reasoned action approaches have primarily been applied to understand exercise behaviour for the past three decades, yet emerging findings in unconscious and Dual Process research show that behavior may also be predicted by automatic processes such as habit. The purpose of this study was to: (1) investigate the behavioral requirements for exercise habit formation, (2) how Dual Process approach predicts behaviour, and (3) what predicts habit by testing a model (Lally and Gardner in Health Psychol Rev 7:S137-S158, 2013). Participants (n = 111) were new gym members who completed surveys across 12 weeks. It was found that exercising for at least four bouts per week for 6 weeks was the minimum requirement to establish an exercise habit. Dual Process analysis using Linear Mixed Models (LMM) revealed habit and intention to be parallel predictors of exercise behavior in the trajectory analysis. Finally, the habit antecedent model in LLM showed that consistency (β = .21), low behavioral complexity (β = .19), environment (β = .17) and affective judgments (β = .13) all significantly (p < .05) predicted changes in habit formation over time. Trainers should keep exercises fun and simple for new clients and focus on consistency which could lead to habit formation in nearly 6 weeks. |
X Demographics
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
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United States | 11 | 22% |
Japan | 4 | 8% |
Canada | 3 | 6% |
South Africa | 2 | 4% |
Romania | 1 | 2% |
United Kingdom | 1 | 2% |
Indonesia | 1 | 2% |
Kenya | 1 | 2% |
Isle of Man | 1 | 2% |
Other | 0 | 0% |
Unknown | 24 | 49% |
Demographic breakdown
Type | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Members of the public | 36 | 73% |
Scientists | 7 | 14% |
Practitioners (doctors, other healthcare professionals) | 4 | 8% |
Science communicators (journalists, bloggers, editors) | 1 | 2% |
Unknown | 1 | 2% |
Mendeley readers
Geographical breakdown
Country | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Japan | 1 | <1% |
Italy | 1 | <1% |
Unknown | 239 | 99% |
Demographic breakdown
Readers by professional status | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Student > Master | 42 | 17% |
Student > Ph. D. Student | 34 | 14% |
Researcher | 32 | 13% |
Student > Bachelor | 31 | 13% |
Student > Doctoral Student | 17 | 7% |
Other | 32 | 13% |
Unknown | 53 | 22% |
Readers by discipline | Count | As % |
---|---|---|
Psychology | 58 | 24% |
Sports and Recreations | 36 | 15% |
Social Sciences | 16 | 7% |
Nursing and Health Professions | 13 | 5% |
Business, Management and Accounting | 12 | 5% |
Other | 42 | 17% |
Unknown | 64 | 27% |