AUTHOR=Vuckovic Vojko , Duric Sasa 

TITLE=Motivational variations in fitness: a population study of exercise modalities, gender and relationship status

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychology

VOLUME=15

YEAR=2024

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1377947

DOI=10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1377947

ISSN=1664-1078

ABSTRACT=<sec><title>Introduction</title><p>Motivation plays a crucial role in determining whether or not a person adheres to an exercise program. The present study aimed to determine the motivational differences between people exercising in fitness alone, in groups/aerobics and with a personal trainer by gender and relationship status.</p></sec><sec><title>Methods</title><p>The Exercise Motivations Inventory-2 (EMI-2) questionnaire was completed by 830 users of 20 largest fitness centers in Slovenia.</p></sec><sec><title>Results</title><p>The Kruskal-Wallis test followed by a Dunn post-hoc test revealed that health-related motives such as ill-health avoidance were most frequently associated with exercising with a personal trainer compared to other exercise modalities, especially among females (<italic>p</italic> = 0.032, <italic>M</italic> = 4.88) and people in a relationship (<italic>p</italic> = 0.020, <italic>M</italic> = 5.18). On the other hand, intrinsic motivations such as enjoyment and stress management were mostly associated with exercising alone (<italic>p</italic> = 0.002, <italic>M</italic> = 4.98 and <italic>p</italic> = 0.021, <italic>M</italic> = 4.68, respectively). These results were also transferred to females and to some extent to people in a relationship (for enjoyment only). It is expected that intrinsic motivation is related to sustained exercise behavior.</p></sec><sec><title>Discussion</title><p>Future studies could implement a longitudinal design to test this statement and examine the proposed relationships over a longer period to better understand whether there may be causal relationships between motivation and different exercise modalities depending on different characteristics of participants.</p></sec>