Background/Purpose The current study identified the factors related to exercisers' self-talk and exercise adherence. The purpose was to discover individuals' exercise self-talk and what thoughts may be preventing, or encouraging, them to regularly exercise.
Method Participants from three fitness locations volunteered to complete an online survey, which asked questions about their exercise participation, their use of and frequency of self-talk during exercise, their beliefs about the perceived benefits and barriers to exercise, and their confidence levels related to exercising. There were 146 participants who completed the questionnaires. There were 91 defined adherers and 55 non-adherers.
Analysis/Results Results indicated that the adherers perceived more benefits to exercise, and demonstrated higher exercise self-efficacy. Based on the open-ended responses, four types of self-talk categories emerged (positive or negative/motivational, and positive or negative/instructional). Furthermore, the most important factors appeared to be the type of self-talk used during the exercise (positive/motivational was the most common response across adherers and non-adherers), and at what point during the exercise session self-talk was used (20% of adherers reported using during difficult points in their sessions).
Conclusions Adherers used self-talk more when they felt like quitting, which could be a contributing factor to the maintenance of their exercise routines. Because of the potential influential effects that self-talk has on people's exercise behavior, it is important to determine which type and how often to use self-talk to increase exercise adherence. The conclusions from the study demonstrate how self-talk can be used to encourage the initiation and maintenance of exercise.