Ajzen (1991; Ajzen & Fishbein, 1980) developed several guidelines for the theory of planned behavior (TPB), one of which was to conduct an elicitation study to determine a population’s salient behavioral, normative, and control beliefs. Once these beliefs are identified, a follow-up study (i.e., the main TPB study) is needed to examine which TPB constructs determine the sample’s intention and behavior. While the TPB has been frequently applied to exercise behavior, its predictive utility is compromised when researchers fail to conduct an elicitation study prior to the main TPB study (Symons Downs & Hausenblas, 2002). In addition, inadequate methods can prevent the TPB constructs from explaining intention and behavior. For example, if the elicitation and main TPB participants do not correspond with respect to their demographic characteristics, then the elicited beliefs may not represent the main TPB study participants, and the predictive utility of the TPB is compromised. Thus, the primary purpose of this study was to review the salient beliefs of exercise participants. The secondary purpose was to examine the elicitation and main TPB studies’ methods in an attempt to determine if there was correspondence between their participant characteristics. This review included 38 main TPB and exercise studies that had conducted an elicitation study. A 5-step procedure was used to examine the raw data and higher-order exercise belief themes (e.g., Jackson, 1992; Patton, 1980). Correspondence between the elicitation and main TPB study participant characteristics could not be determined for 96% of the studies (n=36/38) due to insufficient information that was provided for the elicitation studies. The most salient behavioral beliefs were: a) feeling healthy or good (94%), b) controlling weight (87%), and c) increasing physical fitness (80%). The most common normative beliefs were: a) friends (87%), b) spouse (83%), and c) physician (67%). The most frequently reported control beliefs were: a) experiencing pain or injury/illness (87%), b) lacking time (87%), and c) lacking motivation (40%). The findings from this study illustrate that people have a variety of beliefs about exercise behavior. It is important to examine people’s exercise beliefs because identifying the factors that positively influence their exercise behavior can assist researchers with exercise promotion and adherence (Carron et al., 2003). In addition, we found that researchers did not report sufficient information regarding elicitation studies to determine participant correspondence. Thus, researchers are encouraged to conduct elicitation studies, and report more detailed information regarding their methods.