Workout motivation: will you be back?

Shape, July, 2004 by Carol Potera

Ever wonder how people who exercise long-term stick with a fitness program, week after week, year after year? That's what exercise scientist Diane Klein, Ph.D., M.S., M.P.H., of the University of Tennessee in Knoxville wanted to find out when she examined the reasons given by such individuals--known as terminators--for being active.

"'Terminator' isn't a play on the Schwarzenegger films," Klein notes. "It is used to identify an individual whose good habits have become second nature, and so has 'terminated' the conscious effort required initially to create a new, healthy behavior. When the behavior becomes part of their routine and is considered habitual--in our study, that meant two years--such individuals become 'terminators.'"

What Klein discovered was that, rather than being driven by appearance and weight management, longtime, committed exercisers are motivated by a desire to stay fit and draw on feelings of well-being, energy and enjoyment gained from exercise to keep them going. Terminators also choose activities they like, schedule workouts into their day and often exercise alone.

"You [may] start out doing [a fitness program] to lose weight and improve your appearance, but then you end up doing it to feel better," Klein says. If you persist, "eventually it grows on you, and before you know it, you're a terminator," she adds.