HHS HealthBeat (March 26, 2012)

Exercising this week

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Feel like exercising this week? How about every week?

Researchers have been tracking week-by-week changes in people’s motivation to exercise. And they say those don’t-feel-like-it weeks can really hurt the capacity to stick with the program.

At Penn State, David Conroy measured weekly intentions and physical activity performance of 33 college students over 10 weeks. He says people with the strongest weekly commitments were more likely to be successful. But he warns:

“Most people set goals without considering their commitment and how those commitments will change from a week-to-week basis.”  (6 seconds)

So good time management to work on consistency can help.

The study in the Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: March 26, 2012