The Perfect Pill.
We are pleased to offer this blog contribution that was put together by Hannah Kesler, our physiotherapy student, who will be with us until May 7th, 2021.
The perfect pill.
Imagine a pill that was proven to improve sleep and mood; increase endurance, energy, stamina, libido, body image, and mental alertness; decrease stress, anxiety, and depression. And it even supports weight loss. It has no known side effects. Would you take it?
It doesn’t come in pill form, however. It comes in the form of 30 minutes of walking 5 days/week. And these minutes don’t need to be continuous; 3 – 10-minute walks are equally useful. What’s better, the more you do, the more benefits you seem to reap. The Canadian Physical Activity Guidelines recommend that adults aged 18-64 should be getting at least 150 minutes of “moderate-to-vigorous physical activity” per week. Moderate-to-vigorous exercises involve activities that make you breathe heavier or sweat and include brisk walking or cycling.
Yet, in 2016 and 2017 only 17% of Canadian adults were meeting these exercise guidelines.
I like working out and exercising, I know that it takes a short time, it makes me feel better mentally, and the last 6 years of post-secondary education has drilled the benefits into my brain. Still, I often find myself struggling to get the motivation and COVID certainly hasn’t helped.
Unfortunately, it can be difficult to create good exercise habits. Excuses often include a lack of time, energy, willpower, social influence, resources, and skill. A few studies found that knowing what, why, and how to exercise is not enough to motivate individuals. This is because simply knowing the benefits of exercise is an extrinsic motivator. Extrinsic motivation refers to doing an activity to attain a tangible reward, i.e. getting a beach body, or being told by your physio that it is good for your health. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation refers to finding personal value/enjoyment/excitement in exercising. The self-determination theory states that intrinsic motivation for growth and change increases when the needs of competence, connection, and autonomy are met. Studies have shown that those with more self-determined motivation exhibit increased exercise effort and performance compared to those who are more extrinsically motivated.
So how do we become more self-determined?
Here are some tips for developing competence, relatedness, and autonomy that contribute to becoming self-determined:
Competence: The belief that you are performing the skills well and feeling comfortable doing so - knowing what, when, where, why, how
o Plan your gym workout, schedule a walk with a friend.
o Download an exercise app
o Make a calendar – plan your activities on specific days (create a schedule)
o Physiotherapists can help you find activities you enjoy, ensure proper form, technique, exercise prescription, and help you to address/find solutions for personal barriers :)
Relatedness: Creating or building meaningful connections when exercising
o Having a workout buddy
o Join an exercise class – (this might have to be online for the time being)
o Tell a friend about your exercise goals
o Take your furry friend out for a walk (or offer to take your friend’s dog for a walk!)
Autonomy: Having the power to choose what, when, and where you exercise rather than being pressured by external factors.
o Setting personal goals that are specific and realistic
o Start a physical activity journal, write your plan on the calendar
o Use an activity tracker
o Explore different types of exercise to find what is right for you.
While these tips will certainly help you maintain your exercise routine, you actually don’t need to be intrinsically motivated and self-determined to start. These will develop with persistence, and as you find an activity that gives you personal enjoyment. It is okay to use extrinsic motivators as building blocks to get you going – see above for the health benefits of exercise.
“I’m not telling you it’s going to be easy. I’m telling you it’s going to be worth it.”
References:
1. Abedi, Maham (2018). Canadians aren’t nearly as active as they think they are: Survey. GlobalNews. Retrieved April 19, 2021 from, https://globalnews.ca/news/4777241/canadians-physical-activity-survey/
2. Wininger, S. R. (2007). Self-determination theory and exercise behavior: An examination of the psychometric properties of the exercise motivation scale. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 19(4), 471-486.
3. Teixeira, P. J., Carraça, E. V., Markland, D., Silva, M. N., & Ryan, R. M. (2012). Exercise, physical activity, and self-determination theory: a systematic review. International journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity, 9(1), 1-30.
Thank you to Hannah Kesler, our physiotherapy student from UBC, for contributing to our blog and sharing her experiences to help inspire each of us to take advantage of the best medicine available: movement.
