Den svårfångade motionären En studie avseende etablerandet av regelbundna motionsvanor

Sammanfattning: The purpose of this descriptive study is to examine and describe the process of establishing regular physical exercising habits in the form of jogging, and in the context of this process, to describe the hindrance factors that stand in the way of establishing such habits; also to describe the effects and experiences, in a wide sense, of recurrent physical activities and how these effects change over time. A second purpose is to look more closely at the factors that influence the situation for women who want to take up regular physical training habits. 44 men and women (22 of each sex) in the age-span of 30-50 years, who were then physically non-active, became the subjects of the study. The observations were made during a period of 24 months, and the subjects were to jog not less then 3 times per every 2weeks during the 24-month period. The results show, that during the first few months,various kinds of hindrance anei difficulties dominate the picture; this is particularly true of the women joggers. After the 24 months, most obstacles were overcome, with the exception of one, typical of the women joggers, namely fear of being assaulted while jogging. Initially, the experiences while jogging were both positive and negative, but over time there was a change towards predominantly positive experiences. As regards aerobic work capacity, there was a general improvement during the first three months; after that the upwards movement levelled out. The mental effects vere initially of a short-range nature, whereas the long-range effects appeared later and increased steadily during the whole 24-month period. The motives for beginning to take regular phyical exercises and the motives for continuing to do so are qualitatively different. The former are often based on external/instrumental motivation, whereas the latter are of an internal nature. Furthermore, it may be noted that men and women live in different worlds even with respect to jogging. Obstacles and problems are different as well as experiences and effects.