Adesão ao exercício físico: a relação entre indivíduo e o ambiente

Abstract

The relationship between the individual and environment during physical exercise, as well as the practitioner's level of affectivity have a strongly established relationship with adherence to exercising, and can be measured using the subject’s perceptions of feelings. Differences have been identified in comparisons between different environments regarding this relationship. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate adherence to physical exercising taking into account the practitioner's perceptions of the environment chosen for working out. The current research used a mixed methodology adopting an exploratory descriptive approach associating quantitative, qualitative and field perspectives. This study was subdivided in three phases. First, an exploratory analysis was carried out of the subjects in the three research settings. Subsequently, a survey was performed to characterize the practitioner’s exercises in the different environments and the affectivity scale was applied. A field study was carried out in the third stage using a narrative interview to compare the subjects’ perceptions of feelings in the different environments. The research was carried out in Recife, State of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil. Seventy-eight practitioners were divided into three equal groups depending on the environment where they exercised, namely: indoors, outdoors and a mixed environment. For the interviews, nine subjects were interviewed, three from each environment. On reaching this number, we chose not to increase the sample size as a question of data saturation and vertical analysis. The discourse of the interviewees and data of the affectivity scale were analyzed statistically. From the quantitative point of view, the outdoor (4,92 ± 0,27) and mixed environments (4,85 ± 0,46) presented significantly higher values on the affectivity scale compared to indoors (3,23 ± 1,27, p < 0,001). In the qualitative analysis of the interviews, exercising outdoors was linked to the most positive words and phrases; this was followed by the mixed environment and lastly by indoors. Hence, as the outdoor environment and secondly the mixed environment presented higher affective responses, more positive discourse and the perception of more intense feelings, these settings are more conducive to individuals adhering to physical exercise.