The cognitive profile of those who intend to exercise but do not.

The purpose of this study was to identify the cognitive profile of people who intend to exercise but fail to carry out this intention. A theoretical framework was adopted to study the attitudinal beliefs of these persons about exercise, their evaluation of the associated consequences, and their normative beliefs and motivation to comply with these norms. Subjects were classified according to the congruence between stated intention and self-reported exercise behavior 2 months later in this way: positive intention and congruent behavior (CONG+, N = 74). positive intention and incongruent behavior (INCONG-, N = 45). negative intention and congruent behavior (CONG-, N = 42). negative intention and incongruent behavior (N = 2, not analyzed). MANOVA analysis indicated little difference between the cognitive profiles of inactive and active positive intenders. Relative to the CONG+ group, the INCONG- group perceived that regular exercise would be "tiring" (P less than 0.001) and "time consuming" (P less than 0.001); they also placed less value on the consequence of "being healthy" (P less than 0.05). Both groups differed from the CONG- group. As would be expected, those with positive intentions to exercise identified more advantages to being physically active. It appears that sedentary positive intenders perceived the exercise behavior as physically demanding and had difficulty in reconciling the time demands of an exercise program with their weekly schedules. This observation suggests that these two beliefs should be considered for the promotion of physical activity as well as the investigation of influential social and environmental variables.