Living in a Larger Body: Do Exercise Motives Influence Associations between Body Image and Exercise Avoidance Motivation?

The study explored reasons for exercise as possible mediators of the relationship between body appreciation and exercise avoidance motivation and between body surveillance and exercise avoidance motivation. Using a cross-sectional design, 131 women with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher completed measures of body surveillance, body appreciation, reasons for exercise, and exercise avoidance motivation. Mediation analyses indicated that appearance-oriented reasons for exercise partially mediated the body surveillance–exercise avoidance motivation relationship. Health and fitness professionals, organizations, and environments should avoid reinforcing appearance-oriented reasons for exercise. Rather, empowering exercise experiences and environments should be created as they seem to benefit women regardless of reasons for exercise.

Exercise Addiction During the COVID-19 Pandemic: an International Study Confirming the Need for Considering Passion and Perfectionism

Various levels of lockdown due to COVID-19 limit people’s habitual physical activity. Individuals addicted to exercise, health-oriented, and team-exercisers could be the most affected. We examined the COVID-19-related changes in exercise volume in 1079 exercisers from eight Spanish-speaking nations based on exercise addiction categories, primary reasons for exercise, and forms of exercise. The COVID-19-related decrease in exercise volume was 49.24% in the sample. The proportion of the risk of exercise addiction was 15.2%. Most (81.7%) of the participants exercised for a health-related reason. These exercisers reported lesser decrease in their exercise volume than those exercising for social reasons. The risk of exercise addiction was inversely related to changes in exercise volume, but after controlling for passion and perfectionism the relationship vanished. The reported effect of COVID-19 on training did not differ between the exercise addiction groups. The findings also confirm that exercise addiction research should control for passion and perfectionism.

#malefitspo: Links between viewing fitspiration posts, muscular-ideal internalisation, appearance comparisons, body satisfaction, and exercise motivation in men

Exposure to fitspiration content via social media can influence women’s body satisfaction and exercise inspiration, but fitspiration exposure has not been investigated in men. This study examined links between the frequency of viewing fitspiration content on Instagram, and men’s body satisfaction, appearance-based exercise motivation and health-based exercise motivation, and whether those relationships were mediated by muscular-ideal internalisation and/or appearance comparison tendency. Participants were 17- to 27-year-old Australian men who used Instagram ( N = 118). Frequency of viewing fitspiration content was not directly associated with body satisfaction or reasons for exercise. However, significant indirect pathways were observed through greater muscular-ideal internalisation and appearance comparison tendency. Viewing more fitspiration content was associated with greater muscular-ideal internalisation and higher appearance comparison tendency, which in turn was associated with less body satisfaction, more appearance-based exercise motivation and less health-based exercise motivation. Fitspiration appears to be more closely related to appearance than health in men.

Reasons for Exercise Behavior Among American and Chinese College Women

The exercise motivation of American and Chinese college women was examined. American women were found to exercise more for fitness, physical attractiveness, and weight control, and the Chinese women more for enjoyment. Women in different stages of exercise behavior expressed different reasons for exercise in terms of enjoyment, fitness, health, mood, and physical attractiveness. Focusing one’s attention on reasons such as enjoyment for Chinese women and fitness, physical attractiveness, and weight control for American women may be important in terms of exercise participation. The long-term exercisers expressed higher levels of motivation in terms of enjoyment, fitness, health, mood, and physical attractiveness.