Do you want to become more active? It is your belief that can make you achieve.
Have you been trying to get active and healthy, but have not yet been able to succeed? You are not alone; more people fail these attempts than succeed.
To set you up for success I will write a series of blogs on the current science on how to get active. This is the science we have incorporated into our app. That is why it is called My Health Script — a personalised script you can follow that will help you improve your health. In science, this has been shown to be successful for over 50% of participants.
A range of behaviour change theories in psychology have been found effective in increasing activity levels. Most of them share one common concept:
“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t, you are right!” Tom Ford
That’s right. Whether you believe that you can do this is significant in getting and staying active. In science, we call this self-efficacy.
Self-efficacy refers to the belief that one can successfully complete a course of action like exercise.
The two types of self-efficacies that you should explore:
- Task self-efficacy. This refers to your belief that you can perform a particular activity.
- Barriers to self-efficacy. This refers to whether you believe you can regularly exercise in the face of common barriers such as lack of time and poor weather.
For example, it is unlikely that someone who has never lifted weights believes they could participate in a weightlifting program. They would have to work on increasing their confidence in their capability to perform resistance training by engaging a personal trainer or joining a foundation class ( task self-efficacy) before starting to lift heavy weights.
They would consider this before worrying about their ability to lift weights in the face of challenges ( barriers to self-efficacy) like gym opening hours, motivation or time restraints due to increased work hours.
Try to find solutions to start your journey of getting active that you feel are achievable for you right now, and that you can feel confident about doing. Remember less is often more to start off with. Getting active is a long-term goal.
You can gain self-efficacy through these proven strategies
1. Via mastery experiences. This can be achieved by successfully performing the behaviour. The app will guide you through this, so that you can:
- Set realistic goals that can be achieved.
- Progress gradually over time.
- Receive proper guidance (instructions and demonstration).
- Use physical activity logs to track progress.
2. Via Vicarious experiences. Watch others with a similar background perform the task. For example, you can do this by joining groups for beginners. We created Walk & Talk groups and the Buddy Finder in our app to support this.
3. Via Verbal persuasion. Having people that believe in you and support you is the key here. Discuss and remind yourself of previous successful attempts at behaviour change. Talk to your friends about your previous experience with exercise. But most importantly, ask them to pep talk and support you through this change. We offer continuous support in various ways.
4. Physiological feedback. There is evidence that people that used to exercise are more likely to perceive muscle soreness after exercise as something positive than others who have never exercised. Understanding that exercise and improving the load tolerance of your body structures will go hand in hand with some associated soreness of your muscles. But it also goes hand in hand with enhanced mood, sleep, and reduced stress levels. So, it is worth it! We encourage our members to get the habit established first before increasing intensity levels.
You could also get guidance from a physiotherapist to gain confidence initially. Or try to include music, scenery, podcasts, or an excellent audiobook to make exercise pleasurable.
We know you can do this and the science shows that you can do this. Together Everyone Achieves More (TEAM)!
Enjoying what you do is essential in making it a sustainable change
MyHealthScript is for everyone who would like science based support on their journey to more activity and better health. We can help you find an enjoyable and sustainable path towards being more active.
Originally published at https://www.myhealthscript.com on June 22, 2023.
