Mark Gaston, Amber Patterson and Mallory Winters
Dr. Dlugonski
Exercise Adherence
20 March 2014 Exercise 1000 Intervention
The most important characteristic of EXSS 1000 students that should be considered when designing a physical activity intervention would be recognizing that the students are just beginning college. Most students enrolled in EXSS 1000 are incoming freshmen that are just moving to college and are probably not yet settled into their new lifestyle. EXSS 1000 students also probably do not have a full understanding that exercise has long-term benefits for health and is not just a method to help avoid the “freshmen-fifteen.”
When designing a physical activity intervention for a client, it is always important to consider their current level of physical fitness. The students of these exercise classes will have various levels of physical fitness, but overall, everyone should be healthy enough to participate in some type of exercise program. Because we are in North Carolina, a state that has one of the highest obesity rates in the US, the students of these classes may be less fit than normal fit averages. In turn, not only do we need to look at the specific fitness levels of the students but also at the general perception of exercise that a college student would hold. The clients need to be able to see how easily they can increase their physical activity. The more apparent it is made to them that they can add physical activity into their daily routines, the more likely they are to adopt a more active lifestyle. We are all faced with unforeseen barriers that may inhibit our ability to accomplish our goals. These barriers are often new to these incoming students now that they are in a much more stressful environment. They find that they have more responsibilities placed upon them and not as much free time as they are used to having. They are presented with the temptation of parties, downtown, and alcohol. It is much easier for the students to go to the dining hall with a friend rather than go to the gym. The students are now surrounded by a whole new support group that they may have never thought was available to them before. By encouraging students to adopt the support of a friend, the students have a way of being reminded to follow their exercising goals. The more of an importance the students place on increasing their physical activity level, the more likely they are to adhere to its demands. The early stages of the program should focus on being informative as well as introducing the students to new ways to increase their physical activity levels. The students will start their semester long intervention by tracking their physical activity levels through the iPhone application, “Lose it!” This application offers an activity tracker, a food tracker, and challenges to keep users motivated. Nearly all of these students will have an iPhone, tablet or iPad that they can download and use this application right in class! The goals of the students should not be to lose weight but to rather see an overall increase in their participation in exercise on a weekly basis.
At the end of the semester the students will evaluate if their activity levels have changed since the beginning of the semester. The students may evaluate their exercise adherence by determining if whether or not they were able to find an activity that they not only enjoyed but also were able to attend weekly. The goals of each individual will most likely different from student to student, therefore the students shouldn’t consider themselves failures if they were only able to attend an exercise class twice a week but rather feel accomplished that they were able to do it weekly. Their next goal could be to increase their attendance to the exercise class but as long as they have found an activity they enjoy and can continue, they should feel accomplished. The intervention should also introduce the students to passive tracking devices such as the Fit bit and Nike Band. The more options the students are given, the more likely they are to adopt one of them. Accompanied with the use of technology for their lifestyle interventions, there should be the promotion of other workout programs both in the Student Recreation Center and around Greenville. The teacher would email the students promotional ads for exercise programs available in the area. There are several classes offered by ECU, such as yoga and Zumba, that the students can use to not only increase the physical activity levels but to also get credit towards their degree. Apart from classes, ECU offers multiple intramural sports that take place all across campus. Many incoming students want to make new friends since many of them are on their own for the first time. By signing up for a basketball intramural league, the students can both meet new people and increase their motivation towards exercise. Studies have shown, though, that when it comes to spreading information about physical activity to clients, both print media and electronic media outlets are equally effective. Since students today are more likely to be looking at their phone rather then where they are walking, would it not make sense to design a program that utilizes there phone?
We feel that the key to our client’s success is increasing the interaction between the chosen program and the student. A way to have the teacher not only monitor their student’s compliance to a program but to also give the students a more personal experience, could be accomplished by creating a program involving reporting physical activity levels to the teacher via text messaging. Nearly ninety-one percent of the US adult population has cell phones. Text messaging is not only an instant informative tool but is also cheap due to today’s cell phone programs. The teacher would request that the students text them their daily physical activity levels twice a day for a week. This will help the students realize that physical activity is something that should always be considered. Finding new ways to increase their adherence to their exercise goals can be accomplished from the moment they wake till the time they go to bed. The week following the student’s texting the teacher, the teacher would text the students instead. The teacher would text message the student’s informative advice for how they might increase their physical activity levels. The text messages could also just be a tool to help encourage the students to exercise. We realize that some would not be comfortable giving away their phone number to their teacher. If a student felt uncomfortable with this form of communication, the student could simply email the teacher their physical activity accomplishments instead.
The students should be given information that is tailored for them. Students don’t need to be taught how to abstain from sex; they need to be taught how to be safe when engaging in sexual activities. Likewise, students don’t need to sit in a class and be taught exercise through a textbook but instead should be physical shown ways to safely exercise. Every student at ECU has access to the student recreation center and all of its machines, but not all know the proper techniques required to maximize the health benefits that a certain machine can offer. For example, a student shouldn’t be encouraged to do 500 crunches a day but should be introduced to a crunch and hold technique that would do far more for them at lower repetitions than a high repetition improper technique ever would. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime,” argued novelist Anne Ritchie. In following the Health Belief Model, the students should be introduced to the threats accompanied with a lack of exercise. These threats would be presented to the students through the text-messaging project between the students and the teacher. Along with the teacher texting the students encouraging words to help them adhere to their exercise goals, the students would also receive texts that expose the students to possible obstacles that the students might face. If the students are made to feel threatened by their current behavior, they will be more likely to positively change that behavior. Specific cues to action can be made apparent as well. If the students look in the mirror and are unsatisfied with what they see, then they may be more motivated to participate in an exercise program. However, it is important to express that weight loss is not the most significant variable. Studies have shown that it is more important to increase the amount of exercise one performs rather than increasing the intensity of the program. An individual can receive the same health benefits through jogging at a mild or low intensity for multiple times throughout the week as they would if they were running at a high intensity for multiple miles. The program simply needs to suggest that the students add more exercise to their lifestyle rather than going to the gym and having to run on a treadmill at nine mph for an hour. Finally, and most importantly, the students should be influenced to see the importance of having positive self-efficacy. Just because what the student sees in the mirror may not be their ideal image, they need to be encouraged to be comfortable in their own skin. It is more important to see exercise as a means of creating a healthier lifestyle rather than losing weight to create a mirror image of what society views as the “healthy individual.”
The most robust form of self-efficacy comes in the form of mastery experiences. When a student has success their self-efficacy is boosted. Each end of the week class should end with a weekly review of the student’s success in reaching their exercise goals. The students shouldn’t be forced to announce their results but by allowing them the chance to announce to the entire class their success, their self-efficacy will be promoted. This also allows for students to hear how other students were able to achieve success in exercise. This is known as a vicarious experience. By observing a peer succeed at a task, other students can strengthen their own beliefs in one's abilities. Also through verbal persuasion, teachers can boost self-efficacy with credible forms communication such as our text messaging program and provide feedback to guide the students by motivate them to make their best effort towards adhering to their exercise programs.

The ultimate message should be to have the students find physical activities that are tailored towards their own lifestyles and work for them. This will not only increase their interest in exercising but also help them with increasing their emotional states. A positive mood can boost one's beliefs in self-efficacy, while anxiety can undermine it. If the students can’t enjoy the exercise, then they will be much less likely to adhere to it.
Throughout this project, we were able to utilize the lessons that we have been taught in class to form our intervention. We were all very familiar with several theories in increasing exercise adherence but were all able to agree upon the health belief model as our greatest chance for the students to achieve success. Being that we are all college students ourselves, we are familiar with what goals and obstacles that the students in Exercise 1000 classes might face. We were all able to recognize that as newly free individuals able to make their own lifestyle decisions, it is especially important that our clientele appreciates and enjoys the activities they are doing because now there’s no one else there to push them to maintain healthy lifestyles.
In terms of what we could have done differently to improve our intervention, we would have liked to find forms of communication that the students would appreciate more then text messaging. We would advise that before having the students participate in the intervention, the teachers should discuss with the class what ways they feel are best for helping them adhere to their goals. Do they find that using print media is more motivational to them rather then an internet-based form of communication? The students should be encouraged to develop their own exercise programs and goals but should have the help and advise of the teachers while doing so. These students are now their own masters and may be reluctant to listen to what a teacher tells them, therefore if the teacher is able to get the students to think that they developed the program themselves, then they might be happier with their newly discovered physical activity goals.