Fatores motivacionais para a prática de exercício físico em diferentes modalidades

Abstract

to investigate the main reasons for the practice of physicalexercise in individuals over 18 years old, practicing different modalities. Methods: cross sectional study carried out from July to August 2021 with peopleliving in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS), Brazil, practitioners of at least one of the modalities including CrossFit®, weight training or Yoga. The survey was conducted in online format and the research instrument was a self-administered questionnaire consisting of sociodemographic questions, sports profile and self- perception of health indicators. The motivational profile was evaluated using the Exercise Motivations Inventory (EMI-2) application. The outcome was obtained by analyzing the absolute (n) and relative (%) distributions of the frequencies of categorical variables and measures of central tendency and dispersion for numerical variables. For the analysis of the EMI-2 domains according to the modality, the “t test” was used to analyze independent samples. Results: the sample consisted of 431 individuals, mostly women (63.1%), university students (50.8%), aged between 18 and 35 years (36.9%), white skin color (89.6 %) and monthly family income of more than 6 minimum wages (61.7%). The most practiced modalities were weight training (50.1%) and CrossFit (28.8%) with a weekly frequency of 4 times or more (60.3%). Psychological reasons had the highest average (4.92 on a scale from 0 to 5), followed by health reasons (average 4.64) and the factor "fun and well-being" was the most expressive within this domain (average of 4.91). With the analysis performed by the t test, 2 factors had a statistically significant difference (p<.05) with a higher average associated with CrossFit (Affiliation and Competition) and 1 factor presented this relevant difference (p<.05) with a higher average associated with Bodybuilding (Physical appearance).Conclusion: psychological reasons, followed by health reasons were the main motivational factors for the practice of exercise and the affiliation and competition factors were more associated with CrossFit practice, while the physical appearance factor was the most associated with weight training. The most prevalent EMI-2 factors in the sample were fun and well-being, disease prevention and stress control. Thus, these findings can be used mainly when developing health promotion strategies, especially in the context of preventing psychiatric and mental illnesses.