The role of learned optimism, proactive coping and goal adjustment in re-establishing regular exercise after a lapse

Abstract

Physical exercise has to be performed regularly in order to achieve long-term health benefits. However, many people do not maintain it over the long run because negative events, such as muscle ache or negative affect after having exercised, may occur. The goal of this study was to analyse whether the way people explain these events (explanatory style according to the Theory of Learned Optimism) contributes to predicting exercise attendance in a health-training centre. Training attendance of 88 exercisers (mean age 51.7 years, standard deviation [SD] = 13.4 years) was monitored for a 27-week period through the centre’s attendance login database. From these data ‘training lapses’ (no centre visits for two or more consecutive weeks) and ‘recoveries’ (re-establishing a regular training routine after having experienced a lapse) were calculated. Optimistic vs. pessimistic ‘explanatory style’ and the theoretically derived moderators high vs. low ‘goal adjustment’ and ‘proactive coping’ were measured in advance. Results revealed no differences between optimistic and pessimistic exercisers regarding their number of training lapses. Optimistic exercisers with high goal adjustment and high proactive coping showed superior recovery from training lapses, however. Unexpectedly, pessimists with low goal adjustment and low proactive coping showed more recoveries as well. Further applications of the theory of learned optimism in the domain of exercise are needed to explain these mixed results.