Motivation for Adherence in Weight Training Past Adolescence in Women: An Exploratory Phenomenological Inquiry

Adolescent girls tend to experience more body dissatisfaction than boys. Strength training (ST) may help increase positive body image in adolescent girls, but it is uncommon for this population to participate in ST or adhere to an exercise program. Given this background, we aimed to explore the motivations for women who started ST in adolescence to continue ST participation over time. A secondary aim consisted of exploring the motivations underlying adolescents’ ST initiation and how these motivations changed over the years. Five women who started ST as adolescents and continued for 5+ years ( M = 12.6 years; SD = 6.2 years) participated in semistructured interviews. The themes that emerged were categorized into the following time points: initial onset, adherence, exit, and reentry. The themes related to ST initiation included environmental factors (e.g., role models) and physical self-esteem (e.g., negative perceived body attractiveness). The themes related to adherence included psycho-bio-social states (e.g., increased positive affect) and physical self-esteem (e.g., positive perceived physical strength). The themes related to exit from ST included health barriers, change events, and dysfunctional environment. The themes related to reentry into ST included adapt exercise parameters and change environment. These results suggest that physical self-perception and environmental factors contribute to ST initiation in adolescent girls, whereas perceived internal benefits of ST facilitate adherence. External obstacles may result in nonadherence, but individual behavior adaptations can help overcome these barriers. Collectively, findings of the current study shed light on the facilitators and barriers to initial participation and long-term ST adherence in girls and women.