ACE PERSONAL TRAINER MANUAL | BASICS OF BEHAVIORAL CHANGE AND HEALTH PSYCHOLOGY CHAPTER 4
For years, the health and medical communities focused primarily on the physiological components of disease, which led to great advances in knowledge and technology. However, as healthcare costs continue to rise, along with the occurrence of lifestyle diseases, the importance of understanding the psychological factors related to behavior and disease has become increasingly relevant. In the 1970s, health psychology emerged as a field that examines the causes of illnesses and studies ways to promote and maintain health, prevent and treat illness, and improve the healthcare system (Sarafino & Smith, 2011). Health psychology took the traditional biomedical model and added the individual to the equation, resulting in a broader picture of the correlates of health and illness (Engel, 1977). This biopsychosocial approach to health has provided a framework for studying health behaviors and behavioral change. As awareness has increased about the role of physical activity in disease prevention, the United States government has become progressively more involved in increasing the physical-activity levels of Americans and in the promotion of the health benefits of physical activity. In 2008, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released physical-activity guidelines stating that adults gain substantial health benefits from engaging in 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous physical activity (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2008). More extensive health benefits can be achieved by increasing aerobic activity levels to five hours a week of moderate-intensity exercise or 150 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity. Additionally, it was recommended that adults incorporate muscle-strengthening activities at least two days a week. Personal trainers are truly in a unique position to help people adopt significant lifestyle changes that will decrease their risk for numerous diseases and increase the overall quality of their lives. It is critical that personal trainers understand the psychological and social components of behavioral change and use them in their practices to help each client adopt and maintain an active lifestyle.
BEHAVIORAL THEORY MODELS
THERE IS NO SIMPLE FORMULA TO PREDICT WHY SOME PEOPLE ADOPT HEALTHY behaviors and others do not. Understanding health behaviors is challenging in general, but the behavior of exercise is uniquely complicated, as it is perceived to take more time and effort than other health behaviors (Turk, Rudy, & Salovey, 1984). Despite this complexity, personal trainers must be able to deal with real people and the unique challenges that come with each individual. A personal trainer’s goal should go beyond designing a great workout. Instead, the goal should be to help teach and inspire each individual client to adopt a life-long activity program. There is no doubt that adopting an active lifestyle is complex and trying to help someone change can sometimes seem like an impossible task. Over the years, in an effort to create clarity in guiding behavioral change, numerous explanations have been developed regarding the factors affecting health behaviors. These explanations include examinations of people’s beliefs about their health, their beliefs about their ability to change, and their readiness to make a change. Each of the following models has relevance for personal trainers.
