Analyzing Factors in the Motivation for Bodybuilding

Recent studies suggest that there is a periodic and recurring decline in the participation of younger generations in physical activities. The decline can be seen in school-sponsored sports activities and commercial gymnasiums and bodybuilding clubs.

The decline is seen as the result of a more sedentary lifestyle bolstered by wrong eating habits. The youth are growing up to be more sedentary year after year. The advent of different forms of electronic entertainment is also being seen as a determining factor.

The importance of motivation

Motivation becomes an important intervention for those who are engaged in sports pedagogy. The teaching of sports and bodybuilding cannot be carried out without the right kinds of motivation.

According to Zan Gao, a clinical researcher and sports scientist for the Journal of Sports Behavior:

“Determining ways to encourage and motivate college students to be more physically active through physical activity programs becomes an important concern.”

“As a major construct for motivation, expectancy beliefs represent the key idea that most individuals will not choose to do a task or continue to engage in a task when they expect to fail.”

“However, this influence of expectancy beliefs is only observed when adequate incentives (e.g., importance, interest) for behaviors are presented (Bandura, 1986; Pintrinch & Schunk, 1996).”

Motivation and incentives

If one is engaged in the sports sciences and is already teaching others how to use bodybuilding to lose weight and keep fit, motivation is vital yet hard to come by.

The use of cognitive theories to understand, interpret and implement motivational constructs is important. For one, motivation in itself is composed of many elements.

The implementation must be done with all the components in place. The first component is of course, the goal. The goal should be readily achievable.

The incentives for bodybuilding become trickier, as younger individuals have less patience. There must be palpable incentives to why they are engaging themselves in regular workouts.

To motivate them, one should be able to show the improvements to their physical condition. Explanations of how exercise and physical fitness works must be told regularly.

Goals and achievements

The use of scheduled charts for data keeping would be important so that regression does not take place. Regression happens when individuals or groups of individuals suddenly decide to stop a regular physical regimen.

This would be a double loss especially if the program is being implemented for a wider field, such as a whole school. In any case, the regression can be stopped by introducing new incentives.

If traditional incentives do not work, other incentives can be put in place. Incentives such as the construction of new facilities should be implemented if possible.

The regularization and naturalization of bodybuilding and other forms of physical fitness must be of utmost importance. According to Gao, theories regarding this are as follows:

“Eccles and Wigfield (2002) suggested that there is a need for theoretical combination in the field, particularly with respect to theories that incorporate expectancy beliefs and their related incentive constructs.”

“Students’ achievement performance, the amount of effort exerted, persistence, and choice of achievement tasks are influenced by their expectancy-related beliefs and task values they attach to achievement tasks.”