The effects of empowered motivation on exercise adherence and physical fitness in college women

The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of exercise adherence when exercise motivation was empowered. It was planned as a pretest-posttest nonequivalent quasi-experimental design. The study subjects were female college students who wanted exercise and agreed to participate in the Jane Fonda Workout Program (1982) for a period of six months. The subject sample was divided into an experimental group and a control group by college department to prevent contamination of the intervention, which promotes long-term exercise-program adherence through the EMPOWER Step Program. All subjects’ body composition and physical fitness were measured using the Inbody (520) Body Composition Analyzer and Helmas (Korea) measuring equipment. Cronbach’s α, t-test, odds ratio and analysis of covariance were used to analyze the data using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program. According to the results the experimental group showed a 66.66% exercise adherence success rate and the control group showed only a 26.31% success rate (OR= 5.60, P= 0.01; t= 2.932, P= 0.006). Skeletal muscle mass was significantly higher in the experimental group than in the control group (F= 8.45, P= 0.006). Body fat mass decreased significantly more in the experimental group than in the control group (F= 6.08 P= 0.01). Empowered motivation has positive effects on adherence to exercise regimes and physical fitness in female college students. Therefore it is suggested to actively utilize the EMPOWER Step Program to foster long-term exercise.