Emphasizing working out for health and not appearance beneficial to women

A study published in Psychology of Sport and Exercise looked at 99 college aged women with chronic body image issues (“social physique anxiety”), whom, despite, on average, having a normal BMI, found that when the instructor of a step class focused on the health benefits of exercising and becoming fit versus emphasizing improving their physique, they had a better class experience, felt more engaged and energized post workout., and were more likely to go to future classes. Interestingly, the presence or absence of mirrors made no difference in either group.

The study made no mention, however, of if the women’s attitudes towards their bodies changed, which is important, and it would be especially interesting had this been a longitudinal study, to see if more and more classes that were less body-focused and more health-focused made an impact too.

Regardless, this is good news. The focus should be more on health than purely aesthetics, and this study suggests that when that is the case, women benefit more and are more likely to work out. Trainers should focus on wellness.

I have a feeling this would generalize to nutrition, such that if people were told about foods’ health benefits and exactly how the body and/or mind is affected, they would focus more on wanting to eat the foods to be healthy than to lose weight, for example, and also, they would enjoy the foods more, not view them as “diet” foods, and thus not feel deprived. In so doing, they would probably more easily reach their weight loss goals as well. It would be a win, win.

randi morse, randi.morse@gmail.com, newton, ma