Physical Activity Assessment
The purpose of this inventory is to give you an opportunity to reflect on physical activity and the role that it plays in your life right now.
Remember that according to your present lifestyle, "physical activity" and "physical fitness" may be covered by one activity such as 45 minutes of racquetball 4 times a week. Or, the racquetball
may be your physical activity, but does not fulfill the fitness component. The reason may be that you are a beginner so the ball does not stay in play long enough to give you a cardiovascular workout. So, before rating yourself below, make sure you understand what you mean by "physical activity," because that is what is being rated here.
Check your rating for each of the following:
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Test Which Sports Match Your Personality
The toughest part of physical activity can be staying with it. One big reason we slack off is that we pick sports that fit our bodies but not necessarily our minds. Researchers show that a good match between your personality and your physical activity sharply increases the chances you'll stay with it. Finding this match is important to your physical activity program.
But how do you know which sport fits you best? Dr. James Gavin developed a test that defines fitness personality in terms of seven Psychosocial Activity Dimensions (PADs). To work up your own profile, read the description of each dimension and then rate yourself on the scorecard below.
Sociability: Do you prefer doing things on your own or with other people? Do you make friends easily? Do you enjoy parties?
Spontaneity: Do you make spur-of-the moment decisions or do you plan in great detail? Can you change direction easily or do you get locked in once you make up your mind?
Discipline: Do you have trouble sticking with things you find unpleasant or trying? Or do you persist regardless of the obstacles? Do you need a lot of support or do you just push on alone?
Aggressiveness: Do you try to control situations by being forceful? Do you like pitting yourself against obstacles or do you shy away when you must assert yourself physically or emotionally?
Competitiveness: Are you bothered by situations that produce winners and losers? Does your adrenaline flow when you're challenged or do you back off?
Mental Focus: Do you find it easy to concentrate or do you have a short attention span? Can you be single-minded? How good are you at clearing your mind of distractions?
Risk Taking: Are you generally adventurous, physically and emotionally? Or do you prefer to stick to what you know?
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Understanding Your Score
To see how well your PADs profile matches your sport or exercise activity, look at the four sample profiles above and at the chart on the following pages. If you have the typical personality of a runner, walker, cyclist or bodybuilder, your PADs profile should look similar to one of these profiles. If your preference lies elsewhere, turn to "Your Personality/Your Sport" chart to see where your activities rank on each PADs characteristic. Then compare these rankings with how you scored yourself.
Compared to running, for example, walking is more spontaneous and less aggressive. (It is also safer, in terms of physical stress.) Racquet sports are high in sociability, spontaneity, competitiveness and focus but low in discipline. Swimming is fairly high in discipline and low in sociability, spontaneity and aggressiveness.
If you've been having trouble sticking to an activity program, these charts may help explain why. If you're still looking for a sport, use your findings as a guide.
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How Sports Can Help You Change [ * James Gavin, Ph.D., is a professor of applied social science and Concordia University in Montreal. His book, Body Moves: The Psychology of Exercise , was published by Stackpole Books in 1988.]
Simply defining your activity personality accurately is fine as long as you are satisfied with the way you are -- sociable or quiet, disciplined or easygoing. But if you'd like to make a change (for example, be more outgoing or less competitive), you can choose a sport that helps you accomplish this by balancing what you are with what you want to be. Driven executives, for example, may enjoy walking to relax their tensions.
It can even be worth taking up an activity that doesn't initially appeal to you in order to alter your life. Susan is a good example. She felt used and abused as a result of a destructive relationship and her sense of self-worth plummeted. When she went for help, the therapist surprised her by prescribing exercise -- and not just any exercise, but bodybuilding. Before Susan started working out, her slumped shoulders accentuated her feelings of powerlessness. She looked and felt like a victim. But as her body began to shape up through weight training, people began treating her differently.
If you decide to try this kind of mismatched activity to help you change, be sure to build in enough support to keep you on track until the change becomes its own incentive. In Susan's case, weight-lifting was far from her first choice. Her friend worked hard to keep her going. But once she saw how much she gained in self-respect and the respect of others, self-motivation took effect.
Fortunately, exercise of all kinds offers something you do not often find in personal development programs -- built-in help in managing tension and anxiety. If you feel uptight doing some new kind of exercise, the exercise itself brings relief.
Two final thoughts: Jumping from one extreme to another is not likely to work very well. Picking a risky sport to overcome fearfulness, for example, may be too dramatic. Better to use small changes to move gradually from your present program to one that is more psychologically helpful.
And finally, picking a particular activity simply for its psychological effects is not enough and may even backfire. How you do what you do makes a big difference. If you are a meditating runner, you will help focus your mind as you train your body. If you are an undisciplined bodybuilder, this characteristic will be reinforced even by that disciplined sport. To make a change, you may not need to adjust your activity as much as your way of going about it.
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