QUALITATIVE DESCRIPTORS OF EXERCISE IN OLDER WOMEN

The self-regulation of exercise maintenance model was used to study th e episode-specific interpretations of exercise of older women immediat ely after an exercise episode, Seventeen women, mean age 69.7 +/- 4.9 years, were recruited to represent a variety of exercise patterns. A s emistructured episode-specific interview was administered after an exe rcise episode. The questions asked related to physiological/somatic an d cognitive/emotional sensations associated with exercise and the soci al/environmental context of the exercise experience. Data analysis rev ealed five themes-somatic sensations, affirmations, connectedness, exp lanations, and reflections-each of which contained distinct categories . The proposed self-regulation of exercise maintenance model was clari fied to better represent the data grounded in the women's descriptions . The women's qualitative descriptors will be used to develop a quanti tative instrument to measure older women's interpretations of exercise . Future research should involve testing the self-regulation of exerci se maintenance model and era mining interventions that affect episode- specific interpretations and thereby exercise maintenance.