Theories of exercise behavior

The understanding and promotion of health-related exercise and physical act ivity needs to be based on appropriate theory. After a brief summary of ath eoretical approaches, such as motives and barriers, we review theories of e xercise behavior using four categories. These are belief-attitude theories, competence-based theories, control-based theories, and decision-making the ories. Individual theoretical approaches reviewed are the Health Belief Mod el, Protection Motivation Theory, Theories of Reasoned Action and Planned B ehavior (TPB), Self-Efficacy Theory (SET), Locus of Control, Self-Determina tion Theory (SDT), and the Transtheoretical Model of behavior change (TTM). We conclude that the most supported theories in the exercise domain are th e TPB, SET and the TTM, with SDT starting to receive attention and support.