CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Physical fitness is the ability of the body to

function efficiently and effectively in work, leisure

activities, and emergency situations (Perry, 2016). It is

the capacity of an athlete to meet the varied physical

demands of a specific sport without reducing to a fatigued

state (Davis, 2000). Likewise, in times of war, physical

fitness becomes a matter of national vigilance and honor

especially among the American military who served during

the World War II (McKay & McKay, 2015). A physically fit

person can resist diseases from sedentary lifestyles.

One way to be physically fit is to exercise. Exercise

manages stress which improves problem solvers to be more in

control of their lives (Taker, 2010). It also helps

revitalization of energy that gives enjoyment and prolongs

sports participation that enhances the quality of life

(Stodel, 2004).

To exercise is necessary, but to get started and

continue regularly is another thing. The motivation to

exercise is important. The motivation to exercise is the

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biological drive or desire to fulfill a potential strength

and meaning in life (Minden, 2013). There are many reasons

why people are involved in exercising activity.

Pagoto (2014) said that there are people who were

not motivated to exercise to avoid any experience of

discomfort like fatigue, blisters, and many more.

Furthermore, Warber (2019) reported that lack of time was

the prime reason of the Americans not to exercise.

However, Markland and Hardy (1993) reported that most

people who were motivated to exercise was for stress

management, enjoyment, revitalization, challenge, social

recognition, affiliation, competition, health pressures,

ill-health avoidance, positive health, weight management,

appearance, strength and endurance, and nimbleness.

The stress management is needed by busy people and to

do gym workout changes the activity and gives a relaxing

experience. The revitalization is viewed as imbuing

something with new life and energy. The enjoyment

motivation is thinking of the pleasure experienced in the

exercise program. The challenge is viewed arriving at

certain goal, which is to be physically fit. The social

recognition is the goal to build meaningful relationships

with each other. The affiliation is for the reason of

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feeling the sense of belongingness. The competition is

accomplishing the requirement of the program to receive the

award. The health pressures are to abide by the

prescription needed on the health issues at hand. This

motivation is to accomplish the advice of the medical

doctor. The ill-health avoidance is to avoid health

problems, such as heart disease, cancer, hypertension, and

obesity. The positive health is participating in physical

activity to stay healthy and create a healthy lifestyle.

The weight management is to control getting obese or to

reduce weight. The appearance is to look good and maintain

vital body statistics ready for swimsuit season. The

strength and endurance is for athletes to make their body

stay in shape and in good condition. The nimbleness is to

observed to be quicker and agile in doing actions at hand.

Days Spent in Gym Workout

Gym workout is a regular exercise program done in a

gym (Kneginje-Zorke 60, 2019). In this kind of program a

participant can choose the type, intensity and duration of

the training. This workout is usually well attended by

professional instructors. The interested participants can

stay longer or can do five repetitions or more. According

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to Tucker (2019), there is no exact time when one can do

gym for work out. The length of time depends on how active

the participant would be. Hosie (2017) said that fitness

enthusiast can decide to spend less time to work out in the

gym. The training can be once or twice a week.

The gym is typically furnished with usual workout

equipment such as the Lat Pull-down, pull-up/dip machine,

seated row machine, chest press, seated leg press,

hamstring curl, cable machine, dumbbells, mat, punching

bag, and others (Baum & Neporent, 2019). The dumbbells

workout develops the biceps, triceps, back, shoulders,

forearms, legs. Mat is a piece of a thick soft material

like rubber to use in doing set-ups, crunches, leg raise,

and others. These exercises develop the abdominal muscle.

Punching bag is used when practicing punching. Punching can

develop stamina and balance. Chest Press develops the

muscle in the chest. Hanging Leg Raise develops the

abdominal muscle.

There are benefits achieved in working out in the gym.

Breene (2013) enumerated 13. These are reducing stress,

boosting happy chemicals, improving self-confidence,

enjoying the great outdoors, preventing cognitive decline,

alleviating anxiety, boosting brainpower, sharpening

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memory, helping control addiction, increasing relaxation,

getting more things done, tapping into creativity, and

inspiring others. Gaining these benefits can motivate the

informed people to spend time in gym workout.

Studies on Days Spent in Gym Workout

and Motivation to Exercise

There were researchers who studied on days spent in

gym workout and motivation to exercise. Kilpatrick, Hebert,

and Bartholomew (2005) observed in their study that only

38% of college students in the United States participated

in regular vigorous exercise activity, and only 20% do

regular moderate exercise activity. The result shows that

the days spent in gym workout has no relationship to

motivation to exercise. It was reported in one study that

of the participants who started the gym workout program 50%

dropped even before six months (Wilson & Brookfield, 2009).

The main reason was time constraints. Saint Fores (2017)

also reported that lack of gym equipment was another reason

that exercise program was halted. However, Bukhsh, Shahzad,

and Nisa (2011) found that days-spent in gym workout had a

significant positive relationship to motivation to exercise

of the subjects in the study. The main motivation of the

regular gym workout was for control of stress levels.

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Synthesis

Physical fitness is very important to live a healthy

life. This fitness can also be achieved in gym workout.

However, the motivation to join this type of program is an

important consideration because reports vary. Figure 1

shows the concept of the study.

MOTIVATION TO EXERCISE
 Stress Management
 Revitalization
 Enjoyment
DAYS SPENT IN  Challenge
GYM WORKOUT  Social Recognition
 Affiliation
 Competition
 Health Pressures
 Ill-Health Avoidance
 Positive Health
 Weight Management
 Appearance
 Strength &Endurance
 Nimbleness

Figure 1.The relationship of days spent in gym workout to

motivation to exercise.

Statement of Purpose

The main purpose of this study was to determine the

relationship of days spent in gym workout to motivation to

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exercise. To find the answer to the main purpose of this

study, the following questions were formulated:

1. What is the motivation to exercise of the respondents in

terms of:

(a) stress management

(b) revitalization

(c) enjoyment

(d) challenge

(e) social recognition

(f) affiliation

(g) competition

(h) health Pressures

(i) ill-Health Avoidance

(j) Positive Health

(k) weight Management

(l) appearance

(m) strength & endurance

(n) nimbleness?

2. What is the most number of days spent in gym workout of

the participants?

3. Is there a significant relationship in the days spent in

gym workout to motivation to exercise of the

respondents?
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Null hypothesis

There is no significant relationship in the days spent

in gym workout to motivation to exercise of the

respondents.

Alternative hypothesis

There is a significant relationship in the days spent

in gym workout to motivation to exercise of the

respondents.

Significance of the Study

The result of this study can give information to the

public unto the kind of motivation of people who decided to

join the gym workout type of exercise. Furthermore, the gym

administrators can be informed that there is a specific

motivation their clients had in coming to the gym for

workout.

Definition of Terms

Days spent in gym workout refers to the number of days

a physical fitness enthusiast spent in the gym to workout.

In this study, the days spent in gym workout was determined

by asking the participants the number of days in a week

they spent in working out the exercise program in the gym.

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Motivation to exercise refers to the driving force of

an individual to do gym workout. In this study the

motivation to exercise of the respondents was determined

using the Exercise Motivation Inventory developed by

Markland and Hardy (1993).

 CHAPTER 2

METHODOLOGY

This chapter discusses the research design,

environment, subjects, instrument, and procedure employed

in this study. It includes the data collection and

treatment. Some considered research ethics are also

discussed here.

Research Design

The descriptive-correlation design was used in this

study. It described the relationship of the days spent in

gym workout to the motivation to exercise of the

respondents.

Research Environment

This study was administered in a gym in Digos City,

Davao del Sur, Philippines. The gym was located near the

public market. This was a client friendly gym because it

had enough parking spaces for the clients’ car and this gym

was not difficult to locate. This is the first well-

furnished gym in this city. Likewise, the management was

good.

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Research Subjects

The respondents of this study were the clients of the

gym who joined the gym workout program offered by the

management with gym instructors. The participants of the

gym workout program were of different ages and gender.

Research Instrument

The instrument used in this study was the Exercise

Motivation Inventory developed by Markland and Hardy

(1993). This instrument determined the type of motivation

of the participants to join the gym workout. Added at the

top of the questionnaire was the question about the number

days in a week spent in gym workout.

Research Procedure

There were ethical issues considered in the conduct of

this study. The approval of the research committee was

first sought. After all the permissions were granted, the

assurance of keeping confidentiality of the data was made.

The respondents were coded to ensure the said

confidentiality.

Data Gathering

During the data gathering, the researcher gave the

questionnaires to all participants who were working out in

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the gym that very day. The retrieval of the questionnaires

was made right after the respondents answered. The

researcher thanked each participant and started to review

the papers for complete answers.

Data Treatment

After checking the completeness of answers in the

questionnaire, the researcher started to code each paper

right away. Then the data encoding followed. The researcher

checked and rechecked the values for correctness before

computing for the answer to the specific questions. To come

up with the desired result, the descriptive statistics was

used to answer question number one to two. To find the

answer to question number three, the Pearson Correlation

formula was used.

 CHAPTER 3

DATA PRESENTATION, ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION

This chapter presents the analysis and interpretation

of the collected data on the relationship of days spent in

gym workout to motivation to exercise. These data were

taken from the people who worked out in the gym on the day

the researcher requested to come. The presentation of the

results follows the sequence of the stated questions in

Chapter 1.

Question number 1 states: what is the motivation to

exercise of the respondents in terms of stress management,

revitalization, enjoyment, challenge , social recognition,

affiliation, competition , health pressures, ill-health

avoidance, positive health, weight management, appearance,

strength & endurance, and nimbleness? To answer this

question, Table 1 was created. The table presents the mean,

standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis values. The

descriptive interpretation of the mean is found below the

table.

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Table 1

The Motivation to Exercise of the Participants

Mean Standard Skewness Kurtosis
Deviation
Positive Health 4.715 0.401 -2.05 5.93

Ill Health Avoidance 4.563 0.492 -1.50 3.24

Strength & Endurance 4.510 0.494 -1.14 1.23

Revitalization 4.486 0.558 -1.00 0.05

Appearance 4.448 0.531 -0.81 0.02

Weight Management 4.422 0.665 -1.97 5.03

Enjoyment 4.375 0.636 -1.21 1.04

Stress management 4.354 0.644 -0.84 -0.33

Challenge 4.302 0.668 -1.28 1.45

Nimbleness 4.243 0.822 -1.50 2.28

Social Recognition 4.172 0.916 -1.05 -0.29

Affiliation 4.125 0.828 -1.15 0.74

Competition 3.901 1.119 -1.22 0.48

Health Pressures 3.813 0.912 -1.13 0.58

*note: 0.00-3.99 (poor), 4.00-7.99 (below average), 8.00-11.99

(average), and 12.00-15.99 (above average), and 16.00-20.00
(excellent)

The table one shows that the highest motivation to

exercise of the participants was for positive health. This

was followed by all other indicators that elucidated gym

workout is for wellbeing or keeping a healthy life.

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Furthermore, the participants as a whole do gym

workout not exactly for competition. The lowest motivation

is health pressure which implies that the participants were

not medically prescribed to do gym workout. After analyzing

the stress management and social recognition, these are the

two indicators with negative kurtoses values. These show

that the scores were spread out which means that there were

gym workout participants who were much and least stress

management and social recognition motivated.

The question Number 2 states: what is the most number

of days spent in gym workout of the participants? To answer

this question, Table 2 was created. The table represents

the frequency, and percentage.

Table 2

Number of Days in Gym Workout

Gym Workout Frequency Percentage

2 Days 5 10.40

3 Days 26 54.20

4 Days 3 6.20

5 Days 14 29.20

Total 48 100.00
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The Table 2 shows that the most number of days the

participants spent in gym workout is five days in a week

but there were 14 of them only. However, more than half of

the participants do gym workout in three days.

Question number 3 states: is there a significant

relationship in the days spent in gym workout to motivation

to exercise of the respondents? To answer this question,

Table 3 was created. The table shows the correlation co-

efficient and their p-values.

Table 3

The Relationship of the Days Spent in Gym Workout to

Motivation to Exercise
Indicator r-value p-value Interpretation
Stress management .290 .046 Significant
Revitalization .100 .501 Not significant
Enjoyment .073 .622 Not significant
Challenge .066 .654 Not significant
Social recognition .051 .728 Not significant
Affiliation .044 .768 Not significant
Competition .024 .869 Not significant
Health pressure .139 .347 Not significant
Ill health avoidance .240 .101 Not significant
Positive health .210 .153 Not significant
Weight management .102 .491 Not significant
Appearance .169 .250 Not significant
Strength & Endurance .124 .400 Not significant
Nimbleness -.159 .281 Not significant
Note: Significant at 0.05 levels
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The Table 3 shows that the days spent in gym workout

of the participants has a positive significant relationship

to only stress management indicator of motivation to

exercise based on the p-value which is lower than 0.05

level of significance. Therefore, the null hypothesis

stating that “There is no significant relationship in the

days spent in gym workout to motivation to exercise of the

respondents” is rejected.

This means that when the numbers of days the

respondents would spend in gym workout increased, the

respondents were able to manage stress better. Further,

other indicators of motivation to exercise did not have

significant relationship to the number of days spent in gym

workout. This finding supports the study of Bukhsh,

Shahzad, and Nisa (2011) who reported that the days spent

in gym workout had a significant relationship to motivation

to exercise which can control the levels of stress and even

chronic stress experienced by the participant.

 CHAPTER 4

FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

This section of the paper includes a brief discussion

of the findings, conclusion, and recommendations concerning

the relationship of number of days spent in gym workout and

motivation to exercise of the participants. The data were

collected among the 48 participants available in the

targeted gym.

Findings

The findings revealed that the participants do gym

workout basically for keeping good health. Furthermore,

they had personal program in gym workout in terms of number

of days in a week. Most of them spent three days per week.

After correlating the number of days in gym workout with

the motivation to exercise, only stress management had a

significant relationship and it was positive relationship.

Conclusion

Based on the results, gym workout can help stress

management as motivation to exercise. Gym workout can help

maintain wellbeing.

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Recommendation

The researcher recommended that the public be informed

that gym workout is good for maintaining good health

especially managing stress. In addition, further study be

made to find the main motivation to gym workout based on

the result that almost all of the indicators of motivation

to exercise were rated below average only.

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References

Baum, I. & Neporent, L. (2019). Gym workout equipment.

Retrieved from https://www.shape.com/fitness/tips/gym-
workout-exercise-machines-actually-work

Breene, S. (2013). Benefits in working out in the gym

reduces stress. Retrieved from https://greatist.com/
fitness/13-awesome-mental-health-benefits-exercise

McKay, B. & McKay, K. (2015). A physically fit person can

resist diseases from sedentary lifestyles. Retrieved
from http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/01/11/wwii-
workout-week-the-importance-of-physical-fitness/

Bukhsh, Q., Shahzad, A., & Nisa, M. (2011). A study of

learning stress and stress management strategies of
the students of postgraduate level: A case study of
Islamic University of Bahawalpur, Pakistan. Retrieved
from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/aritcle

Davis, B. (2000). Physical fitness is the capacity of an

athlete to meet the varied physical demands of a
specific sport without reducing to a fatigued state.
Retrieved from https://www.brianmac.co.uk/conditon.
html

Hosie, R. (2017). How many times a week should you

exercise, how long should your workouts be? Retrieved
from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-
and-families/how-many-times-exercise-week-long-
workouts-gym-lifestyle-health-fitness-a7910676.html

Kilpatrick, M., Hebert, E. & Bartholomew, J. (2005).

College students’ motivation for physical activity:
Differentiating men’s and women’s motives for sport
participation and exercise. Retrieved from Journal of
American College Health: J of ACH, 54(2), pp. 87-94.

Kneginje-Zorke 60, B. (2019). Benefits of gym workout.

Retrieved from https://fitnesstribe.rs/en/training/
gym-workout-package/
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Markland, D. & Hardy, L. (1993). The exercise motivations

inventory: preliminary development and validity of a
measure of individuals' reasons for participation in
regular physical exercise. Retrieved from http://
www.FitnessLogistics.com/articles/ExerciseMotivation

Minden, J. (2013). Exercise motivation: Psychological

principles. Retrieved from http://www.joelminden.com

Pagoto, S. (2014). The real reason we don't exercise.

Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/
blog/shrink/201411/the-real-reason-we-dont-exercise

Perry, M. (2016). It is a measure of body’s ability to

function efficiently and effectively in work, leisure
activities, and emergency situations. Retrieved from
http://www.artofmanliness.com/2015/01/11/wwii-workout
week-the-importance-of-physical-fitness/

Saint Fores, J. (2017. How to make dumbbells (cement

weights) at home. Retrieved from https://caloriebee.
com/fitness-equipment/How-to-Make-Simple-Fitness-
Weights-to-Boost-your-Body-Exercise-at-Home

Stodel, E. (2004). The meaning of enjoyment for

recreational golfer: Insights for enhancing sport
enjoyment. Retrieved from www.zoneofexcellence.ca/pdf

Tucker, A. (2019). How often you should workout in a week.

Retrieved from https://www.self.com/story/heres-what-
a-perfect-week-of-working-out-looks-like

Taker, L. N. (2010). Stress management. Retrieved from

www.cls.utk.edu/pdf/ls/Week3_Lesson22.pdf

Warber, A. (2019). Reasons people don't exercise. https://

exercise.lovetoknow.com/Reasons_People_Don't_Exercise

Wilson, K. & Brookfield, D. (2009). Effect of goal setting

on motivation and adherence in a six-week exercise
program. International Journal of Sport and Exercise
Physiology, 6, pp.89-100.
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Appendices
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APPENDIX A

Letter of Request

November 6, 2018

To Dr. Olivia Vasquez

Dean of School of Education
Mountain View College
Mt. Nebo, Valencia City, Bukidnon

Greetings!

I am undergoing a research entitled Days Spent in Gym

Workout in Relation to Motivation to Exercise. I am writing

for permission to collect data about the people who are

working out in the gym in Digos City, Davao Del Sur.

If approval is granted, the raw data will be kept

anonymous and confidentiality will be assured of the

respondents. Your approval to gather data for this study

will be greatly appreciated.

Sincerely Yours,

Ruel Tambalque II

Noted by:

Monyfer B. Porquez,LPT.MAT Olivia B. Vasquez, LPT,PhD

Adviser SOE dean
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Curriculum Vitae

Personal Information

Name Ruel D. Tambalque II

Home address Km. 68 Matanao, Camanchiles,

Davao Del Sur

Date of Birth September 2, 1993

Place of Birth Digos city, Davao Del Sur

Civil Status Single

Citizenship Filipino

Religion Seventh-day Adventist

Email address jantamjan2@gmail.com

Contact number 09064133511

Educational Attainment:

Elementary March 2006

Digos City SDA Elementary School
Digos City, Davao del Sur

Secondary March 2010

South Philippine Adventist
College
Digos City, Davao del Sur

Tertiary Mountain View College

(June 2010-2019)

Degree Sought BSEd MAPEH

Extra-curricular Participant

Member Singing Group

AY 2016
Hilltop Symphonic Band

President of Emerald Hall 2014-2016