Exercise motivation of college students in relation to their Health related physical fitness

Abstract

Grounded in self-determination theory (SDT), this study aimed at investigating the relationship of self determined motivational styles to health related fitness and perceived competence of learning among female college students of physical education. To assess Self Regulatory Motivational Styles, Exercise Self-Regulation Questionnaire (Ryan, & Connell, 1989) was used, measuring four styles of motivation namely extrinsic motivation, introjected motivation, Identified and Intrinsic Motivation. To assess Health related fitness, AAPHERD Test (1980) was used. These tests were administered on 50 female physical education students in the age range of 18-25 years of Gorakhpur. Descriptive statistics and correlation were adopted to analyze the data. Results revealed that the extrinsic motivational style indicated a significant and a negative relationship with flexibility (lower back) among the students.