Actividad físico-deportiva, factores motivacionales y satisfacción con la imagen corporal de los usuarios de los centros de fitness en Extremadura

Abstract

The research project was centered on determining what physical and sport related activities were practiced by those people who attended fitness centers, as well as to study the regulation of the motivations and the motives for the practice of physical-sport activities of the users according to their sex, age, level of studies, time spent as a user, and finally the amount of time spent exercising per week. Moreover, it has been studied the association between the regulation of the motivations and reasons for physical practice with the self-awareness of body satisfaction and intention to continue to be physically active in the future. The research was undertaken using a descriptive, inferential, and transversal design using a survey methodology. The sample was formed by 510 users of fitness centers throughout the autonomous community of Extremadura, 58.9% women and 41.1% men. The results showed that men performed more physical-sport activity a week than women (p <.05). The most practiced activity by men was bodybuilding (RTC = 12.1), while women preferred pilates (RTC = 7.5), zumba (RTC = 10.3) and GAP (RTC = 5.2). The highest amount of motivations occurred in the integrated-intrinsic and in the identified. All the motivations for physical practice scored high marks, although the highest score was in general fitness. The perception of body satisfaction varied according to gender, age and seniority in fitness centers (p <.05). The users who exercised the most weekly were those who intended to be more physically active (p <.05).