Read time: 4.5 minutes

Most of us know exercise is good for our health.

Despite this, more than 50% of Australian adults do not meet physical activity guidelines.

And even in those who intend to exercise, almost half don’t follow through with these intentions.

So why might the health benefits of physical activity not be enough to get most people active?

And what should we focus on instead?

A recent article shed light on these questions.

Part of the reason why health benefits are not 'enough' relates to how we make choices.

Being physically active means we need to decide between doing so (e.g., going for a run) or another more sedentary option (e.g., watching TV on the couch).

This process involves weighing up the costs and benefits of each option.

In doing so, we'll usually choose the option with the highest perceived value (higher benefits and lower costs).

So why might focusing on the physical health benefits sway us away from being more active?

The reality is, most health benefits of physical activity occur after accumulating a given amount of physical activity over a long period of time.

These long-term health benefits are therefore not immediate and intangible. And both of these factors devalue our perception of these benefits.

In other words, the costs of physical activity ("it's so much effort to get up and go for a run") start to outweigh the benefits ("I know that running will improve my health").

So, what influences our decision to be physically active or not?

To answer this we need to consider 3 factors working against us:

1. Effort discounting
2. Delay discounting
3. Belief distortion

Factor #1: Effort discounting

We tend to value something less as the level of effort needed to obtain the benefits increases. This is known as effort discounting.

Effort is something we often avoid at all costs. So how much effort is needed to 'benefit' from physical activity?

As an extreme example, consider the effects of exercise on one possible benefit - increasing lifespan. Our best estimates suggest regular physical activity could, on average, add 0.4 to 4.2 years to our life expectancy.

OK, so maybe not as impressive as you'd hoped.....

And how much 'effort' might be needed to get this particular benefit?

Assuming one met the current guideline of 150 minutes of physical activity per week, and did so for most of their adult life (say between ages 20 and 80), they'd spend about 1 year and 3 months of their life (waking hours only) being physically active.

Yes, a lot of effort and time for a benefit that may be negligible. And not guaranteed either.

BUT - clearly there are FAR more benefits to physical activity than extending lifespan per se, such as improving the quality of our years, or healthspan.

This is just a food-for-thought example of how we might weigh up the perceived costs and benefits of physical activity.

Factor #2: Delay discounting

If we exercise only for health benefits, another factor working against us is delay discounting. This describes our tendency to value immediate rewards more than those occuring sometime in the future.

When offered a financial reward (say $900) now, or a larger reward (say $1000) in 6 months time, most people would rather sacrifice $100 then wait 6 months for the bigger reward.

It's a similar thing with the health benefits (or any long-term effects) of exercise.

Many of the benefits people exercise for, such as weight loss or bigger muscles, do not come quickly. And owing to things such as our genetics, there are no assurances we'll achieve these benefits to the degree we are seeking.

And guess what? Many things that are not-so-good for us in the long-term have instant rewards. Junk food. Binge-watching Netflix. Smoking. The list goes on.

This makes delay discounting a powerful force working against our choice to be physically active.

Factor #3: Belief distortion

We also have a tendency to interpret the world in such a way that serves our biases. That confirms what we already believe to be true.

This same phenomenon leads us to overestimate the likelihood of positive events (such as living a long, healthy life), and underestimate the likelihood of negative events (like dying prematurely from a disease).

Because of this belief distortion effect, we value the health benefits of physical activity less if we think a future negative health event is unlikely.

When combined with our tendency to avoid effort and value immediate rewards, these 3 factors work against us if our main reason for being physically active is future health benefits.

This is why there is a call to increase the emphasis on the short-term benefits of physical activity, such as increased pleasure or enjoyment - also known as positive affective experiences.

Why would focusing on pleasure or enjoyment foster more regular physical activity?

This comes back to those 3 principles that influence our decisions.

If we experience pleasure or enjoyment during physical activity, the perceived 'cost' is reduced. Positive affective experiences - or states of flow - can reduce perceptions of effort. If we enjoy doing something, we find it's easier to do. If we can achieve this with physical activity, we start to tip the scales in favour of the 'benefits' over the 'effort' required, countering the effort-discounting effect.

Positive affective experiences or 'rewards' are also immediate as they occur during or shortly after physical activity. Suddenly we no longer need to wait months or years to reap the benefits of physical activity, countering the delay-discounting effect.

Finally, positive affective experiences during exercise could change or strengthen our beliefs about the benefits of regular physical activity - a positive effect of the beliefs distortion concept. If we can shift our perceptions of physical activity from being unpleasant to something that is enjoyable, we are more likely to see it as beneficial.

As you can see, increasing our focus towards pleasure or enjoyment during and/or after exercise has the power to counter these 3 forces working against our decisions to be physically active.

The bottom line: our decisions are based on what delivers the highest perceived value (higher benefits and lower costs).

The potential health benefits of physical activity are often no match for choices offering immediate 'rewards' with little-to-no effort (such as binge-watching TV or scrolling social media).

So, it may help to reframe our mindset around exercise.

We know it's possible to teach people maximise the pleasure and enjoyment they experience from exercise just by giving them reminders to notice these feelings.

Paying more attention to these short-term benefits could be a useful strategy to help us choose the active option more often.

And doing so could keep us on track for many of the longer-term benefits we know regular exercise can bring.

Thanks for reading!

Until next week,

Jackson

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