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THE REASON FOR NON-
PARTICIPATION IN PHYSICAL
ACTIVITIES
Viet Dinh
Instructor: Ngo Phuong Dung & Le Tuan Anh
JULY 2, 2015
IMC UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED AND SCIENCES KREMS (AUSTRIA) – HANOI CAMPUS
Km 9, Nguyen Trai Street, Thanh Xuan District, Ha Noi, Vietnam

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Contents
Cover Page ...........................................................................................................Error!Bookmarknotdefined.
Introduction...................................................................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................................................3
Method ............................................................................................................................................................................................4
Results............................................................................................................................................................................................5
Discussion.....................................................................................................................................................................................7
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................................................................8
References....................................................................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction
As a healthy lifestyle and activity, doing physical activities has recently become
increasingly popular around the world. There are so many ways that activities
contributes to everyday life. The habit of working out regularly can prevent
people from diseases, obesity, and stress or even prolong their longevity. Playing
sport also has an effect on overall appearance. Moreover, it is proven that
exercising can improve self-esteem and confidence. Due to a few of
aforementioned benefits, it can be easily seen that exercise plays an essential
role in our existence. However, many people fail to aware of the great
significance of sport. They plead lack of time, health problem, working under
pressure to excuse their laziness. Hence, this research will aim at investigating
the answers for the question: “Why people don’t do physical activities?”
Literature Review
Briefly, Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal
muscles that result in energy expenditure. The energy expenditure can be
measured in kilocalories. Everyone performs physical activity in order to sustain
life; however, the amount is largely subject to personal choice and may vary
considerably from person to person as well as for a given person over time
(Caspersen, Powell, Christenson, 1985). Even busy people will find that exercise
can help improve their lifestyle. Regular activities provides both physical and
mental benefits that can help people organize their life, have more energy and
generally feel more content according to Adrienne Warber, 2015. The benefit of
physical activities are numerous so why people do not practice? In a recent
research, studies show that 60% of American adults do not get the
recommended amount of physical activity and over 25% of adults are not active
at all (Paige Waehner, 2014). There are thousands of reason to excuse for their
laziness such as “I don’t have time”, “I’m too tired”, “Exercise is boring”, “I just
don’t like to move”, “I’ve tried before”, “Exercise is painful”, “I don’t have money”
…

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Method
To expose the above issue, the researcher used qualitative research by asking
randomly some people on the street. First of all what is qualitative research?
Qualitative research is a type of scientific research. In general terms, scientific
research consists of an investigation that:
 Seeks answers to a question
 Systematically uses a predefined set of procedures to answer the question
 Collects evidence
 Produces findings that were not determined in advance
 Produces findings that are applicable beyond the immediate boundaries of
the study
Additionally, it seeks to understand a given research problem or topic from the
perspectives of the local population it involves. Qualitative research is especially
effective in obtaining culturally specific information about the values, opinions,
behaviors, and social contexts of particular populations. In detail, the researcher
used “In-depth interview modules” which is optimal for collecting data on
individuals’ personal histories, perspectives, and experiences, particularly when
sensitive topics are being explored. Moreover, the forms that the researcher took
was field notes, recordings and transcripts.
The data analysis followed a number of steps based on the Grounded Theory
coding paradigm proposed by (Strauss and Corbin, 1998). This comprises open,
axial and selective coding stages to ensure conceptual development and density.
The core idea of using this paradigm is to use a structured method to establish a
connection between unformatted text and the research objectives (Binder and
Edward, 2010).
In the open coding, the researcher read through his data combined with the
transcriptions of the interviews and synthesized to some categories. Use different
colored highlights to distinguish each interviewee concept and category. What

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should have at the end of this stage are transcripts with seven different colors in
lots of highlighted text. Transfer these into a brief outline, with concepts being
main headings and categories being subheadings.
In axial coding, the researcher was using his concepts and categories while re-
reading the answer and identify relationships among the open codes.
Finally, selective coding is to transfer concepts and categories into a data table.
The researcher classified the interviewees by gender: Male and Female; to make
a comparison because both were asked with the same questions but the
outcomes were like night and day. To obtain a particular result, divided into group
was the best way.
Results
With the busy lives most people lead, there are many reasons people do not
exercise. Exercise can sometimes be the last thing on a person's “To Do list” with
a schedule filled with demanding jobs and other stuffs. However, what most
people do not realize is that regular exercise can make life easier. After
categorizing, the researcher have found out there are four main reason to excuse
for their non-participant in physical activities: Lack of motivation, Work and study
constraint, Financial constraint, Time constraint.
17%
23%
43%
17%
Female
Work Constraints
FinancialConstraints
Lack of motivation
Time Constraints

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Overall, it is clear that Lack of Motivation represents the largest portion. For more
detail, Female had 15 different answers about their lack of motivation like “afraid
of hurting myself”, “find it hard to walk long distances or play any activities” and
so on. They prefer other activities rather than doing exercise: “like scrapbooking
and laying around watching DVD's”, “Social activity”, “Finding a job” … Followed
up by Financial Constraints, most of them are not enough budget to go to the
gym or they would rather spend money for other purpose like an overseas trip.
Finally, the rest reason were equally, which is Work Constraints and Time
Constraints. They all answer in the same way for instance, “I have to work for
hours” “I have a full time job and three children” “My job drive me crazy” “I don’t
have enough time” …
Similar to Female, the most common reason of Male was Lack of motivation.
Instead of go to the gym, they prefer watching TV, playing computer games, take
part in model building especially Warcraft and engaging in socializing. They said
that their body was fine, not overweight/fat. On the other hand, lack of confident
and shy to go to the gym, do not in a team to play with were their opinions to
excuse for their laziness. It occupied more than a half of their reasons. The other
was Work and Study Constraint. They feel tired after a long day working, totally
exhausted, works and studies took all of their time or even unemployed.
Followed up by Time Constraint and the last was Financial Constraint. Only 7%
told they feel go to the gym was costly.
23%
7%
53%
17%
Male
Work & Study
Constraint
FinancialConstraint
Lack of motivation
Time Constraint

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Discussion
There has been a number of similarity between the non-participation in male and
female. Both groups have the same reason to excuse for their non-participation.
They are both prefer spending their time on social activities or lay down in bed
watching TV, playing games, sleeping, going out for a coffee and seeking a job.
Their schedule always fulfill with many activities, there are no space for physical
activities although they know its advantages. They did not concern much on their
healthy lifestyle; they just head on reality that can help them afford their life.
The relationship
Work constraints
Financial constraints
Lack of motivation
Time constraints
Busy
w ith
w ork
5 to 9 job
Tired after w ork
Expensive feeSaving for sth else
Lazy No partner
Other activities
Shy
w ith
w ork
Body balance
Not enough time
Take care kids

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Conclusion
Many theories have showed the benefits of physical activities but it seem like people did
not concern about it, they excuse many reason for their laziness. This research has
already pointed out that reason and maybe people need to be awake to get a healthy
life, to avoid diseases. They should arrange their timetable to fit exercise. It is possible
to fit exercise in a busy schedule like hire a personal trainer, put together a workout
plan, take exercise class once a week, Put physical activity into all aspects of life: take
the stair instead of the elevator, do housework, walk the dog… While there are many
reasons that people choose not to exercise, there are even more reasons to stick to a
workout program. It is worth rearranging a busy schedule to fit exercise in for a happier
and more productive life. Stop being lazy, being active.
References
CARL J.CASPERSEN, P.M. (n.d.). Physical Activity, Exercise,andPhysicalFitness:Definitionsand
DistinctionsforHealth-RelatedResearch.
Channel, B. H. (2014). Physicalactivity - overcomingthe barriers. Bluearth . Retrieved from
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/physical_activity_tips_to_
overcome_the_barriers?open
HR, B. (1995). ResearchMethodsinAnthropology(SecondEditioned.).
Springen, K. (2012). Top 6 Exercise Excuses and How to Beat Them. Retrieved from
http://www.webmd.com/fitness-exercise/guide/the-top-6-exercise-excuses-and-how-to-
beat-them?page=2

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Strauss, A. L., & Corbin, J. M. (1998). Basics of QualitativeResearch: Techniques andProceduresfor
DevelopingGroundedTheory. SagePublications, Inc.
Waehner, P.(2014). Top 10 Reasons YouDon't Exercise. AboutHealth.
Warber, A. (2015). Reasons People Don'tExercise. lovetoknow.