A healthy lifestyle in all life stages is an increasingly topical subject. The importance of physical activity for health has been thoroughly researched and much is known about its positive effects. Despite all evidence, the physical activity of people is too low, which we attribute to lack of motivation.
The purpose of the research was to determine the motives for participation in physical activity of the elderly in Ljubljana and its surroundings. The study included 115 elderly people: 82 women and 33 men who attend an organized physical activity ”Active Day for Active Ageing”. The Active Day program, created by the founder of the Fitness Clinic, is being implemented at the DEOS retirement homes in eight locations - Ljubljana Trnovo, Ljubljana Črnuče, Notranje Gorice, Horjul, Medvode, Cerknica, Gornji Grad, and Zimzelen Topolšica. The participants were given a questionnaire ‘Scale of motifs for physical activity’ (PMQ - Gill, adapted in LM: Tušak 1997). Factor analysis of the data gave us eight factors which explain 63.64% of the total variance. The most pronounced factor, enjoyment of exercise, friendship and socialization, adds up for 20,86% of the variance. The other factors are equally distributed and represent: the acquisition of social status and experiencing challenges, release of energy and tension in exercise under supervision, success and productivity, well-being and health, internal motivation and friendeship, the acquisition of new skills, and the preservation and improvement of skills. Comparing the values of the main motives we established that the motives for participation in physical activity differ in terms of gender, level of education and location, and are the same regarding the age of the participants. The results obtained will contribute to the further research of the field and the structuring of training programs adapted to the elderly.
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