Fostering a Culture of Lifestyle Physical Activity That Is Relatable for All Individuals and Communities to Embrace

M. Felicia Cavallini^1, and David J. Dyck²

¹Limestone College, Gaffney, South Carolina, USA

²University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada

Cite this paper

M. Felicia Cavallini and David J. Dyck. Fostering a Culture of Lifestyle Physical Activity That Is Relatable for All Individuals and Communities to Embrace. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2019; 7(5):182-188. doi: 10.12691/AJPHR-7-5-3

Abstract

Most American and Canadian adults do not obtain the recommended PA guidelines of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) and muscle-strengthening activity each week. Decades of attempting to increase PA within the adult population have clearly fallen short. What do we know about adult preferences, barriers and perceptions to PA and exercise that can influence the way we promote, connect and educate communities to move in a way that is more meaningful for them and likely to continue throughout adulthood and beyond? The purpose of this mini-review is to provide a rationale for the need to promote community lifestyle PA in a variety of ways based on research findings that can help educate, inspire and motivate all populations to become more engaged in PA. Customized, tailored, community PA visuals which are culturally and environmentally specific will be presented. Community graphics representing a small town (MyGaffney Activity), a mid-size town (MyGuelph Activity), a US state (MySouthCarolina Activity), and an airport (MyAirport Activity) will be introduced. The ultimate goal is to incorporate an effective PA intervention through a lifestyle PA paradigm addition, which will emulate a more realistic, doable, enjoyable, and natural form of PA in addition to the already established traditional exercise model for the benefit of the public to increase PA levels and improve health outcomes.

Keywords

physical activity, community engagement, intervention strategies, health promotion, motivationally tailored activity graphics

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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