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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Motivations, barriers and exercise
preferences among female undergraduates:
A need assessment analysis
Mohd Sham OthmanID
1☯
, Arimi Fitri Mat LudinID
2,3☯
*, Lew Leong Chen
2,3☯
,
Hanisah Hossain
2☯
, Ida Irwani Abdul Halim
2☯
, Mohd Jamil Sameeha
4,5☯
, Ahmad Rashidi
Mohamed Tahir
6☯
1Center for Toxicology & Health Risk Studies (CORE), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2Biomedical Science Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti
Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 3Center for Healthy Ageing and Wellness, Faculty of Health
Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 4Nutritional Sciences Programme,
Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 5Centre for
Community Health Studies (ReaCH), Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia, 6Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Cyberjaya, Cyberjaya, Selangor, Malaysia
☯These authors contributed equally to this work.
*arimifitri@ukm.edu.my
Abstract
Introduction
The decreasing level of physical activity among female undergraduates is worrying as it is
associated with the increased risk of non-communicable diseases. Thus, this study aimed
to identify the motivations, barriers and preferences towards exercise among female under-
graduates in Malaysia.
Methods
A non-probability purposive sampling was used for the recruitment process. The inclusion
criteria of the participants were registered female undergraduates and aged between 18–30
years old. A semi-structured in-depth interview was used to collect topic-related information
from the participants and signed consents were obtained prior to the interview. The interview
questions were on respondents’ understanding of exercise, motivation and barriers to exer-
cise, and exercise preferences. The recruitment process was conducted until the data was
saturated. All interviews were audio recorded and manually transcribed verbatim. NVivo 11
was used to conduct the inductive analysis of the data to develop themes for motivation and
barriers to exercise. For exercise preferences, four predetermined themes were used.
Findings
A total of 26 respondents participated in this study. Eight themes were found for motivation
to exercise, with the most common themes being maintaining or improving appearance,
health benefits and togetherness. For barriers of exercising, five themes were found, and
the most common ones were disliking exercise and no motivation. For exercise preferences,
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OPEN ACCESS
Citation: Othman MS, Mat Ludin AF, Chen LL,
Hossain H, Abdul Halim II, Sameeha MJ, et al.
(2022) Motivations, barriers and exercise
preferences among female undergraduates: A need
assessment analysis. PLoS ONE 17(2): e0264158.
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264158
Editor: Rabiu Muazu Musa, Universiti Malaysia
Terengganu, MALAYSIA
Received: July 7, 2020
Accepted: February 5, 2022
Published: February 28, 2022
Copyright: ©2022 Othman et al. This is an open
access article distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution License, which
permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original
author and source are credited.
Data Availability Statement: All relevant data are
available in the Supporting information file.
Funding: The author(s) received no specific
funding for this work.
Competing interests: The authors have declared
that no competing interests exist.
most respondents preferred a structured exercise program with flexibility in terms of when
and where the exercise could be conducted. Light or moderate intensity exercise for 10–30
minutes with a frequency of 1–2 times a week was desired the most among the
respondents.
Conclusion
In conclusion, personal and environmental factors play important roles in motivating or ham-
pering female undergraduates to exercise, and a structured program was the preferred
mode of exercise of these respondents. A new exercise module was designed based on this
needs assessment with a 70% acceptance rate among the participants. These findings can
help the future development of more exercise modules tailored to female university
students.
Introduction
Physical inactivity has been identified as one of the main factors of death globally [1]. Physical
inactivity is defined as doing very little or no physical activity at work, at home, for transport
or during discretionary time [2]. A study conducted by Hallal et al. [3] showed that 31.1% of
the world population and 17% of the South East Asia (SEA) population were physically inac-
tive. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) database in 2016, Malaysia ranked
second for insufficient physical activity among adults in ASEAN countries [4]. Based on find-
ings from the Malaysian Adult Nutrition Survey, there is a 25.1% prevalence of overall physical
inactivity among adults in Malaysia [5]. The survey highlighted that Malaysians spent a lot of
their time for sedentary activities such as sitting and lying down [6]. Furthermore, studies also
showed that females were less active compared to males [3,7,8]. Based on a report by Hallal
PC et al., the global prevalence of physical inactivity among females was higher (33.9%) com-
pared to males (27.9%) [9]. This situation is similar in Malaysia where there is a significant dif-
ference between genders where males demonstrate higher levels of physical activity than
females [9].
A previous study reported a decrease in physical activity participation during the transition
to higher education [10], while a meta-analysis of 49 studies reported that physical activity
level decreases when transitioning from adolescence to adulthood [11]. This was illustrated by
Kwan et al. [12] who found that the highest decrease in physical activity levels occurred during
university admission. This is further supported by several other similar studies on university
students [13–15]. The data from the Malaysian National Health and Morbidity Survey
reported that there is a 31.5% prevalence of physical inactivity among Malaysians between the
ages of 15–24, which was higher compared to the adult age group younger than age 55 which
had a 16.1–22.3% prevalence [16]. This has become one of the contributors of the high number
of overweight or obesity cases among Malaysian adults (50.1%) [17]. Consequently, college
and university students are more susceptible to weight gain during the college/university tran-
sition period, which is contributed by increased calorie intake and decreased physical activities
[18,19]. Among tertiary level students, female students were found to have less engagement in
physical activities compared to male students [20–22], as the female students often had lower
motivation compared to male students [23]. This could potentially explain their failure in
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achieving the target of 10,000 steps daily, approximately similar to 150 minutes/week of mod-
erate-intensity physical activity as recommended in several studies [24–27].
A lot of effort has been carried out to combat obesity and its associated risks in Malaysia.
One of them is the large allocation of the healthcare budget (~USD 1.7 billion, 13.3% of 2017
healthcare cost). However, there is still a growing prevalence of overweight and obesity among
Malaysian adults, from 47.7% to 50.1% over the years of 2015 to 2019 [17]. Hence, it is impor-
tant to intervene to improve and develop effective exercise habits for female undergraduates
during this period of transitioning from adolescence to adulthood as it is critical in determin-
ing their future well-being [28]. Physical exercise is commonly known as a subset of physical
activity, and achieving the exercise recommendation is correlated with achieving the physical
activity level recommendation as well [29]. To increase the level of physical exercise among
female university students, it is important to explore their motivations, barriers and exercise
preferences. Studies showed that the motivation to exercise [23,30–32], exercise barriers and
exercise preferences [7] were significantly associated with physical activity levels. Therefore, it
is imperative that a needs assessment is conducted before any attempt to tailor an exercise
module for female undergraduates. The main objective of this study was to conduct a needs
assessment to identify motivations, barriers, and preferences towards exercise among local
female undergraduates. This is the first study to only focus on Malaysian female respondents.
Furthermore, all respondents were health sciences students who had basic health sciences
knowledge. Therefore, the focus group in this study was female health science students only.
Methods
Sampling and recruitment
This qualitative study was conducted to explore motivations, barriers, and preferences towards
exercise among female undergraduates in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, Malaysia. Based on
the recommendation by Dworkin [33], a sample size of 25–30 is adequate to reach data satura-
tion and redundancy in studies that utilize in-depth interview. A non-probability purposive
sampling was employed to recruit 25–30 female students from Universiti Kebangsaan Malay-
sia. The inclusion criteria were a) female; b) officially registered students during the study
period, and c) aged between 18–30 years old. Physically disabled and students suffering from
mental health problems were excluded from the study as the challenges and barriers for them
to perform exercise might not be similar to our study population. The recruitment and inter-
view were conducted until the data reached saturation.
Ethics statement
Ethical approval was obtained from the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Human Research
Ethic Committee (UKM PPI/111/8/JEP-2017-656). Respondents were briefed about the pur-
pose and the procedures of the study. Informed written consent was obtained from each
respondent prior to the interview.
Interviews
The interview protocol used in this study was adapted from Lees et al. [34] and was pre-tested
on five female students. Amendments to the questionnaire script were done prior to the subse-
quent interviews. The interview was conducted by researchers, Hanisah Hossain (HH) and Ida
Irwani Abd Halim (IIAH) in either English or Bahasa Malaysia according to each respondent’s
preference. Respondents were asked questions regarding their exercise habits. Respondents
who exercised regularly were asked about their reasons for exercising regularly, motivations to
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keep exercising regularly and barriers hindering them from exercising. Respondents who did
not exercise regularly were asked about their barriers or reasons for not exercising and motiva-
tions for them to start exercising. Both groups of respondents were also asked about their
understanding on exercise and their exercise preferences based on the frequency, intensity,
duration and types of exercise. To assist the participants, slow jog, casual walk, and Tai Chi
were provided as examples of low intensity exercise, whilst for moderate intensity the examples
given were brisk walk, dancing, biking, and the examples of high intensity exercise were group
exercise circuit training, running, and competitive ball sports. The complete interview ques-
tion guide is attached in S1 File. Each interview session lasted for about an average of 30 min-
utes and was conducted face-to-face at the residential college between January to May 2017.
Data handling and analysis
Each interview session was recorded using a smartphone recording application and was tran-
scribed verbatim. Both inductive and deductive thematic analysis were employed in this study.
For motivation and barriers towards exercise, a qualitative data analysis program, QSR Inter-
national NVivo version 11 was utilized to analyze the themes [35,36]. Data triangulation
method was used to analyze the data [37,38]. The first step of the data analysis was reading
and entering the transcribed verbatim into NVivo 11 where the data was coded by two mem-
bers of the research team (HH and IIAH). The codes were then consolidated according to the
research question. The second step was reviewing the identified codes by two other researchers
(AFML and MSO) to further consolidate the number of codes into categories and to identify
relevant main themes that answered the research questions. The third step was assembling the
themes to form more general concepts. Data validity was confirmed when the themes were
repeated in the data analysis. A final meeting was held with the rest of the researchers to final-
ize all the codes, categories and themes. To ensure that the data analysis remained neutral and
was not influenced by themes from other studies, literature research was conducted at the end
of the study. For exercise preferences, responses from the respondents were classified into four
predetermined themes which were frequency, intensity, time, and type of exercise preferred.
Results
Respondents characteristics
30 female respondents were recruited for this study, but information had reached saturation at
the 26th participant. The 26 respondents were between 21 to 27 years old (mean age 23.00
±1.17 years old). The respondents consisted of Malays (61.5%), Chinese (15.4%) Indians
(7.7%) and other ethnicities (15.4%). The study location was the health campus at University
Kebangsaan Malaysia; hence all the respondents were from healthcare related courses: nutri-
tion, environmental and health sciences, biomedical sciences, optometry and dentistry pro-
grams. The complete sociodemographic characteristics of the respondents are shown in
Table 1.
Motivation to exercise
Multiple factors motivated respondents to start and continue exercising in their daily life. In
this study, eight themes emerged as motivation towards exercise, as shown in Table 2. They
were: Maintenance or improvement of physical appearance, health benefits, togetherness,
coach or trainer, discipline or commitment, facilities, enjoyment, and stress release.
Theme 1: Maintain/improve physical appearance. Over half of the respondents stated
that their main motivator to exercise was to maintain or improve their physical appearance
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Table 1. Sociodemographic information of respondents.
Subject Code Age Race Religion Program/Year
R1 23 Dusun Christian Nutrition/4
R2 23 Chinese Buddhist Biomedical Sciences/4
R3 23 Indian Hindu Biomedical Sciences/4
R4 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R5 23 Malay Muslim Nutrition/4
R6 26 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R7 27 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R8 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R9 21 Malay Muslim Dentistry/2
R10 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R11 23 Malay Muslim Dentistry/4
R12 23 Chinese Buddhist Biomedical Sciences/4
R13 23 Malay Muslim Optometry/4
R14 23 Chinese Buddhist Biomedical Sciences/4
R15 23 Indian Christian Dentistry/2
R16 23 Chinese Buddhist Biomedical Sciences/4
R17 22 Bajau Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R18 23 Malay Muslim Dentistry/3
R19 22 Malay Muslim Environmental Health Sciences /4
R20 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R21 22 Malay Muslim Environmental Health Sciences /4
R22 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R23 23 Malay Muslim Optometry/4
R24 23 Malay Muslim Biomedical Sciences/4
R25 22 Bugis Muslim Nutrition/4
R26 23 Kadazan Christian Nutrition/4
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Table 2. Motivation to perform exercise among respondents.
Theme Subtheme
Maintain/ Improve Appearance Weight gain
Lose weight
Muscle tone
Health Benefits Improve fitness
Maintain/ Improve Physical Health
Informed of Health Benefits
Togetherness Be with friends
Group Activity
Coach/ Trainer
Discipline/ Commitment
Facilities Convenient place to exercise
Appropriate exercise equipment
Enjoyment
Stress Release
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(n = 14). When probed further, respondents intended to increase weight (n = 5), reduce body
weight (n = 6) and body shape/ muscle tone to increase attractiveness (n = 3). One of the
respondents, R25’s (Bugis, Muslim, 22) statement is as follows:
“Actually,the main reason that I want to exercise is to reduce my body weight because of my
fat.I have a high fat concentration,so I want to shape some muscles.Because every time I
check,it’s always higher than it should be (fat).So that’s the real reason that I want to lose
body weight. . .”.
Theme 2: Health benefits. Health benefits were mentioned by 13 respondents. The
respondents desired to improve fitness levels (n = 6), maintain or improve physical health
(n = 5) and to know the health benefits of the exercise prior to exercising (n = 2). Some respon-
dents were keen to improve physical health that it outweighed the hindrance to exercise,
including pain. An example of such response came from respondent, R6 (Malay, Muslim, 26):
“When there is a change in my lifestyle like when I’m not even tired after going up and down the
stairs.My body feels more fit and I will definitely feel more addicted to exercise.To me,I’m
hooked.For example,with tae-kwando,my body only hurts for 2 weeks and then we start with
movement week,it’s great.Just great”. Other respondents talked about being active previously
but were currently living a sedentary lifestyle. Hence, they aspired to be healthy and active
again. For example, R5 (Malay, Muslim, 23) stated that, “I want to be fit because I used to play
handball a lot and back then,my body felt so great.I don’t know how to explain it but it’s great.
When I wake up I feel great but now that I don’t play as much,I get tired easily.So,to be fit
again would be great”. Some respondents wanted to be fitter than their current state and
expressed that they would exercise more often if they had someone to teach them. This was
mentioned by respondent, R6 (Malay, Muslim, 26), “Maybe if I could be friends with someone
who knew about exercise or somebody else who knows how to exercise,I would”.
Being students, academic performance had become their priority and it had outweighed the
perceived health benefits from exercise. Some respondents reported to have busy schedules,
hence were selective on how they spent their time. Others wanted to know the specific health
benefits of the exercise prior to exercising. For example, respondent R2 (Chinese, Buddhist,
23) said, “If I know how the exercise activity or the exercise module can benefit me,like what I
can get in return,only then am I motivated to do it”. Some respondents wanted dietary advice
and energy expenditure estimation in the exercise module that would be developed in the
future.
Theme 3: Togetherness. The third theme, togetherness (n = 10) was further divided into
spending time with friends (n = 6) and joining a group activity (n = 4). Respondents’ motiva-
tion was influenced by the presence of their friends. For example, respondent R19 (Malay,
Muslim, 22) mentioned that “Um,for motivation,if someone invites me to exercise then I can
follow them but if no one invited me to exercise,I will definitely not exercise by myself”. Another
example is R10 (Malay, Muslim, 23) who said, “It’s like a support system,I think,when we exer-
cise with friends,we have a gang”. Other respondents preferred joining a group activity. One
respondent, R22 (Malay, Muslim, 23) remarked, “Because there are many people in a group.
The more people there are,the more motivated I feel.When we see other people (become) moti-
vated,we also feel like,oh,we want to do that too but when we are alone,we feel like lazy,do
tomorrow and tomorrow.We procrastinate it until we eventually end up not doing it”.
Theme 4: Coach/trainer. The availability of a coach or a trainer was mentioned by the
respondents as a motivating factor for them to exercise (n = 4). One respondent, R13 (Malay,
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Muslim, 23) said, “It would be easier if there was someone to teach me to exercise and what to
do.If I’m alone,it is much harder to learn how to exercise”.
Theme 5: Discipline or commitment. The best example for the theme discipline or com-
mitment (n = 4) as a motivator to exercise was this response: “For me,exercise is like a disci-
pline,we have discipline to keep moving us,to do the exercise regularly.So,and the discipline can
be applied in all the other stuff,in our daily life,so I feel like this is my responsibility to do the
exercise”. Therefore, exercise is perceived as an activity to develop positive character traits.
Theme 6: Facilities. The sixth theme for motivation to exercise is facilities (n = 4). Facili-
ties include convenient place to exercise (n = 3) and appropriate exercise equipment (n = 1).
Respondents’ motivation to exercise was dependent on the quality and availability of facilities
in the residential college. For example, R10 (Malay, Muslim, 23) mentioned, “If the place to
exercise is satisfactory then I am interested to exercise there.That’s what can add motivation for
me to exercise”. As for appropriate exercise equipment, one of the respondents, R21 (Malay,
Muslim, 22) said, “If it was like before this,when I had mood to exercise,maybe I would buy a
skipping rope,put it in my room so that I can use it every day.That’s all that I can think of that
can increase my mood to exercise.We can buy exercising equipment to help us exercise”.
Theme 7: Enjoyment. Enjoyment towards exercise was also a motivating factor for some
of the respondents (n = 4). One respondent, R5 (Malay, Muslim, 23) said, “Sometimes exercise
makes me happy.Feel happy especially when we enjoy the exercise”
Theme 8: Stress release. The final theme associated with motivation to exercise is its
stress releasing capability (n = 1). Only one respondent mentioned that exercise can help
reduce stress from studying in the room for a prolonged time. The respondent R15 (Indian,
Christian, 23) said, “Because exercise release stress,some more if you stuck in your room for so
long you will feel stress facing the four walls”.
Barriers to exercise
As shown in Table 3, five themes were identified as barriers to exercise among the respondents.
The themes were exercise animosity, no motivation to exercise, time constraint, discomfort or
pain during or after exercising, and lack of facilities.
Theme 1: Dislike exercise. Most of the respondents did not exercise because they disliked
exercise or physical activity. This theme is divided into three categories which are general dis-
like towards exercise (n = 4), dislike being seen exercising (n = 5) and dislike exercising alone
(n = 3). For general dislike towards exercise, respondents stated they did not like exercise and
that exercise did not make them happy. For example, R21 (Malay, Muslim, 22), “Because when
Table 3. Barriers to perform exercise among respondents.
Theme Subtheme
Dislike exercise Dislike exercise in general
Dislike exercising alone
Dislike being seen exercising
No motivation No motivation
No mood
Time Constraints
Discomfort/ Pain During or After Exercise Fatigue
Pain after exercise
Lack of Facilities
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you exercise,you sweat,then you have to change your clothes and shower. . .its extra effort,I’m
lazy and I don’t like it”.
As for dislike being seen exercising, all the respondents who reported this as a barrier were
Muslim respondents. One of the respondents said that she did not have self-confidence.
Another respondent R5 (Malay, Muslim, 23) said, “When exercising outdoors,I feel a bit
ashamed when exercising with people who are already fit and I,on the other hand,am not”. One
accurate example for this theme is described by respondent R22 (Malay, Muslim, 23): “I actu-
ally like exercise,but I don’t like it when people watch me exercise.I seriously don’t like it,not at
all.Sweating is fine and all it’s just that I don’t like it when people watch me exercise”. For the
category dislike exercising alone, one of the respondents, R10 (Malay, Muslim, 23) said, “I
have no friend to go exercising with.No gang and then if I exercise in my room,I also have no
company so it’s not fun”.
Theme 2: Lack of motivation. Another major barrier to exercise is the lack of motivation
(n = 11). Respondents were not motivated to join sporting events, exercise by themselves or
with friends either indoors or outdoors (n = 10). One respondent said that she did not have
the mood to exercise. R21 (Malay, Muslim, 22) said, “I’m lazy,I’d rather waste time watching
stories on my laptop than exercise”. Another respondent, R10 (Malay, Muslim, 23) said,
“Because if I exercise in the morning,um. . .I’m lazy to wake up in the morning”. One respon-
dent, R11 (Malay, Muslim, 23) even said, “These days I rather sit down rather than walk and do
exercise”.
Theme 3: Time constraints. The next theme is time constraint (n = 10). Majority of the
respondents depended on the bus provided by the university on weekdays, and public trans-
port such as e-hailing services and city transit buses to commute. Based on the observation
and experience of the researchers, students would usually take the bus departing to the faculty
early in the morning and return with the campus bus late in the evening. Even though the dis-
tance between the faculty and residential college is not far, heavy traffic during peak hours
would increase the travel time of the respondents. Apart from that, respondents also tend to
spend more time at the college’s cafeteria. This is because there is only one cafeteria operator
and the waiting time for food is quite long. In addition, students are also expected to be
involved in college activities and most of them are non-exercise related. Many respondents
needed to have good time management for academic responsibilities, co-curricular activities
and exercising. In many cases, exercising was often the lowest priority. One of the respondents,
R14 (Chinese, Buddhist, 23) said, “If the academic work is too heavy or activity or co-curricular
is too many then I will skip,I may skip the exercise”.
Theme 4: Discomfort/pain during or after exercise. Most of the respondents reported
experiencing discomfort or pain during or after exercise (n = 10). This was another deterrent
to exercise. Fatigue (n = 7) and body aches after exercise (n = 3) are coded into this category.
An example for fatigue was mentioned by respondent R19 (Malay, Muslim, 22), “Sometimes
when we exercise in the afternoon,by the time we get back to our room we are tired.So,at night
cannot do that much work.Sometimes I even fall asleep”. Respondents said that exhaustion
from classes and the travel between faculty and residential college in the evening were the
main obstacles that prevented them from exercising. As for pain after exercising, respondent
R6 (Malay, Muslim, 26) said that, “The thing about exercise that I don’t like is that after exercise,
especially when the body is just beginning to adapt to exercising,I’ll get body aches and pain
after”.
Theme 5: Lack of facilities. The final theme is lack of facilities (n = 1), and respondent
R10 (Malay, Muslim, 23) clarified this, “I used to like going to the gymnasium but now because
the equipment and the environment in the gym isn’t good,I don’t go anymore”. Based on the
experience and knowledge of our researchers who are also UKM students, the residential
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colleges in UKM provided sports equipment mainly for sports programs sanctioned by college
management, and personal utilization of equipment required written permission. While the
college gymnasium is accessible to every resident, its availability to female undergraduate resi-
dents was restricted. Female residents are only allowed to use the gym on selected days of the
week. To make matter worse, many of the gym’s equipment were defective and the number of
equipment was insufficient.
Exercise preferences
Exercise preferences refer to the individually preferred choices and situations that encouraged
respondents to exercise. The feedback from respondents was classified according to the FITT
principle, a framework used in exercise prescription as suggested by the American College of
Sports Medicine [39]. The FITT principle includes frequency, intensity, time and type of exer-
cise preferred. Frequency refers to how often exercise is normally performed in a week. Inten-
sity indicates how difficult it is to perform the exercise. Time refers to the duration of the
exercise performed, and type represents the mode of exercise.
The exercise preferences by the respondents are shown in Table 4.
In terms of frequency, majority of the respondents (n = 21) chose to exercise once or twice
a week while only a minority would exercise three times a week (n = 5). None of the respon-
dents were keen to exercise more than three times a week. Interestingly, one of the respon-
dents, R22 (Malay, Muslim, 23), chose to be flexible in determining the exercise frequency by
admitting, “Um,to me that isn’t too frequent.It depends on how busy I am as well.If I’m not
busy,exercising every 2 days is fine”.
In terms of intensity, more than half of the respondents preferred to perform exercise with
moderate intensity (n = 15) while the rest chose to do light intensity exercise (n = 11). None of
the respondents wanted to do high intensity exercise. For example, respondent R18 (Malay,
Muslim, 23) mentioned, “When it comes to going up and down the stairs,confirm I feel so lazy.
If there was a lift,I would definitely take the lift.I can’t bear to do high intensity exercise”.
As for exercise type, most respondents seemed to prefer individual exercise (n = 17) com-
pared to group activity exercise (n = 9). Their favorite exercises were planking, jogging at the
park, and Zumba. Some respondents desired exercises that could be done in a confined space
like their own room (e.g. Zumba following YouTube
1
videos) while others preferred to exer-
cise outdoor. One of the respondents, R12 (Chinese, Buddhist, 23) said, “If I had a friend who
Table 4. Exercise preferences among respondents.
Theme Subtheme
Frequency 1–2 times/week
3 times/week
4–5 times/week
Intensity Low intensity
Moderate intensity
High intensity
Time Less than 10 minutes
10–30 minutes/session
More than 30 minutes
Type Structured exercise program
Flexible in time & place
Group Activity
Individual
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had similar interests with me,I would rather exercise in a group because we can give each other
motivation because we are friends”. Respondents requested the inclusion of interesting exercise
activities should an exercise module be produced. For instance, one of the respondents said,
“The module has to be interesting.Do Zumba together with music for free”.
In short, respondents wanted a simple, easy structured exercise module that was flexible in
terms of time and place. Respondent R22 (Malay, Muslim, 23) elaborated that, “Maybe aside
daily supervision to check if a person exercises,maybe you can make a schedule.Today,what do
you have to do,how many sit-ups do you have to do.The thing has to be organized.How many
times do you have to do something,how many minutes do you have to do it,how do you do it,
like that.Like,I actually want to exercise but I don’t know how,like for this,should I do this
thing first,or that thing first.Should I do sit ups first,or this other thing first.I don’t know the
basics of exercise.I do watch videos on YouTube
1
and others but sometimes I do them and other
times I don’t.If we can produce something that’s like organized and okay,God willing,I can fol-
low it”.
For the preferred duration of a session of exercising, more than half of the respondents
chose to exercise within 10–30 minutes per session (n = 14). Some of the respondents (n = 8)
wanted to exercise less than 10 minutes at a time while the rest (n = 4) agreed to exercise more
than 30 minutes per exercise session. One of the respondents, R1 (Dusun, Christian, 23) said,
“When it comes to doing exercise,it depends on the timing as well and how it suits with our
schedule.In terms of time,maybe I can allocate about 30 minutes to an hour,it depends”.
Discussion
Majority of the respondents preferred to exercise individually, with low to moderate intensity
exercises that last 10–30 minutes per session, with frequencies of 1–2 times a week. However,
these preferences do not meet the WHO global recommendation for physical activity, nor the
Malaysian Ministry of Health (MOH) exercise guidelines as stated in Malaysian Dietary
Guidelines [40]. MOH recommends that Malaysians should conduct moderate intensity exer-
cise for at least 5 days a week and a minimum of 30 minutes for each session. This exercise rec-
ommendation is also in line with the recommendation by WHO, Malaysian Adult Nutrition
Survey [41] and a study by Poh et al. [5]. Although our respondents’ exercise preferences did
not meet the minimum recommendation, they were engaged in some level of physical activity.
Studies have shown that any duration of physical activity is better than none, and there is a
dose-response relationship between physical activities and associated risk reduction in meta-
bolic syndrome, premature mortalities and mental health problems [42–45].
For exercise intensity, the selection of lower intensity exercise compared to high intensity
exercise might be caused by the less pleasurable or negative feelings associated with high inten-
sity exercises [46,47]. Pain and discomfort were mentioned by majority of the respondents as
one of the barriers that prevented them from exercising. The target group preference towards
exercise intensity is an important aspect to consider when developing future exercise modules
as it can affect individual’s interest to continually engage and adhere to the exercise program.
Intensity of exercise should be gradually increased to achieve better adherence to the exercise
routine as recommended by American College of Sports Medicine [48]. A majority of the
respondents also stated the need for an easy and flexible structured exercise program which
can be done individually.
Our study identified several themes for motivation to exercise which were maintenance or
improvement of physical appearance, health benefits, togetherness, coach or trainer, discipline
or commitment, facilities, enjoyment and stress release. Our respondents’ main motivation to
exercise was to maintain or improve physical appearance. This was in agreement to other
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studies which reported that the desire to improve appearance and body image dissatisfaction
were associated with practicing physical activities [49–52]. A study on college students related
that appearance was one of the extrinsic factors that positively influenced the students to exer-
cise [32]. This finding was also supported by Baker [53] who stated that the motivation to exer-
cise was dependent on a woman’s attitude towards body weight and dieting, and also their
perception of their own body image. Negative perception towards obese individuals is com-
mon among the community nowadays [6]. Obese people often experience discrimination and
poor treatment from the society in various aspects of their daily life such as in education, at
work and in romantic relationships [6]. Research has shown that people who experience
weight stigma are likely to be impacted with significant negative psychology like depression,
dissatisfaction with their body image and low self-esteem [54–56]. While weight stigma can
decrease the motivation to exercise [57], maintaining and improving physical appearance were
the main motivators amongst the respondents in this study. This was probably to avoid
experiencing weight stigma or to disassociate themselves from past experiences with weight
stigma. Exercising with an intent or objective related to self-appearance is associated with neg-
ative perceptions of their own body image for female adults and youth [58].
Health benefits is the second most chosen motivator by the respondents for exercising. The
desire to maintain or improve their health fitness influenced the respondents to conduct physi-
cal activities. Previous studies have reported that good fitness, weight management and per-
ceived health benefits were major motivators for individuals to exercise [31,52,59–62]. A
study carried out among adults in the Philippines reported that their main motivation for
exercising was to maintain their overall fitness and for weight management [50]. In conclu-
sion, more education and awareness should be imparted to students in universities or colleges
regarding the advantages of exercise to help increase participation in physical activities.
Another motivator mentioned by some of the respondents was togetherness. Respondents
felt more motivated when they exercised with their friends. This was similar to another study
which showed that socializing with peers and receiving support or influence from family mem-
bers could be a motivator for exercising [63]. In addition to that, social support and enjoyment
were also identified as motivators for physical exercise in several studies [59,64,65]. Young
adults tend to be more motivated by togetherness and when affiliated with sports team mates
compared to older adults [30]. A recent research showed that face-to-face structured weight
reduction intervention with group exercise sessions had a larger effect on weight loss com-
pared to online intervention [66].
Based on a research done on university students to discover their motivation towards exer-
cise participation, the top motivations for female students’ participation in exercise were stress
management, revitalization, health benefits, weight management and appearance. These were
comparable to the findings of our study, where the overlapping motivations were health bene-
fits and weight management [67]. This was in agreement with two other studies which
reported that female university and college students were more driven by extrinsic motives
towards exercise, such as weight management and appearance [68,69].
According to Molanorouzi [30], there are eight motivating factors towards exercise among
younger adults. The factors are mastery, enjoyment, psychological condition, physical condi-
tion, appearance, other’s expectation, affiliation and competition or ego. However, Rogers
et al. [70] only listed seven meaningful motivations in exercise which were competition/ego,
extrinsic rewards, social health, physical health, psychological health, mastery of a sport, and
enjoyment. While both studies had different numbers of motivating factors, many of the fac-
tors overlapped between the two studies. In many cases, motivation to exercise is not deter-
mined solely by one factor. Often, the motivation to exercise is due to a multitude of linked
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factors. More research is needed to find the association between these factors and physical
activity and to what extent these factors may be able to predict physical activity.
The main barrier to exercise in this study was the feeling of apprehension to exercise which
included general exercise animosity, dislike being seen exercising, and dislike exercising alone.
Sechrist et al. [71] reported similar barriers to exercise among male and female adults aged 18–
88 years old. The study reported that common reasons included perceiving exercise as a highly
embarrassing activity, the awkwardness of wearing sportswear, the inconvenience to travel to
an exercise facility and time constraint. The same study reported exercise as an activity that
required hard work and was tiresome. Some of the respondents in our study also disliked
being seen exercising. Self-consciousness or social discomfort about participation in exercise
programs is a common barrier among women [72,73]. This highlights the need for a different
set of exercise module to be developed which can either be performed individually in private
areas, or with friends to meet the preference of respondents.
Findings from this study also showed that time constraint was a major barrier for the
respondents to conduct physical activities. University Kebangsaan Malaysia students tend to
spend plenty of time travelling between campus to the residential college and to the only can-
teen operator in the college. They were also involved in a variety of non-exercise related activi-
ties in college and had academic responsibilities, hence, lowering the priority for exercising.
Van Dyck et al. [74] reported that a low self-efficacy and time-related barriers decreased stu-
dents’ participation rate in leisure sports. Similarly, time-related barriers have been reported in
numerous studies as a hindrance towards exercising [72,75,76]. Interventions focusing on
time management and improving self-efficacy can be beneficial to encourage the students to
be more involved in physical activities. Recommendation to incorporate short bouts of exer-
cise between living activities can be advocated to the students to increase their physical
exercise.
Another major barrier to exercise in this study was lack of motivation. Laziness and lack of
interest towards exercise have been reported as some of the major barriers that hindered stu-
dents [77] and other age groups [75,76,78] from participating in physical activities. External
motivators for individuals to exercise can also be important. The motivators can be in various
forms, such as convenience and ease to access facilities, competitions and availability of train-
ers. The outcome from each physical activity will also contribute towards the motivation to
improve physical level. In developing future modules, setting up goals can also motivate stu-
dents to take up and adhere to the exercise modules. Interventions with set goals have been
known to be effective in improving physical activity behaviors [79,80].
Our findings in exercise barriers of female students were similar to another study which
focused on female health care workers. The top two barriers were that they disliked the exer-
cise apparel and they were embarrassed to exercise [81]. Another research conducted on
Malaysian university students highlighted that time constraint is one of the major barriers that
hindered students from exercising. They also discovered that although the students were inter-
ested in exercising, they lacked the required motivation [82].
It is important to fully understand the motivators, barriers and exercise preferences of
female undergraduates towards exercise. There is a need for academic institutions to encour-
age exercise as an integral part of university or college life. Once motivators, barriers and exer-
cise preferences are clearly identified, programs can be designed to maximize motivation
factors and minimize barriers to physical activity among students. More importantly, exercise
programs can be catered to the needs and wants of these female young adults. The information
gathered from this study can help practitioners design effective exercise modules for female
undergraduate students in the future.
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Limitation and strengths
This study had certain identified biases. The first bias was the respondents’ exposure to the
benefits of exercise. All respondents were enrolled in health-related degree programmes. They
may have higher perceived benefits of exercise compared to non-health related students. Sec-
ondly, the living condition of the respondents may have affected the outcome of the research.
The respondents’ campus and residential college are located in the city center where traffic
congestion often lengthens the commuting time. This may be different from students from
campuses outside the city center. Thirdly, although the data reached saturation with 26
respondents, the result of this study cannot be generalized to all Malaysian universities. More
studies are needed to ensure the generalizability of these findings.
In terms of strength, the one-to-one in-depth interview provided a safe and comfortable
environment for the respondents to provide insightful feedback regarding the subject matter,
as each respondent had the freedom to express their point of view without being influenced or
intimidated by others. To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore the motivation, bar-
riers and preferences toward exercise, specifically among female university students in
Malaysia.
Conclusion
This study unravels eight themes that were identified as motivating factors and five themes
that were barriers to exercise. The motivation themes include maintaining or improving physi-
cal appearance, health benefits, togetherness, the availability of coach or trainer, discipline or
commitment, facilities, enjoyment and stress release. On the other hand, exercise animosity,
lack of motivation to exercise, time constraint, discomfort or pain during or after exercise, and
lack of facilities constituted the barriers to exercise. Respondents showed the desire or motiva-
tion to exercise but often prioritized other aspects in their daily lives. The lack of drive to exer-
cise can be attributed to the absence of companion (friend) to exercise, a suitable exercise
program, convenient place to exercise, or lack of set goals to exercise. This study also found
that respondents in this study prefer a structured exercise program that was flexible in terms of
time and place of the exercise. Respondents also preferred low and moderate intensity exercise
with the frequency of 1–2 times a week, and 10–30 minutes per session. An exercise module
was developed based on the results of this needs assessment study and tested among female
undergraduates with a 70% acceptance rate [83]. These findings can help the future develop-
ment of exercise modules tailored to female university students to reduce physical inactivity
among them.
Supporting information
S1 File. Interview question.
(PDF)
S2 File. Respondent interview transcripts.
(PDF)
Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank all respondents involved in this study. A special appreciation
to Mr Abdul Hadi Ruslan for his guidance on NVivo 11 software.
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Author Contributions
Conceptualization: Mohd Sham Othman, Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Ahmad Rashidi Mohamed
Tahir.
Data curation: Hanisah Hossain, Ida Irwani Abdul Halim.
Formal analysis: Mohd Sham Othman, Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Hanisah Hossain, Ida Irwani
Abdul Halim.
Investigation: Mohd Sham Othman, Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Hanisah Hossain, Ida Irwani
Abdul Halim.
Methodology: Mohd Sham Othman, Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Mohd Jamil Sameeha, Ahmad
Rashidi Mohamed Tahir.
Project administration: Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Lew Leong Chen.
Resources: Lew Leong Chen.
Software: Hanisah Hossain, Ida Irwani Abdul Halim.
Supervision: Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin.
Validation: Mohd Jamil Sameeha.
Writing – original draft: Hanisah Hossain, Ida Irwani Abdul Halim.
Writing – review & editing: Mohd Sham Othman, Arimi Fitri Mat Ludin, Lew Leong Chen,
Mohd Jamil Sameeha, Ahmad Rashidi Mohamed Tahir.
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