Counseling helps people stick with exercise

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Support in keeping up an exercise program is valuable, according to a new review.
We all know it can be hard to find the time and motivation to exercise. But a little encouragement can work wonders, according to a review of the evidence from researchers at University College, London.

They compared different ways of encouraging sedentary people to become more active, basing their review on studies covering 6,255 healthy adults. There was individual and group counseling, telephone support, written materials, and supervised exercise in these trials.

It looks as if ongoing professional support for self-directed exercise may produce the most consistent results. But the approaches vary too widely to recommend any specific one over another. More research is needed to find which types of support work best. In the meantime, you could try a personal trainer or, if that looks too pricey, why not just exercise with a friend?

Source
Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews January 2005

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