Exploring the Exercise Adherence Problem: An Integration of Ethnomethodological and Poststructuralist Perspectives

Abstract

Despite a great deal of research encompassing personal, interpersonal, and socio-environmental realms, the widespread prevalence of sedentary lifestyles would indicate that there is still much to be learned about individuals' inability to adhere to exercise programs. Building on Bourdieu’s assertion that three modes of knowledge are required for a satisfactory understanding of the social world, in this paper we argue that current understandings are limited by their reliance on subjectivist and/or objectivist modes of understanding. We suggest that what is necessary is a third, praxeological mode of understanding if we are to satisfactorily address the exercise adherence problem. Toward this end, we describe how ethnomethodological and poststructuralist perspectives can be usefully combined to explore the adherence problem from a praxeological perspective.