The Relapse Prevention Model (RPM) has provided a framework for the successful long-term maintenance of certain health behaviors. Although RPM has applications in preventing relapses in exercise programs, this model has not clarified the relationship between the psychological burden and practical coping strategies in high-risk situations. To clarify this relationship, Study 1 compared the role of psychological burden of the following high-risk situations: fatigue, bad weather, illness and injury, work and academic obligations, personal problems, interpersonal relationships, and boredom, in inducing lapses in exercise programs as a function of gender and the stage of behavior change, including pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action and maintenance. Participants were Japanese people (
n = 263). The results indicated that illness and injury was the highest-risk situation followed by fatigue and work and academic obligations. In comparison to males, female participants had significantly higher psychological burden caused by fatigue, bad weather, and personal problems. There were significant differences in psychological burden between stages of behavior change for each high-risk situation. Those doing outdoor exercises had a significantly larger burden associated with bad weather, in comparison to people doing indoor exercises. Study 2 identified practical strategies for coping with each high-risk situation. Participants were Japanese exercisers (
n = 165) chosen from the participants described above. Exercisers described positive coping strategies that were associated with doing exercise and negative coping strategies that led to slips and lapses in each high-risk situation. Results suggested that adopting coping strategies specialized for each high-risk situation was necessary to prevent slips and lapses in each situation. These findings are expected to extend future interventions in the application of the RPM for preventing slips and lapses in exercise programs.
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