This study describes the physical activity of university students (PA) and their motives to exercise in the summer of 2021, after the COVID-19 lockdown in Slovenia. Adults over 18 years of age (n = 493; 72% women) completed the International Physical Activity Questionnaire (IPAQ) short form and the Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 (EMI-2) via an anonymous online survey. Since the EMI-2 has never been used with the Slovenian population, the measurement properties of the Slovenian version (EMI-2) were also determined in this study. A forward–backward translation was used for cross-cultural adaptation. The internal consistency of the EMI-2 subscales was high. The results of the study showed that male students spent more minutes per session on intense physical activity and performed this activity more frequently per week, whereas female students were more likely to walk for more than 10 min without a break. In addition, female participants were more likely than male participants to cite weight management as a motivator. Male participants were more likely than female participants to cite fun, challenge, social recognition, belonging, competition, and strength and endurance as motivations. Results showed that respondents with a history of competitive sports had higher scores for revitalization, fun, challenge, social recognition, affiliation, competition, positive health, appearance, strength and endurance, and flexibility. They also engaged in intense physical activity more frequently per week, and when they engaged in moderate or intense PA activity, they did so for longer periods of time. Compared to respondents who never exercised, more of them overcame COVID-19. The results also showed some correlation between motivation and physical activity. The motives of revitalization, enjoyment, challenge, competition, strength and endurance, and stress management were more important for individuals who exercised vigorously more often in the past 7 days. Total time spent in daily physical activity is also related to the enjoyment of exercise and challenge. In conclusion, understanding the motives for exercise is important for the behavior of PA, especially after a period of inactivity due to lockdown.

PurposeWe focused on changes in the amount of physical activity (PA) and depression and anxiety symptoms in people, who were previously regularly physically active, as they were all members of fitness centers at time of lockdown because of COVID-19.Materials and methodsWe sampled 150 fitness center members, tested individually in facilities of fitness centers. Depression and anxiety were measured with subscales of Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI) and PA was measured with global physical activity questionnaire (GPAQ).ResultsWe found that depression (t = −1.97; p < 0.05) and anxiety (t = −2.66; p < 0.05) was more present in female participants than male participants, single participants experienced more depression (t = 2.04; p < 0.05) than participants in relationship, unemployed participants experienced more depression (F = 3,24; p < 0.05) and anxiety (F = 5,32; p < 0.01) than employed participants and participants with lower levels of education experienced higher levels of affective depression (F = 3,42; p < 0.05) and physiological anxiety (F = 3,72; p < 0.05) than participants with higher levels of education. Finally, we found that mental health can be influenced by changes in amount of movement–both anxiety (p < 0.05) and depression (p < 0.05) (in whole and its specific dimensions) increased for male participants when there is less strenuous work-related activity, less walking, or cycling to work and when they would spend more time each day sitting. For female participants, affective depression (t = 3.78; p < 0.01) and anxiety (t = 3.23; p < 0.01) increased with increased sitting time. Ex-competitive athletes are particularly immune to anxiety (t = −2.18; p < 0.05) and depression (t = −2.09; p < 0.05).DiscussionAs in some previous studies, our results show that because of lockdown, the most endangered groups for mood disorders are women, singles, unemployed and students, uneducated people and those, who had less PA, and more sitting time. Additionally, those who had some sport competitive history are less endangered for depression and anxiety.ConclusionIsolation has great impact on mental health, the most effective solution to stress relief and anxiety is physical exercise, which was limited or non-existent in the time of pandemic. Ex-professional athletes are especially immune to anxiety and depression in events such as COVID-19 lockdown. For future studies we recommend focusing on likelihood of increased depression and anxiety levels in individuals, who were physically active before the isolation period.

The sustainability of fitness centers depends on two factors: member recruitment and retention, which is why these factors have received attention in recent decades. Temporal trends in fitness center membership purchase channels from 2016 to 2022 and motivation for exercise in 2022 in the Slovenian general population were investigated. The sample included 3419 participants, including 3131 participants (age 31.03 ± 11.31 years, 1430 females) and 288 participants (age 29.39 ± 10.43 years, 110 females) for the first and second objectives, respectively. Data were assessed using a web-based recruitment questionnaire and the EMI-2 motivation questionnaire. Traditional advertising strategies such as radio and flyers are the least effective (only 0.9% of memberships in 2022), while more sophisticated advertising strategies such as the internet and social media are becoming increasingly important in the advertising world (26.6% of memberships in 2022). On the other hand, word of mouth is the most influential method, attracting 51.3% of new members. Females, older members, and Eastern Slovenians were more motivated to exercise by health and esthetic motives, and males and younger members by challenge and competition. Fitness center management should focus on providing the best possible quality of service, tailoring it to the age, gender, and motivation of customers.

This study examined the relationship between demographic variables and exercise motivation. 764 exercisers from the 18 largest Slovenian fitness clubs completed the Exercise Motivation Inventory-2 questionnaire, which was combined with other demographic questions. The analysis confirmed that men exercise different reasons than women. Young adults crave social recognition and exposure, but also want to get stronger and compete with others. Older adults exercise because they want to recover, stay healthy, control their weight, and stay mobile. Participants who played competitive sports in their youth now exercise because they enjoy exercise, feel challenged, and compete, but also because they want to be recognized socially more than non-competitors who exercise primarily for health reasons. Single people have statistically significantly different motivations to exercise than people who are in a relationship or married, mainly affiliation and social recognition. In contrast, married people exercise mainly for health reasons. Employment status also has an impact on exercise motivation, as does education. People with higher education levels exercise more for health reasons, while less educated people exercise for challenge, competition, and social recognition. These findings highlight the practical importance of motivational structure among athletes from different demographic backgrounds.

Our goal in this study was to examine the structural relationships between social media fun, social media informativeness, exercise motivation, trust, and repurchase intention. Participants, all of whom were members of fitness center, completed surveys to assess these relationships. Results showed that both social media fun and social media informativeness had a positive impact on trust, but not on repurchase intention. Social media fun has a significantly positive influence on exercise motivation, but we could not confirm this for social media informativeness. Moreover, our results show that only social media fun has a positive influence on exercise motivation. We could not confirm the influence of motivation on trust. Finally, we confirmed that trust predicts repurchase intention for fitness center members.

The fitness center industry is growing year after year and marketing is becoming more challenging. Especially in recent years, when communication is shifting to digital channels. We have reviewed all research resources that have studied the relationships between digital marketing, branding and sales in the fitness industry from 2010 to 2020. Three different databases (Pubmed, Sciencedirect, Ebscohost) and grey literature identified 482 potential articles, of which 28 were relevant. We found researchers strongly recommend fitness centres use digital channels and social networks to communicate with their members. The researchers cited Facebook as a great way to create value for the fitness centre brand and indirectly increase the chances of buying fitness memberships. Instagram has a similar effect, with the fitness industry primarily advising to engage with influencers. Marketing through digital channels and technology innovations greatly contributes to branding and the sales of fitness services, so fitness centres should integrate digital marketing as a key part of marketing activities.

In present research we attempted to find out what influences fitness centre users' decisions to prolong fitness membership. We called users whose tickets had expired (n=57). We were interested in what factors influence a user to purchase a membership again and whether we could influence this decision with a phone call. Using logistic regression, we found that user age and experience with the receptor did not influence the decision to retain and repurchase. We found that we can influence a user's intention to repurchase if we call them less than 30 days after the membership expires. After 30 days, there is a good chance that the user has already purchased a ticket at another sports centre and will not return it. Users who were called and confirmed over the phone that they would come back and purchase the ticket again did so. We recommend that sports centre managers create a customer loyalty program and call them when the membership expires.