The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of sex, body mass index (BMI), psychological characteristics (self -esteem, trait anxiety, social physique anxiety ) on motives for exercise participation in the context of recreation and leisure. The sample consisted of 306 exercise participants. The results showed significant sex and BMI differences. More specifically, exercise motives were based on competition/ego for males, whereas females preferred psychological condition and appearance motives. Also, individuals low in BMI were motivated by physical appearance to participate in exercise programs. Psychological factors were also studied indicating that self-esteem was a significant predictor of competition/ego, affiliation, and physical condition motives, trait anxiety predicted motives of psychological condition, and to meet others’ expectations, whereas social physique anxiety predicted the appearance motive. Individuals with increased levels of the above psychological characteristics were not motivated to participate in exercise programs by intrinsic motives.
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