Investigating the Reasons for the Participation of State University Faculty and Employees in Physical Exercise

The purpose of this study was investigating the Reasons for the participation of State University Faculty and Employees in Physical Exercise. The population of the study consisted of all Faculty and employees with State Universities including Gonbad Kavous, Damghan, Mazandaran, Babol Noushiravani Industrial, Sari Agriculture and Natural Resources, Golestan, Semnan, Gorgan Agriculture and Natural Resources and Shahrood Industrial universities in Iran’s 4th district (N=2262). Form among the population, a number of 329 Faculty and university employees was selected as the participants using Cochran table. A researcher-made questionnaire was developed to collect the data. The content validity of the questionnaire was approved by university Faculty. The reliability of the scale was calculated to be 0.78 using Cronbach alpha formula. Descriptive statistics including frequency and percentage was used to analyze the data. Result show 55.1 percent of the participants were Faculty and 44.9 percent were employees. Gaining pleasure was the most important reason for the subjects’ participation in physical exercise. the most important reasons for Faculty ’ lack of participation in physical exercise in order of importance include (1) falling behind daily activities (60%), (2) lack of exercise habit (13.3%), and (3) unavailability of sports facilities (6.7%). The most important reasons for employees’ lack of participation in physical exercise included (1) falling behind daily activities (50%), (2) lack of exercise habit (15.2%), and (3) sloth and impatience (13%).