Physical activity among Malaysian university students: the motives

Abstract

Regular activities among students are always required. Studies have shown that regular activities among students are related to the fitness, focus and attention in the learning activities, student performance and attitudes. The main issue to this is that how far and how much the students willing to spend their time to engage in the physical activities on a regular basis. This study highlights the nature of students’ physical activities around the campus, especially during their free time, such as weekends. The sample of the study was students in one research universities in southern part of Peninsular of Malaysia. 628 students male and female were involved in the study including various department and programme of studies. It was found that most of the participants were casual types of exerciser. Male is found to be more frequent to do physical exercise as compared to his female counter part. The motives of the activity were mostly on friends. Hence, it functions as an accelerator of the physical activities among students. It is suggested that in order to increase the possibility of the students to engage in such activities are to utilise the friends factor. The findings support the previous findings that regular physical activities accelerate the potential of healthy life among students.