"I have to get up and exercise because that's how I'm going to get over this": a qualitative exploration of exercise identity and behavior in early cancer survivorship.

PURPOSE: Exercise is beneficial for people living with and beyond cancer (LWBC); however, many people LWBC fail to meet the exercise guidelines. Having an identity related to exercise, a component of one's self-concept, correlates with exercising more frequently in general adult populations. Understanding how exercise identity influences exercise behaviors in people LWBC is warranted due to the many barriers people LWBC face in relation to physical activity. The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived impact of an exercise identity of the exercise behaviors and motivations among people LWBC. METHODS: Thirteen participants of mixed diagnoses (Mage = 60.8 ± 10.8 years) in the early survivorship period (i.e., within five years of primary treatment completion or diagnosis) participated in semi-structured interviews to identify influences of exercise identity on exercise behavior. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using thematic analysis. RESULTS: Findings demonstrated that people LWBC with a strong exercise identity engage in high and varied exercise behaviors. Despite barriers such as changes in motivations and ability to engage in exercise, participants maintained exercise throughout cancer by constant adaptation of their outlook and behaviors related to exercise. These results demonstrate a maintenance of physical activity in relation to a strong exercise identity. IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS: Results of this study have implications for the design and implementation of exercise behavior change programs for people LWBC as it provides insights into predictors of sustained exercise behavior during and following cancer treatment.

Olympic cycle periodicity in women's long and triple jumping performance between 1996 and 2019.

Performance variability is present in a series of competition results in athletics. Some of the variability is random and some can be attributed to factors such as the environment and changes in the level of physical, mental, and technical states of the athlete. Changes in the state of the athlete may be due to the competition schedule. It has been shown that there is periodicity in performance aligned with the seasonal competition schedule in athletics and with the Olympic cycle in pooled athletics data dating from 1896 to 2008. We investigated whether Olympic cycle periodicity was present in modern era long and triple jumping in elite men and women. Top 50 performances per year in the horizontal jumps in men and women from 1996 to 2019 were used. Each performance was normalized to the best result from the previous Olympic year. Two-way ANOVAs revealed significantly lower mean normalized performances in top ten women compared to top ten men (p < 0.001) in both jumps. In both jumps, ten top-performing women also showed decreases between the Olympic year mean normalized performances and the 1st year following (Long Jump: p = 0.022, Triple Jump: p = 0.008). In triple jump, the decrease in performance was also found in the second year following the Olympics. Performances deciles ranked from 11th to 50th place showed a similar pattern in women's triple jump but only for ranks 11 to 20 in the women's long jump. The findings suggest that periodicity driven by the Olympic cycle exists in women's long and triple jump at the elite level.