Determining the motivating factors to recreational exercise the individuals who get service from fi̇tnesss centers (The example of the province of Erzurum)

The objective of the study is to determine the reasons for motivation of the individuals to frequent these types of fitness centers to get exercise service, and to compare the said in respect to various variables. The population is composed of the individuals exercising in fitness centers located in Erzurum, while the sample group is composed of 404 individuals, who volunteered to participate in the research and who exercise for recreational purposes in "Yolspor Fitness Salonu", "Sporyum Fitness", "Çelebi Spor Salonu", "Ata Gençlik Spor Kulübü", "Değişim Spor Kulubü", "Elit Spor Salonu", and "Kral Spor Salonu". The data collection tool utilized in the study consists of 3 sections. In the first section are included the questions aimed at defining demographical data of the participants, and in the second section are included the questions aimed at defining their recreational behavior, and for the third section, the "Recreational Exercise Motivation Measure" (REMM), which is developed by Rogers and Morris (2006), and the reliability and validity of which are realized by Gürbüz and et al (2006), is used. Descriptive statistics is performed in order to determine the demographical distribution of individuals participating in the research group. Independent samples t-test analysis has been applied to the data, for testing whether there is a statistically meaningful distinction with respect to their sex and marital status, amongst recreational exercise motivations of the research group, and furthermore, to test whether there is a meaningful distinction with respect to age, educational background, the periods of facility membership, the frequency of weekly utilizing the facilities, recreational status and with whom they attend the recreational activities, ANOVA and, if there arises a statistical difference, Tukey multiple comparison tests have been applied, with the intention of determining from which group(s) they originated. Significance level of = .05 is taken into consideration for the statistical analysis of data and commentaries. Cronbach's Alpha internal consistency coefficient computed for testing the reliability of the survey varies between .78 (skills development) and .89 (health) for sub-dimensions. A total mean point of the measurement is computed to be .94. Within the 5 sub-dimensions of the survey utilized in the research, according to the results of the independent samples t-test analysis, which is performed to test the contrast with respect to sex and marital status of the participants of recreational exercise; meaningful variations are detected within the sub-dimensions of "social and entertainment" and "skills development" in respect to sex, while within the sub-dimension of only "body and appearance" in respect to marital status. Moreover, considering the results of the ANOVA that is performed, meaningful variations are detected according to welfare level (health, skills development and body and appearance), the period of facility membership (health, competition and body and appearance) and with whom they attend the recreational activities (competition and skills development). Consequentially, factors of "health", "body and appearance" and "skills development" are discovered to take the first 3 top-places in motivating the individuals for recreational exercise. Keywords: Recreation, motivation, participation in exercise, sports centers, fitness centers.