Résumé
Physical activity (PA) can provide opportunities to experience social support (SS), but fitness professionals rarely receive training on how to provide and foster SS with adults. We developed an online training for fitness professionals working with adults that includes education on how to deliver nine categories of SS strategies previously identified in two literature reviews and refined by fitness professionals and participants: welcome and include participants, foster social connections, make PA fun and more pleasant, model PA, provide information, encourage, give mastery feedback, give autonomy support, and offer emotional support. Training includes background information, practical strategies, reflective exercises, and activities focused on customizing strategies to their role. This study aimed to identify which SS strategies fitness professionals implemented and how they used them. Seven fitness professionals were observed across three sites. Observations were conducted online or in-person using ethnographic fieldnotes and data were analyzed using qualitative description. Fitness professionals demonstrated use of SS strategies from all categories. However, they more frequently implemented SS strategies that also functioned as instructional methods (e.g., providing PA modifications tailored to participants’ needs) and less frequently implemented strategies intended solely to provide SS (e.g., comforting distressed participants). Providing SS may be less familiar to fitness professionals and more challenging to integrate than delivering instruction that includes elements of SS. Refining SS training to build on strategies already familiar to fitness professionals may enhance implementation and adaptability across different contexts and help expand the range of SS strategies fitness professionals are able to use effectively.
