Therapists tend to center themselves on setting SMART goals and using the FITT principles (Frequency, Intensity, Time and Type). However, in the beginning of the PA journey of someone who is physically inactive, this is not the most important.
With SMART goals we create a gap between the current situation and the desired situation
For people who are unmotivated this creates more psychological pain.
We need to focus the form of therapy on the stage they are in. Therefore, we need to firstly:
Explore the meaning of events that brought the person to physiotherapy - reason of referral
Explore results of previous efforts
Explore pros and cons of targeted behaviors
Offer factual information
Explore the person’s sense of self‐efficacy: Assess with the numeric rating scale
