ABSTRACT
To consider the psychology of exercise when facing a health condition, change or crisis, this chapter looks at five common health issues: cancer, heart disease, asthma, type 2 diabetes and depression. It aims to understand the issues, highlight the benefits of exercise to that population, identify the psychological barriers those dealing with the disease might be facing and build up evidence-based best practice for developing programmes to engage this population. In addition to the regular barriers, there are a number of barriers that the actual health condition puts up. There are some fundamental elements of the physical design of a programme for those with a health condition that are helpful to increase positive outcomes. What has been found to be effective for most health conditions is a protocol of a programme of at least 30 minutes duration, undertaken at least three times a week that incorporates both cardiovascular exercise and resistance exercise for at least nine weeks.
