I read the book while waiting for my van's 90,000-mile check-up.

        “Don't judge, just move,” the book advised. Then I got my mechanic's bad news.

DR. JAY KIMIECIK

Age: 43.    Born: Florida, N.M.    Education: B.S. from State University of New York — Cortland; M.S. from Purdue University, Ph.D. in exercise psychology from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.    Occupation: Associate professor at Miami University since 1990.    Family: Married, two children. Professional accomplishments: Nationally known motivational speaker; published in Runner's World, Psychology Today, IDEA Health and Fitness Source magazines; author of manual for YPersonal Fitness Program: 12 Weeks to a Better You, used by 500 YMCAs in North America; creator and host of FitTalk on Miami University's WMUB 88.5.    Favorite exercise: Running, resistance training, tennis and golf.

        But The Intrinsic Exerciser (Discovering the Joy of Exercise) (Houghton Mifflin; $14) by Jay Kimiecik is good news. It explains that “intrinsic motivation — performing a task for its own sake” is the most powerful way to change behavior. Dr. Kimiecik (pronounced ki-mich-ic) believes this is especially true for exercise.

        Besides making a well-documented case for enjoying moving your body, the book offers self-evaluation exercises to help you discover the “intrinsic exerciser” within.

        Five days after reading the book, , I was feeling a new enthusiasm for physical activity when I spoke with Dr. Kimiecik, an associate professor in Miami University's Department of Physical Education, Health and Sports Studies.

        Question: Where did you get the idea for The Intrinsic Exerciser?

        Answer: It is based on very sound scientific information that exists in a lot of journals on psychology, educational psychology and exercise motivation. My doctorate is in sport and exercise psychology. I've been looking at this for a long, long time.

        Q: Why was this subject important to you?

        A: Every day I read something that indicates our approach (to exercise) is not working. A study just came out from the National Center for Health Statistics that showed 70 percent of adult Americans are inactive. And I don't see that changing in the near future.

        Q: How is the “intrinsic” approach to exercise different?

        A: The main difference with this approach is getting people to zoom in on their feelings and thoughts before, during and after an exercise experience.

        Doing a behavior for its own sake or learning how to enjoy a (healthy) behavior is not generally part of health promotion. It's usually, “If you want to live a long life and reduce your risk of disease, you better figure out how to do these behaviors or you're going to die at an early age.”

        Yet, if you go to any supervised exercise program that people join, within three to six months 50 to 75 percent of those people do not return . . . It's very hard to make a connection because you're leaving out the experience that people have with the behavior.

        Q: In the book, you refer to the “worried well.” Who are they?

        A: The late Marshall Becker, a world-renown medical sociologist, coined the phrase. Basically, when you don't believe that you are able to do the (healthy) behavior and you are getting information about all the bad things that are going to happen to you, you're not necessarily sick yet, but you are worried that you are going to be.

        That's what irks me. We're just not getting people enough help to get them out of this “worried well” mentality.

        Q: Is it difficult to become an intrinsic exerciser?

        A: In our society we have a hard time because we are very “future” driven. But if you are not enjoying the experience, you are never going to get to where you want to go anyway.

        How can you sustain your motivation over a long period of time to achieve your goal? You are really going down a dead end street in my opinion.

        Q: What do you hope readers will gain from the book?

        A: Unless you become an intrinsic exerciser, things in life will keep coming up and will make it easier and easier for you not to exercise. As an intrinsic exerciser, you'll figure out ways to overcome these various barriers.

        There are probably people in our society who can do a behavior over a long period of time without enjoying it, but I do think those folks are really missing out on a lot of joy and positive experiences that can come from exercise.

        Q: What's your next writing project?

        A: The Ageless Athlete (The Art and Science of Peak Performance After Age 40. It's kind of a spin-off on The Intrinsic Exerciser. I'm chronicling my experience of trying to become a competitive age-group runner.

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