THE IMPACT OF PHYSICAL WELLNESS CHALLENGES FOR UNIVERSITY ATHLETES IN SRI LANKA
K. G. DUSHANTHI NILMINI NAWARATHNA *
Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
P. D. V. CHARIKA WICKRAMARATHNE
Department of Sport Science and Physical Education, University of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Wellness can be identified as a very important element to the entire human race. There is no health without well-being and no well-being without health. Wellness must be maintained in order to live a life of good physical and mental health. At present, there is less tendency for the whole community to participate in activities that are necessary to maintain physical wellness, such as physical activity and exercise. The purpose of this study was to find out how the challenges to physical wellness confirmed by the previous study affect the athletes of the University of Kelaniya. These challenges determine which challenge was most influential and which was less influential. This study was conducted by presenting a questionnaire to investigate what challenges more or less affect the physical wellness of university athletes. The SPSS factor analysis method was used to analyze the data and it was found that the challenge of ‘leisure’ had the most effect on the physical wellness of athletes, while the challenge of ‘nutrition’ had less effect on athletes’ physical wellness. Therefore, athletes are advised to pay more attention to their physical wellness and to properly identify the challenges that affect their wellness.
Keywords: Wellness, physical wellness, physical activities, athletes.