ABSTRACTEWART, C. K. Psychological effects of resistive weight training: implications for cardiac patients.Med. Sci. Sports Exerc., Vol. 21, No. 6, pp. 683–688, 1989. Cardiac patients' perceptions of their physical capabilities (“self-efficacy”) often exert greater influence over their return to normal activities than does their actual medical status. The first part of this review explains how self-efficacy perceptions are formed and how participation in resistive weight training can promote adherence to safe and effective exercise. The second part of the paper reviews data showing how exercise contributes to emotional well-being and reports changes in self-efficacy and negative affect that recently have been found to accompany strength gains achieved in circuit weight training.