Fitness culture

Fitness Culture is a sociocultural phenomenon which refers to the culture surrounding physical exercises. Nowadays it is usually associated with gym culture, as doing physical exercises in places such as gyms, wellness centres and health clubs is a popular culture all over the world. An international research (3) showed that more than 27% of world total adult population attends fitness centres.

1 Development of Fitness Culture

1.1	Gymnastic in Greek and Roman Culture
1.2    Physical Education in Totalitarian Regimes
1.3    Depoliticization of Physical Education
1.4	Commercialization of Fitness Culture and “Quantified Self”

2 Factors Shaping Fitness Culture

2.1	Impact of Mass Media
2.2	Impact of Peer Group
2.3 	Personal Trainers
2.4	Sport Fashion

3 Variety of Exercises

3.1 	Types of Exercises
3.2	Branded Exercises

4 See Also

5 Notes

1. Development of Fitness Culture

1.1 Gymnastic in Greek and Roman Culture

In ancient Greece and Rome, gyms were a public place devoted to athletes training, which were called “gymnasion” for Greeks and “palaestra” for Romans(13). Fitness was regarded as a concept shaped by two cultural codes: rationalization and asceticism; authenticity and hedonism respectively(13). From around 1800, gymnastics developed in western countries was meant to enhance body in order to sustain the public morals and to mould better “citizens”. (13) As such, these venues were directly managed by the state. At that time, fitness was seen as form of education and as a way to control population. (13)

1.2 Physical Education in Totalitarian Regimes

During the Second World War, the aforementioned ideology was recuperated by totalitarian regimes where gymnastics was used as a way to promote regimes’ ideologies(13). After the Second World War, a link was created between gymnastics and nation, which brought significant changes in the ideology of gymnastics. Under the rules of totalitarian regimes, fitness became a tool for the preparation of war in order to protect the country. Thus, physical education was one of the principal activity promoted by totalitarian regimes. (13)

1.3 Depoliticization of Physical Education

Depoliticization of gymnastics was accompanied by new organizational models. Physical education was no longer a political tool and there was a shift of emphasis from political to individual, from collective rules to individual desires. Since then, fitness has been commercialized in the contemporary society.

  1.4 Commercialization of Fitness Culture and “Quantified Self”

After the Second World War, a new form of non-organized, individualistic, health-oriented physical and recreational activities such as jogging began to prevail. For instance, aerobics – a form of group gymnastic activity performed with the support of music – was developed in the ’70. (13) Gyms were set up with the goals not to improve public health but to stimulate and exploit the desire of people to keep fit, have fun and improve themselves. It can also be observed in today’s gyms where bodybuilders are trying to reach their aesthetic ideas, through muscles development, using weight and other equipment. (13)

Nowadays, fitness has been commercialized. The term “gym” is often associated with the term “fitness” (13) and going to gyms means doing exercises in fitness institutions such as fitness centres, health clubs or gym clubs where people have to pay for membership in order to use fitness equipment and participate in group fitness activities with instructors, such as aerobics and yoga classes. (13)

In addition, advances in technology have changed the way of doing fitness activities. “Quantified Self” becomes a new phenomenon, where people use technological devices to support their workouts. It is characterized by the use of gadgets such as pedometer, GPS, heart rate monitor and smartphone apps to quantify or monitor the exerciser’s efforts. (17)

2. Factors Shaping Fitness Culture

2.1 Impact of Mass Media

Mass media plays an important role in shaping fitness culture because of the messages of an ideal body image they convey. Media such as TV, magazines and book publications, tend to promote “slimness” or even “thinness” as the ideal standards of female body image(1) and “slenderness” or “muscularity” as the ideal male body image(7). Commercial advertisements have also created an influential and powerful force in promoting a stereotype of ideal body image(1) which is not limited to fashion advertisements. Advertisements on commodities such as watches, smartphones and household appliances, have promoted an idealized body image of women and men as well. The perception of being slim and thin for women and slender and muscular for men became a stereotype in society, creating sociocultural pressures and influencing people to engage in fitness in order to pursuit the ideal body image promoted by the mass media. (1)

Doing exercises and dieting is often seen as the best way to achieve such ideal body image. For instance, fitness publications promote an idea that doing physical exercise is the natural medicine to your body and health(14). On the other hand, fashion magazines promote slimness and thinness as the ideal female image:(1) to promote high fashion, models are always slim and thin. There is also a significant increase of diet and weight loss articles in magazines(1). In addition, the shape of models has changed dramatically towards a “more tubular female form” (1) in high fashion culture, often sparking controversies.(4)

2.2 Impact of Peer Group

People who regularly go to fitness institutions tend to make friends over there. They want to feel as a “part of a group”, which can be referred precisely to “community feeling”(6) as the behaviour of group membership is transmitted from member to member within a group(2). However, this kind of friendship usually remains restricted within the fitness institution. (6)   Besides, the atmosphere in fitness institutions created by people with the same goal becomes a force of motivation. When people go to fitness institutions or start a new activity, they can be encouraged by others and give support to each other. (14)

In addition, fitness institution can function as “dating agencies”(12), creating chances to meet people apart from workplaces. Music, body movement and costumes of people excercising, can easily draw attention and become an occasion to engage with each other. (12)

Another important aspect of fitness culture is the gender differentiation in exercises performed. A study(12) showed that women prefer to do cardiovascular exercise over weight training because it allows them to gain strength without transgressing norms for feminine physical appearance, whereas men prefer other exercises like bodybuilding or boxing in order to be more muscular. (12)

2.3 Personal Trainers

Fitness institutions are places where people can cultivate their individual needs in terms of keeping fit and having fun with other people. They have been developed as a “commercial environment” since 1980s (13). The concept beyond this commercial aspect can be explained by the idea of “make best use of time” (12) because people have to pay for their membership in order to join a fitness institution(12). Thus, they are considered as customers. Fitness institutions are trying to explore the market by providing extra services such as personal trainers, coaches and experts.

Firstly, personal trainers are acting as “representative roles” (12) that basically represent the “fitness club” (12). It is a kind of representation for customers in term of satisfaction and loyalty to that particular fitness institution. Secondly, they also act as “brokers” (12) : they act as agents to create a link between the activities of their customers and the purchase of different extra goods and services that their customers need for any particular activities, such as shoes for specific training, costume, home equipment and so on(12) . Thirdly, they are “motivators” (12) of the goods and services. On the one hand, personal trainers are required to have technical skills in order to provide professional fitness services to their customers. On the other hand, they need to have good communication skills in order to stimulate or persuade their customers to do more in the fitness institution, which in turn means to purchase more goods and services. Finally, personal trainers also act as “entrepreneurs” (12): creating a big network of customers for different goods and services in order to produce profits(12). From this point of view, personal trainers are intermediaries between customers and the fitness institution, playing a crucial role in the commercialization of fitness culture (11).

One of the reason that personal trainers became popular can be explained by the analysis on rule-governed behaviour in terms of evolutionary thinking. From this perspective, personal trainers act as speaker to give rules, while trainees are listeners to follow the rules. “Much human behaviour starts out from rule-governed behaviour and switches to long-term control” (2). Whether the trainees will continue the training depends on the reinforcement by following the rule of personal trainers, because being fit and bodily well-being is a long-term contingency of fitness activities. (2)

The role of personal trainers has also revealed a phenomenon which can be explained from the sociological perspective of “outsourced-self” (10). It means “transferring our own responsibility to other” (11). Keeping healthy and bodily well-being are people’s own responsibility. However, people are hiring personal trainers to be responsible for it. It is also relevant to the perspective of “body work” (9) in the sociology of body: people are outsourcing their own bodies to the paid workers in order to keep healthy and prevent illness (9).

2.4 Sport Fashion

Sport fashion is a product created by commercialization of fitness culture. As mentioned above, personal trainers also act as agents to sell different goods and services. An example is the case of Body Training System (BTS) (8). BTS instructors are suggested to change their costume according to the programmes in order to show the differences in character. The aim is to aspire the trainees to purchase the same costume offered by the programmes. (8)

Besides, sport wear and athletic footwear has become the fastest growing segment in the apparel market. The trend in sport wear frames it not only for sport activities but also as daywear or weekend wear. While classic sport brands continue to expand their market share in the industry, high fashion brands have also joined the competition. (15)

3. Variety of Exercises

3.1 Types of Exercises

There is a decrease in popularity of “pure aerobics” exercises(14) . The attention is moving from aerobics, bodybuilding and traditional technique of exercises, to new forms of exercises such as:

• Yoga https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yoga • Zumba https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zumba • Pilates https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilates • Aquacycling https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquacycling • Spinning https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_(sport) • Tai Chi Chuan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tai_chi • Kick Boxing https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kickboxing

3.2 Branded Exercises

Exercises have been commercialized as branded exercises by fitness institutions. Branded exercises are group workouts developed by fitness institutions for people with different goals of fitness. For instance, Les Mills has developed a series of group workouts such as(16) :

BODYPUMPTM BODYCOMBATTM SH’BAMTM CXWORKTM RPMTM

  4 See Also:

Aerobics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobics

Gym http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gym

Health Club http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_club

Physical Culture http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_culture

Physical Exercise http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physical_exercise

Quantified Self http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantified_Self

Sociology of Sport http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_sport

Sociology of the Body http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sociology_of_the_body

The Outsourced Self http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Outsourced_Self

5 Notes

1. Brown, Kirsty. 1997. “From Fashion to Fitness? A Sociocultural Analysis of the Representation of Thinness within the Mass Media”. University of Toronto

2. Baum, William M. 1995. “Rules, Culture and Fitness”. The Behavior Analyst, 18, pp1-21

3. Burgess, Tim. 2013. “Fitness is the World’s Biggest Sport”. Les Mills Global Consumer Fitness Survey. Les Mills

4. Clements, Kirstie Clements. 2013. “Former Vogue editor: The truth about size zero”. The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/jul/05/vogue-truth-size-zero-kirstie-clements

5. Craig, Maxine Leeds and Liberti, Rita. 2007. “Cause That's What Girls Do”: The Making of a Feminized Gym”. Gender & Society, October 2007, 21: pp676-699. SAGE Publications

6. Crossley, Nick. 2006. “In the Gym Motives, Meaning and Moral Careers”. Body and Society, Volume 12, No.3, pp23-50. SAGE Publications

7. Cruz, Jamie Santa Cruz. 2014. “Body-Image Pressure Increasingly Affects Boys”. The Atlantic http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/03/body-image-pressure-increasingly-affects-boys/283897/

8. Felstead, Alan, Fuller, Alison, Jewson, Nick, Kakavelakis, Konstantinos and Unwin, Lorna. 2007. “Grooving to the Same Tunes? Learning, Training and Productive Systems in the Aerobics Studio”. Work, Employment & Society, Volume 21(2): pp189–208. SAGE Publications

9. Gimlin, Debra. 2007. “What Is ‘Body Work’? A Review of the Literature”. Sociology Compass, Volume 1, Issue 1, pp353–370

10. Hochschild, Arlie Russell. 2012. The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times. Metropolitan Books

11. Maguire, Jennifer Smith. 2001. “Fit and Flexible: the Fitness Industry, Personal Trainers and Emotional Service Labor”. Sociology of Sport Journal, 18, pp379-402

12. Sassatelli, Roberta. 2010. Fitness Culture Gym: Gyms and the Commercialization of Discipline and Fun. Palgrave Macmillan

13. Sassatelli, Roberta. 2006. “Fit Bodies. Fitness Culture and Gym”. http://users2.unimi.it/rsassatelli/wp-content/uploads/Sassatelli-Fitbodies.-Fitness-culture-and-the-gym.pdf

14. Sassatelli, Roberta. 2000. “The Commercialization of Discipline: Keep-fit Culture and its Values”. Journal of Modern Italian Studies, Volume 5, Issue 3, pp396-411

15. Vingan, Alyssa. 2014. “Why Fitness is Having a Moment in Fashion”. Fashionista. http://fashionista.com/2014/05/fitness-fashion-trend-2014