Series Editors’ Preface vi Preface and Acknowledgements vii · Series Editors’ Preface vi Preface and Acknowledgements vii ... effects on people’s psychological health and

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Contents

Series Editors’ Preface vi

Preface and Acknowledgements vii

1 Introduction 1

2 Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 17

3 Becoming a Fitness Professional 40

4 Learning Bodily Sensations – Getting the Pump 65

5 Gender and Fitness in the Global Blogosphere 86

6 Beauty, Health and Doping Trajectories 110

7 Healthy and Heavenly Bodies? 133

8 Conclusions 156

Appendix: Method and Methodology 168

Notes 176

References 177

Index 191

Copyrighted material – 9781137346612


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1 Introduction

During the past four decades, gym and fitness facilities have emerged as a global industry. According to the International Health, Racquet & Sports Club Association (IHRSA), which is the trade association serving the health and fitness club industry, this global “movement” generated an estimated $75.7 billion in revenue in 2012, from more than 153,000 health clubs serving 131.7 million members (IHRSA, 2013). By promoting active lifestyles, gym and fitness facilities are presented worldwide as the solution to all sorts of public health issues. The list of countries that have been affected by this develop-ment is long. In Sweden, for example, where the sports movement has traditionally assumed responsibility for voluntary physical education for children and adolescents, gym and fitness training activities have advanced to play a significant role in promoting health and bodily exercise. In Great Britain, memberships in private fitness clubs have risen steadily during recent decades, and a public survey shows that at the beginning of 2000, 14 per cent of the population attended a gym (Crossley, 2006). These figures are well in line with studies of the health club population in the United States as well (Sassatelli, 2011), and seem to be increasing continuously, spurred especially by strong commercializing forces (Smith Maguire, 2008). Furthermore, in recent years the fitness and health club industry has expanded considerably in Asia and Latin America. In the Asia-Pacific, Hong Kong alone had approximately 600 gym and fitness clubs in 2012, while China attracted nearly 3.5 million members to more than 2,600 facilities (IHRSA, 2013).



2 The Global Gym

Among global markets, Brazil is now second in size only to the United States, where the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2005) describes employment in the “service-producing” industries focusing on the general state of clients’ bodies as one of the fastest-growing indus-tries in the labour market (George, 2008).

Consequently, at present people all around the world are using gym and fitness facilities to exercise their bodies and achieve success and health in everyday life. The physical activity pursued in these facilities is relatively straightforward. Individuals are given access to activities, machines, and equipment. With this access and the support of employed experts, they can, or are supposed to, make physiological improvements through incremental training in areas such as cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and muscle strength. In this respect, gym participation is expected to have a direct impact on individuals’ health and well-being. Much less clear, however, is the pedagogical work that is expected to occur during this body-work and in this particular cultural context. Indeed, recent research depicts training sessions as pedagogical encounters and suggests that fitness facilities play a significant role in teaching people how to live their lives and understand themselves (Tinning, 2010). Yet we know little about how these educational processes take place or about the lasting consequences gym pedagogies may have for individuals’ health and identity construction outside the gym. One important question we will raise and discuss in this book concerns whether this trend of going to the gym merely can be seen as an unproblematic way of achieving and learning about good health and constructing a successful identity and body, or whether there are drawbacks associ-ated with this cultural phenomenon, possibly in the form of negative effects on people’s psychological health and self-perceptions.

The first wave of research on the gym and fitness culture began in the early 1990s, and the focus was on bodies, gender, and identity (Dutton, 1995; Johansson, 1996, 1998; Klein, 1993). Klein (1993), for example, conducted a classical field study of bodybuilding in some of the world’s best-known gyms. This study examines the creation of bodybuilding as a subculture and the tensions between it and mainstream societal norms and conventions. Since this study, the gym and fitness industry has gone through a remarkable transforma-tion process and turned into a mass-leisure activity (Sassatelli, 2011). Today we see an increasing interest in research on the gym and



Introduction 3

fitness culture. Recently, theorists have explored aspects of gym (sub)cultures such as corporeal ideals, gender transformations, drugs, and training techniques (Evans et al., 2009; Hedblom, 2009; Helman, 2007; McGrath & Chananie-Hill, 2009; Monaghan, 2001). Others have focused on the more commercializing aspects of this culture and on how bodies are trained in order to fit into the consumer culture (Sassatelli, 2011; Smith Maguire, 2008). Processes of learning and pedagogies of the gym, however, have received little scholarly attention.

Consequently, the purpose of this book is, first, to analyse the fitness gym as a site of learning. Specifically, the book examines the kind of knowledge and expertise that is enacted by fitness profes-sionals and gym participants as they work on their own or others’ health and fitness. Second, we also address the construction of gender within the fitness culture. Thus, we wish to illustrate various ongoing processes and extant nodes of learning/education by asking how physical, psychological, and cultural knowledge about health and the body is acquired and incorporated into people’s gender iden-tity in a local, national, and global gym and fitness context. Finally, we are interested in how physical activity, health, and bodies are gradually drawn into a global sphere of interests. Many of the ques-tions discussed in the book are no longer only of national or local concern, but must be understood in relation to international and global movements and discourses on sport, health, and bodies.

Today there are a number of international stakeholders – UN organ-izations, international sports associations, and national and local organizations – focusing on physical exercise as a central factor influ-encing the health status of children and young people growing up in modern societies. For instance, modern sport is seen as a powerful tool in different social and cultural change initiatives, and especially in teaching young people and whole populations about health issues (Levermore & Beacom, 2009). The discourses of public health have changed quite dramatically in the Nordic countries and in many European countries since the 1990s. The welfare state has gradually transformed into a new system in which public and private healthcare systems coexist. Consequently, more and more responsibilities are left to the individual. This individualization of healthcare and public health has great implications for how we think about and frame our discussions and analysis of fitness and health. These processes also



4 The Global Gym

connect to a more general discussion on how neo-liberal discourses have penetrated how we reason about welfare, individual freedom, and consumption (Rich & Evans, 2013). The gym and fitness industry fits nicely into a neo-liberal worldview, where people are held respon-sible for their health on a more individual basis.

In the book, we focus on an increasingly visible group of people who are central to the development of the global gym, both economically and culturally, and who are mostly understood here as the affluent middle class. We document the emergence of this group within the particular cultural contexts of the gym and fitness culture, and as such, we are studying an affluent part of the global population. This does not mean, however, that the empirical material and analysis focus only on this stratum of the population. The empirical material also reflects the opinions of people belonging to the working and lower-middle classes.

The global fitness gym

The physical activities performed in modern societies are clearly part of a global industry. Within modern sport, for example, we have international media spectacles such as the Olympic Games and the Soccer World Cup, the Cricket World Cup, geographically mobile sports (tennis, golf), and a well-developed and influential US-based global marketing and franchise industry (Miller et al., 2001). Sport stars such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Anna Kournikova, and others have become icons and beauty models by putting their perfect bodies on display in advertising and media shows.

The Americanization thesis has been the topic of considerable debate and discussion. When it comes to the gym and fitness culture, it is highly relevant to discuss how bodybuilding and fitness, and the whole industry connected to them, have been historically imbued with American values and cultural conceptions of beauty, bodies, and the individual’s responsibility for taking care of and cultivating the body (Melnick & Jackson, 2002; Monaghan, 2007). However, the roots of the contemporary fitness culture run deeper. We can trace the values concerning and different ways of approaching the body to ancient Greek body ideals, as well as to later developments in phys-ical culture in, for example, the Nordic countries. We will return to this discussion in Chapter 2.



Introduction 5

Another more general discussion that is highly relevant to this book can be found in the literature on the McDonaldization of society (Ritzer, 2011). Ritzer has developed a concept that can be used to analyse the development of modern and effective organizations, such as McDonald’s. According to Ritzer, four alluring dimensions are at the heart of the success of the McDonald’s model. First, the fast food model appears to offer an efficient method for satisfying many different needs and desires. The model works effectively and follows a predesigned process, including the different steps involved in producing, for example, hamburgers. Second, this production process offers the customer calculability . People can calculate how much time it will take to drive to McDonald’s, to order, receive, and eat the food. Saving time is a key issue here, and McDonald’s employees are supposed to be able to do a lot of work, quickly and for a low wage. Third, McDonald’s offers no surprises. There is an assurance that the products and services will be the same over time and space. The product will be the same in Los Angeles, Bangkok, and Stockholm. This form of predictability is central to McDonald’s success. Finally, the space created for selling hamburgers and food, with limited menus and options, allows diners to eat quickly and leave. Thus, this is a highly controlled space , where customers and workers are subsumed under a tight and closely managed system.

In accordance with the notion of McDonaldization, we will discuss whether and how similar tendencies have permeated the gym and fitness culture. Certainly, the concept of “standardi-zation”, for example, seems to capture the changing conditions faced by the workforce of fitness professionals, as the occupation of personal trainers and group fitness instructing tends to be more and more controlled by giant global fitness organizations and companies such as Les Mills and the licensed group fitness activities they offer (Parviainen, 2011). These aspects of fitness culture are increasingly globalized, and thus it is difficult to tie specific beauty ideals, body ideals, and philosophies of the body to a certain nationality.

However, in contrast to looking at globalization as a homogeni-zation of culture, it is also possible to use the hybridization thesis, according to which cultures borrow, combine, and incorporate different elements, resulting in syncretic and highly diverse and complex forms (Holton, 2000). In this way, globalization instead



6 The Global Gym

results in intercultural borrowing and innovation. Another way of approaching these questions is to differentiate between a structural-institutional level, where homogenization occurs, and an expres-sive-symbolic level, where we find patterns of heterogenization and diversity (Ram, 2004). Thus, global commodities, and in our case the fitness industry and culture, appropriate local traditions that strongly influence and are influenced by deep-seated social and cultural rela-tions and ways of communicating. In this way, we get glocommodifi-cation : that is, a combination of structural uniformity and symbolic diversity (cf. Robertson’s concept of the glocal , 1995).

Urry (2003, see also 2007) describes the relation between the global and local in the following way:

The global and local are inextricably and irreversibly bound together through a dynamic relationship with huge flows of “resources” moving backwards and forwards between the two. Neither the global nor local exists without the other. The global-local develops in a symbiotic, unstable and irreversible set of relationships in which each gets transformed through billions of worldwide iterations dynamically evolving over time. (Urry, 2003, p. 84)

This seems to be a nuanced way of approaching and analysing different global phenomena (Bale & Christensen, 2004; Ram, 2004). There is evidence for the existence of local and national approaches to and interpretations of gym and fitness (Steen-Johnson, 2007). On the other hand, there is also some support for the McDonaldization thesis and arguments pointing to a growing tendency towards homogenization of the global gym and fitness culture. Throughout the book, we will relate our analysis to aspects of both the global and the local.

Analytical and theoretical framework

Theoretically, our research interest is aligned with a social construc-tionist approach to knowledge and knowledge production (Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Hacking, 2000). We are mainly interested in how societal and cultural changes permeate, and to a certain extent also form, individuals’ behaviours and lifestyles, but also in how



Introduction 7

individuals can relate to, resist, and partake in slow and structural societal changes. We will investigate how particular subject positions (identities) are being created through bodily practices and social interaction within the gym and fitness culture. We will also explore the inter-subjective ways in which we learn – through socialization and the internalization of values, routines, ideals, and practices – who we are and where in the world we belong. We will argue that, in a gym and fitness context, physical skills are not to be regarded as distinct abilities or objects that can easily be transferred from one person to another, for example from a personal trainer to his/her trainee. Rather, we see physical skills and learning processes as inter-subjective, for example as being created by action and in relational and communicative encounters between different individuals in specific cultural contexts (Schiro, 2008). More precisely, a person’s sense of “who he/she is” is understood as intimately incorporated into bodily action. When people act/perform, they learn. They gain experience in relation to their surroundings, and in this way they also develop an understanding of themselves, what they can do, and how others perceive them. In other words, the ways in which people use and understand their bodies are also expressions of integration between learning processes and the ongoing process of identity and gender construction (Biesta, 2006).

Formulating a theory of social practice, Lave and Wenger (1991) claim that learning, thinking, and knowing are relations among people in action and arise from the socially and culturally structured world. This means that learning must be understood by looking beyond traditional dichotomies between cerebral and embodied activity, abstraction, and experience. Rather, learning implies a relation to social communities. Understood from the point of view of personal trainers, for example, the process of learning how to become a fitness professional is inevitably interwoven into a system of relations to, for example, gym owners, gym-goers, media repre-sentations, and so forth (Sassatelli, 2011). Hence the education of a fitness professional is to be understood as integrated into a larger system of relations, implying that such an education also means that the individual is gradually becoming a different person, which in turn reshapes relationships, provides new opportunities, and enables changed positions in the relational systems in which the individual partakes.



8 The Global Gym

In addition to zooming in and focusing on micro-processes in the fitness gym, we will also analyse and discuss how bodies are formed and transformed in relation to and through intersectional patterns of power and resistance. We will use case studies and exten-sive empirical material to discuss the McDonaldization thesis and to analyse glocal aspects of the gym culture (Robertson, 1995). The overall ambition is to place our case studies and theoretical analysis within the larger sociological framework of cultural sociology and gender theory.

The gym and fitness culture has been thoroughly analysed as a gendered phenomenon (Johansson, 1998; Markula, 2001). On the one hand, the transformations of gender and sexuality taking place in late modernity are characterized by rapid alterations of how identities and bodies are perceived and understood. On the other, this field of expertise and practice also upholds and maintains hegemonic structures of masculinity and polarized gender identi-ties. To understand historical developments in the gym culture, we also must analyse and dissect the whole phenomenon in rela-tion to hegemonic masculinity (Connell, 1987, 1995). We will use this concept to point at certain structural changes and transformations in the gym culture. In our interpretation, this is not to be regarded as a static concept, only usable to talk about dominance and stable hierarchies, but as a dynamic concept that points at possible trans-formations of power structures and gender relations. There are also considerable differences between how hegemonic structures take shape and manifest themselves on different levels. On a global and international level, there are often clear patterns of male domi-nance and stereotypical gender divisions, whereas these patterns are more scattered and nuanced on other levels, for example the national and local. Against the background of Connells’ theory of gender, and recent developments and critiques of the concept of hegemony (Anderson, 2009), we will highlight throughout the book how gender is enacted, performed, and transformed in different contexts (Hearn, 2004; Howson, 2006; Johansson & Ottemo, 2013; Wedgewood, 2009).

When observing bodies, movements, and postures in the gym, it also becomes obvious that gender is performative , and thus that we can dissect how these processes are enacted and take place in everyday life (Butler, 1990). The gym is a physical and material space,



Introduction 9

but also a symbolic and cultural space in which gender is negoti-ated and transformed. To a certain extent, the processes and actions taking place in the gym enable radical gender identity transgressions as well as the development of hybrid, and to some extent also “new”, subject positions.

The mass media’s images of young, beautiful, well-defined, and successful people have come to affect larger and larger groups of people. Moreover, we are seeing rapid developments in a number of contemporary body techniques: for example dieting methods, plastic surgery, and training techniques belonging to the spectrum of bodybuilding and fitness. The possibility to learn about how to transform the body has to a certain extent changed people’s ways of relating to the body. Today there is a large corpus of literature on the sociology of the body (Johansson, 2012). Here, we primarily use three different perspectives, all of cultural-historical importance, as a meta-theoretical framework for approaching and analysing the body (Evans et al., 2009; Larsson & Fagrell, 2010; Whitehead, 2001). These are: (1) body as object, (2) body as lived experience (subject position), and (3) body as social marker. Before presenting and contextualizing each perspective, a few clarifications are in order. First, we claim that these perspectives are clearly supported by the empirical evidence provided by the narratives presented in the book. However, this does not mean they should be regarded as universal to the extent that no other approach exists. Nor can any one of the perspectives be neatly tied to a single informant. Rather, we mean that all perspec-tives are generally accommodated in an individual life story. Second, we claim that these perspectives are reasonable because they demon-strate how body and culture can be regarded as intertwined aspects of the concept of knowledge, and can also clarify how knowledge may be acquired through various parallel and sometimes seemingly contradictory learning processes.

Characteristic of an objectivist perspective is that it regards the body almost as a machine or device. The body is something the individual can control in order to optimize progress. It becomes a vehicle on the road to specific goals. In other words, a learning and competent body is an obedient body (Larsson & Fagrell, 2010). Use of the machine as a metaphor for the body is perhaps mainly intelligible in a Western, industrial societal context (Giddens, 1991), but certainly it also has bearing in a contemporary culture of consumption (Featherstone,



10 The Global Gym

2000). Numerous studies have revealed the ways in which people’s attitudes towards the body are characterized by control, discipline, and instrumentality (Johansson, 1998; Messner, 1992; Mogensen, 2011; Rytter, 2010).

Characteristic of the second perspective, the subject position , is that it regards the body as “something that we are” (Baudrillard, 1998; Whitehead, 2001). The body is a lived experience and not something that the individual regards and controls from the outside (Butler, 1993; Lakoff & Johnson, 1999). Bäckström’s (2011) analysis of skate-boarders provides an example of this perspective, as she presents the learning of skateboarding as a process whereby skaters engage in “finding” and being in contact with their bodies (Arnegård, 2006; Mogensen, 2011). Skateboarders do not learn skateboarding by trying to force their bodies to perform certain acts of balancing. Rather, it appears that bodily feelings function as a starting point for making sense of the activity and achieving skills (Bäckström, 2011). Knowledge about skateboarding is even presented as a skill (feeling) that, in some respects, is hidden in the body’s senses, waiting to be found and understood (Hahn, 2007; Harris, 2007; Howes, 2010). Yet another example of how the subject position can be understood, in relation to learning and gender, reveals itself in Connell’s (2000, p. 87) story of a young man called Adam. With his wide hips and narrow chest, Adam has a hard time seeing himself as a real man. The constitution of his body and his lack of skill in sports gradually lead him to a feeling of otherness, and this feeling later to the reali-zation that he is gay. In the story of Adam, it is clear how the body is actively involved in shaping Adam’s social life and identity. In other words, the body is a lived experience that responds to what its “cognitive self” asks it to do. Accordingly, physical qualities, necessi-ties, advances, and setbacks participate in the shaping of a person’s identity and sense of competence.

Solheim (2001), a representative of the third perspective on bodies and learning processes, describes the body as a symbolic world of meaning and says that bodily practices may only be understood when they relate to a particular social and cultural context. The body must, therefore, also be seen as a social marker (Bourdieu, 1984). Movements of the body function as a language and thus have communicative content. In other words, actions and performances always store many different interpretations. Their meanings relate



Introduction 11

both to the individual’s previous experiences and to the context in which the act is performed (Larsson & Fagrell, 2010). Expressed differ-ently, an act or experience has no obvious, or self-evident, meaning per se. The act is something the individual learns to understand/feel/interpret contextually. Having studied bodybuilders, Monaghan (2001) suggests that his informants establish something like a carnal habitus in their quest for the perfect body (Bourdieu, 1984). He states that the sculpturing of a lean, muscular physicality is based on and departs from the body. This sculpturing phenomenon unites body-builders, but it is also constantly socially negotiated and reworked in gym surroundings. For example, the bodily sensations described by his informants in connection with exercising are clearly individual experiences, but because they are recurrently discussed within the group, they also tend to become more or less normative (Geurts, 2002). There exist, so to speak, socially formulated understandings of the bodily sensations that bodybuilders experience. The indi-vidual must, therefore, relate to what he or she experiences from the outside, using what Goffman might have called bodily collective representations (Goffman, 1959).

The three different perspectives presented above are not mutu-ally exclusive, rather they overlap, and together they offer a more or less coherent way of approaching the physical, social, and cultural body. We will not use these concepts explicitly in our analysis of the empirical material and case studies in the book, but instead use these different ways of approaching the body to frame and discuss the fitness and gym culture. In particular, we will alternate between a more objectivist perspective – focusing on the discipline, body maintenance, and body ideals cultivated in the gym – and a subjec-tivist approach, where the informants’ experiences of pain, desire, enjoyment, and their contact with their bodies will be put forward. The third perspective is, of course, present throughout the book. We will read and understand the gym culture and fitness in relation to the fitness industry and enterprise, gender formations, hegem-onic masculinity, and professionalization. There are of course other possible cultural and symbolic worlds of meaning, and other possible contexts, and we will discuss further possibilities for contextualizing this phenomenon in our concluding chapter.

This book is based on rich empirical material gathered using a wide range of qualitative methods. From beginning to end, our



12 The Global Gym

fieldwork has been inspired by the traditions and concepts devel-oped within ethnographic research, ranging from participant obser-vations, passive observations, and group discussions to formal as well as informal interviews, carried out both face-to-face and, when necessary, using Skype. Further analyses of fitness blogs, websites, Facebook pages, and so forth are included in the empirical mate-rial when possible and relevant to the analysis. The main part of our data gathering has taken place in different cities in Sweden, but gradually we have also complemented this empirical material by conducting fieldwork in other countries such as the United States and Australia. We have also used Internet material to gain access to specific life-worlds, experiences, and expressions manifested at a more global level. One important ambition regarding the method and methodology has continuously been to try to enter into the world of training in the fitness and gym culture (Sassatelli, 2011). By trying to participate in this world, we have aimed first at focusing in on the everyday life of, for example, a number of personal trainers, group fitness instructors, bodybuilders, gym-goers, and other agents within this cultural sphere, and at understanding their perception of this arena and physical culture (Wacquant, 2004). Second, this approach has also allowed us to grasp the different ways in which people interact within the gym and, thereby, to understand this phenomenon as a site for interactive learning and gendered identity construction.

There are, of course, many different types of facilities that could be analysed in a book about the gym and fitness culture, ranging from hard-core bodybuilding gyms to more commercialized health and fitness centres. Here, we have collected empirical material from various gyms that could be placed along this imagined continuum of facility types. Chapters 3 and 6 start primarily from a study of different hard-core gyms, while Chapter 4 is based more on observa-tions made in a variety of health clubs (such as SATS, Crunch, and Blink Fitness). Furthermore, there are obviously a large number of other ways of categorizing gym and fitness facilities, such as home gyms, women’s-only gyms, hotel gyms, corporate gyms, luxurious spa gyms, and so forth. In this book, however, we have not tried to explicitly focus on and analyse the differences that can be found between different facilities, but to direct our attention to some of the more common features of this culture.



Introduction 13

Throughout the book, we will use the notion of “gym and fitness culture” to address the different phenomena under study. Addressing this as a culture, however, does not imply that we see it as a homogenous enterprise; rather it suggests that we are inter-ested in the symbolic and cultural ideas that constitute a specific way of approaching the body and physical culture. Furthermore, we will use the gym and fitness culture concept to refer to the physical culture that is developed and takes place in certain locations, based on different kinds of strength training, as well as on various types of workout, aerobics, and fitness techniques. We will also discuss central distinctions, such as that between bodybuilding and fitness. Olympic recognition of bodybuilding remains controversial, as many people would argue that this type of physical culture is not to be considered a sport. The same applies to professional fitness, which is often connected to vanity and an extreme focus on appearance. Competitors within bodybuilding and fitness are not automatically seen as part of a larger international and global sport society. Hence, although the book focuses on a cultural context in which different techniques of exercise are learned and developed in order to perform, the phenomena we deal with are largely situated outside the context of modern sports.

Although the title of the book is The Global Gym , the empirical material and examples have all been gathered from the Western soci-eties. In this respect, this is not a book about the gym and fitness culture as it has been formed and developed in a variety of local and national contexts. With this in mind, we have nonetheless chosen to call the book The Global Gym because what we are studying is in many senses a global culture. The training techniques, diets, and the whole philosophy of the gym and fitness have been created and spread in a global arena, through lifestyle magazines, the Internet, blogs, and competitions. The personal trainers and the most famous bodybuilders and fitness models are found on the global level, and images of the body beautiful and perfect body ideals are manufac-tured, modelled, and sold on a global commercial market. By using Internet material, Skype interviews, and ethnographic work in certain local and national contexts, we have tried to capture some of the flows and trajectories of this particular lifestyle and cultural formation as it is displayed in a global arena/culture. Having said this, we are aware that in order to study global/local variations, there



14 The Global Gym

is a need to use more extensive case studies from a number of care-fully selected countries. We hope to do this in our next book.

Readers’ guidelines

In this introductory chapter, we have briefly presented the back-ground and purpose of this book. The main concepts highlighted in the introduction, as well as throughout the book, are the global gym/fitness culture, learning processes, gender, and health. The remainder of the book is divided into seven chapters and a methodo-logical appendix.

In Chapter 2, we present an extended discussion of historical and contemporary perspectives on the gym and fitness culture on a broad scale. This first substantial chapter is thus intended to histori-cally, culturally, and spatially frame and position the book.

The role of fitness professionals, such as personal trainers and group fitness instructors, is in focus in Chapter 3. Placed within a global context and related to processes of standardization through global certification of this occupation, we analyse and discuss different perspectives on learning as they are played out in the everyday lives of fitness professionals. The chapter analyses the different kinds of presentations of self that are created by these role models of fitness, how their way to becoming fitness professionals can be understood, and further, how their “teaching” of body and health is carried out. Important issues also concern the ideals being pursued and how physical contacts and intimacy are handled in ongoing interactive learning processes with clients.

In Chapter 4, another central gestalt within the fitness culture is presented, namely the bodybuilder. This chapter picks up at the point where knowledge about, for example, exercise and physiology has already been acquired (i.e., when the fitness professionals have done their job with their clients), and focuses on the learning processes through which this knowledge transforms over time and gradually becomes embodied. One main objective here is to analyse what kinds of bodily sensations/experiences are sought after, and in what ways these experiences relate to the socio-cultural context in which the learning processes take place. This will include an analysis of the “subjective body”, expressed in terms of, for example, learning to find “muscle contact” and experiences of this contact and “getting the pump”.



Introduction 15

Chapter 5 uses international fitness blogs as empirical material to investigate and provide an in-depth picture of the global gym culture as it is expressed and narrated by a number of male and female international experts on fitness, that is, personal trainers and coaches with an international reputation. The main interest here is how fitness experts tend to frame gender in relation to this particular cultural context, that is, in what ways masculinity and femininity are perceived and promoted.

We obviously recognize that the increased awareness of different kinds of health issues resulting from the establishment of numerous gym and fitness facilities has been a positive development for society. In Chapter 6, however, we explicitly try to account for the fact that the very same development, the things being taught and learned within this cultural context, has also accentuated phenomena such as distorted body images, psychological illness, and doping problems. Chapter 6 will focus on the use of performance-/ image-enhancing substances within the gym, as an example of a cultural drawback that is partly accentuated by the emergence of the fitness industry.

In Chapter 7, we take a closer look at the relation between fitness and health, which, as Chapter 6 will show, is complex and contradic-tory. Here we will use different types of empirical material, as well as present examples/cases from several of the empirical studies that form the basis of this book. We will focus on the tension between physical exercise and health, on the one hand, and body ideals that cause people to develop unhealthy fixations and obsessions with beauty and optimal bodies, on the other. In many ways, the contem-porary fitness industry plays a key role in promoting and supporting healthy lifestyles and pushing people into them. But at the same time, this industry also contributes to forming hegemonic beauty and body ideals. The chapter will discuss the possible outcomes and consequences of this particular equation and relationship within the fitness culture.

In Chapter 8, the results presented in previous chapters are summarized in an attempt to develop a theoretical discussion on learning processes, gender, body, identity, and health within the fitness culture. Aspects such as health, learning processes, identity, and body are reflected on and contextualized throughout the book. Hence, the reason for dividing the book into different chapters is



16 The Global Gym

that this organization allows us to address our aim from different angles using a variety of empirical material.

The book is the result of a larger ethnographic study in which we have conducted research for several years on different aspects of the gym and fitness culture. In the final chapter, we present, in the form of an appendix, some reflections on our method and methodology.



191

Index

accreditation programs, 58, 71–2

aerobics, 33, 34, 35, 52Aerobics (Cooper), 33, 35aerobics instructors, 48–9

see also fitness professionalsaesthetics, 131ageing, 152, 155American Association of Plastic

Surgery, 150American Board of Plastic Surgery,

150American Council of Exercise (ACE),

45, 49American culture, 22Americanization thesis, 4anabolic steroids, see doping;

performance-enhancing drugsancient Greece, 4, 19, 37anorexia nervosa, 139Anti-Doping Denmark, 121appearance, 131, 146Asia, fitness and health club

industry in, 1Asia-Pacific region, 1athleticism, 102, 106, 108Atlas, C., 22, 23, 36, 91, 97, 115Attila, Professor, 20Aurelius, M., 19Australia, 12

barbells, 34, 36, 157Bartky, S.L., 32Baxter, K., 32beauty

commercialization of, 132health and, 37ideals, 15, 23, 35, 39, 86, 95–100,

105, 108, 131, 154–5, 158, 159success and, 152

Beauvoir, Simone de, 73Beckham, D., 4black women, 33–4bodily care, 135bodily knowledge, 82bodily perfection, 135, 136–41, 151,

153bodily sensations, 65–85bodily strength, 77body, 55

attitudes toward, 10distorted image of, 136–41female, 32–3, 107, 116, 148,

152–3, 166functions, 131ideals, 15, 76–7, 86, 87, 95–100,

106–7, 116–17, 131, 136–7, 153–5, 158, 159, 165

image, 15instrumental approach to, 77, 83,

84learning about the, 73–5as lived experience, 9, 10male, 28, 105, 107, 109, 116, 148,

166as object, 9–10, 152–3as social marker, 9, 10–11sociology of the, 9subjective, 14transformation of, 104

BodyAttack, 63bodybuilding/bodybuilders, 2, 11,

13, 14, 19, 157bodily sensations and, 65–6,

77–85case studies of, 67–70competitions, 21–2, 25, 29, 30,

32–3, 36, 123development of modern, 23doping in, 26–8, 113, 115–32



192 Index

bodybuilding/bodybuilders – Continued

famous bodybuilders, 19–22, 23–5, 32, 36

female, 22–3, 29–33, 118–19, 162genetic max and, 67–70identification process for, 73in Japan, 35lifestyle, 75magazines, 28mainstreaming of, 166problems in, 28proper gaze and, 76–8pump and, 80–3, 84reputation of, 119–24separation of fitness and, 26, 29,

37shifts in, 165subculture of, 18, 24–9, 75, 86,

166techniques from, 98–9, 166

body contact, 58–60, 61, 64Body Design by Gilda, 33body modifications, 147–55body pedagogies, 55–62, 65–85BodyPump, 41, 52body reflective practices, 84body techniques, 63Botox, 152Bourdieu, P., 75Bowen, L., 32branding, 41–5, 49, 55, 63, 94, 145Bratman, S., 143Brazil, 2Brooks, L., 98–100Budd, M.A., 20–1Bukh, N., 19Butler, J., 88

calculability, 5, 160California, 37Canada, 152, 157capitalist societies, 21certification, 49, 53children, health status of, 3China, 1, 122Christianity, 21, 23, 24

class roles, 21client-instructor relationship, 55–62Coad, D., 97cognitive self, 10commercialization, 3, 21, 55, 63,

107, 120, 132of fitness, 36–7, 109–10of gender, 88of gym culture, 157of masculinity, 105, 109of supplements, 129, 141–6

community of practice, 75, 136, 164company facilities, 25Connell, R.W., 8, 10, 84, 99constructionist approach, 111consumption, 10, 97control, 10, 161controlled space, 5Cooper, K., 33, 35coronary diseases, 25cosmetic surgery, see plastic surgeryCricket World Cup, 4cultural context, 10–11, 13, 43, 67, 131cultural framing, 53cultural sociology, 8Cutler, J., 123

De arte gymanstica (Mercurialis), 19death, 152Denmark, 159diet, 9, 74–5, 83, 99–100, 121, 141–6Dimeo, P., 112discipline, 10discourses, 111doped society, 130–1, 132doping, 15, 74, 110–32

see also performance-enhancing drugs

attitudes toward, 113–14, 121–30, 165

background on, 112–14bodybuilding and, 113, 115–32gender issues and, 115–19rules against, 112–13in Sweden, 121–3

Dr. 90210, 151dress codes, 62



Index 193

drug use, 26, 27–8dumbbells, 22, 144, 157

Eastern Europe, 122–3eating disorders, 139–40eating habits, 110, 141–6Edung, K.-G., 150embodied experiences, 66–7,

78–80emphasized femininity, 99ethics, 54–5ethnographic research, 12, 66,

168–75ethno-physiological knowledge, 74Europe, gym and fitness culture

in, 68European Health and Fitness

Association (EHFA), 51exercise, see physical exerciseexercise videos, 33–4experience-based knowledge,

79–80, 83–4experts, 101–2

see also fitness professionalsexpressive-symbolic level, 6Extreme Makeover, 151

facelifts, 147–50Fair, J.D., 29fashion, 37, 80, 94, 96, 103, 105, 147fast food model, 5fatness, 154, 164–5Felski, R., 102female bodies, 32–3, 107, 116, 148,

152–3, 166female bodybuilders, 22–3, 29–33,

118–19, 162femininity, 31, 32, 33, 87, 91–5,

99–100, 102–4, 107–9, 117, 118, 131

feminist discourses, 152–3feminist fitness, 100–3, 108feminization of service work,

48–9fitness, 13

bodybuilding and, 37feminist, 100–3, 108

gender and, 33–5, 39, 95–106health and, 15, 135–41women and, 37, 39

fitness and health club industryemployer expectations in, 53–4growth of, 1–2, 18, 25–6, 33–6, 110in Japan, 35–6neo-liberal discourse and, 4transformation of, 36–9

fitness blogs, 15, 86–109body ideals and, 95–100gendered identity and, 106–9norms presented in, 88–95representations of self in, 100–6

fitness competitions, 32–3fitness culture, see gym and fitness

culturefitness entrepreneurs, 21–4fitness franchises, 44–9fitness ideals, 35fitness magazines, 24, 28, 141,

147–50, 154Fitness Olympia, 32fitness products, 44fitness professionals, 3, 38–64, 158

advice given by, 101–2blogs of, 86–109certification of, 49–51, 53–4eating disorders and, 139–40educational background of, 7,

50–1, 52–4encounters between clients and,

55–62ethics for, 54–5feminization of, 48–9global work/travel by, 53–4group fitness instructors, 14, 43,

45–9, 50, 52occupational organizations, 49pedagological work, 55–62personal attributes of, 54personal trainers, 14, 42–3, 49–51,

58, 61, 87, 112, 114professionalism of, 64as role models, 164–5role of, 14, 41–4selection of, 54



194 Index

fitness professionals – Continuedstatus of, 158–9training of, 45–9, 63ways of becoming, 49–55

fitness revolution, 33–6fitness trends, 18Fitness World, 28Fonda, J., 33, 157, 166food supplements, 141–6, 159–60Foucault, M., 111, 135, 140franchises, 34Francis, B., 32Fussell, S., 26–8

Galenos, C., 19Gavin, J., 61gay culture, 106, 109gaze, 66, 76–8, 109gender, 55, 162

changes in patterns of, 158–9commercialization of, 88construction, 3, 7, 8divisions, 8of doped bodies, 115–19fitness and, 33–5, 39, 95–106fitness blogs and, 86–109identity, 8–9, 31–3, 95–100, 105,

107–9as performative, 8–9social context and, 117–18symbolism, 102

gender-neutral conception, 17gender theory, 8General Association of International

Sports Federations (GAISF), 36genetic max, 67–70Germany, 20, 72Giddens, A., 112Giordano, S., 139global fitness gym, 4–6globalization, 5–6, 38, 53, 63–4,

157–60, 162–3global travel, 53, 68–9, 72glocal, 6, 8, 18glocommodification, 6Goffman, E., 11, 31Gold’s Gym, 23, 24, 37, 157

Great Britain, 1Great Competition, 21–2Green, N., 89–91, 104, 107group affiliation, 111group fitness classes, 165–6

branding, 44–9, 63standardization of, 44–9

group fitness instructors, 14, 43, 50, 52role of, 45–6training of, 45–9

gym and fitness culture, 63Americanization thesis and, 4beauty ideals and, 154–5body ideal and, 87commercialization of, 132concept of, 13doping and, 121in Europe, 68gender construction in, 3, 8globalization of, 36–8, 157–60glocal aspects of, 8growth of, 26healthy lifestyle and, 134–55hidden curriculum of, 163–5historical perspective on, 17–39homogenization of, 5–6, 63–4,

158, 160–3ideals of, 121McDonaldization of, 5, 6, 8, 156,

160–3methods and approaches in, 72nutrition and supplements

within, 141–6research on, 2–3, 11–14roots of, 4in society, 165–7transformation of, 157–60in U.S., 68

gym and fitness facilitiescompany facilities, 25increase in, 33in Japan, 35personal training offered by, 50pre-history of, 18–24services provided by, 43types of, 12, 34–5

gymnasiums, 19, 23



Index 195

gymnastic movement, 19gym pedagogies, 2

health, 2, 3, 15, 131, 133–5beauty and, 37commercialization of, 110education, 133exercise/fitness and, 135–41individual responsibility for, 4,

134, 159interest in, 25management, 134

healthcare systems, 3health club industry, see fitness and

health club industryhealth club membership, 1health clubs, see gym and fitness

facilitieshealthism, 147, 159–60health pedagogies, 55–62health promotion, 38–9, 54, 110,

133–4health sector, 159healthy lifestyle, 121, 133, 138, 154,

159hegemonic masculinity, 8, 20, 26,

87–8, 101–2, 105, 107, 108, 131, 152, 157–9

hegemony, 8heroes, 90–1heterosexual norms, 26Heywood, L., 32hidden curriculum, 163–5historical perspective, 17–39Hoffman, B., 29, 36homogenization, 5, 6, 63–4, 158,

160–3homosexual culture, 21homosexual masculinity, 106, 109Hong Kong, 1

idealization, 161–2identity

construction, 2, 3, 7discourses and, 111gender, 8–9, 31, 32–3, 95–100,

107–9

ideology of the dissatisfied, 118, 136–7

IFBB, see International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB)

image-enhancing drugs, 113see also performance-enhancing

drugsimperial ideology, 21individualization, of health issues,

134, 140–1, 159industrialization, 19innovation, 6instrumental approach, 10, 77, 83, 84instrumental labour, 54intercultural borrowing, 6internalization, 7international certifications, 53–4International Dance-Exercise

Association (IDEA), 49International Federation of

Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB), 24, 28, 32, 36, 38

International Health, Racquet & Sports Club Association (IHRSA), 1

International Olympic Committee (IOC), 121

international politics, 26intersubjectivity, 7intimacy, 58–62, 64Italy, 20

Jahn, F. L., 19Japan, 35–6, 158–9Jeffords, S., 25–6

kettle bells, 98–9Kimmel, M., 23Kournikova, A., 4

Lanefelt, S., 34Latin America, fitness and health

club industry in, 1Lave, J., 7learning processes, 7, 10–11, 65–85,

158, 163–5



196 Index

Lebedev, 19Lee, J. N., 91–5, 101Les Mills Company, 5, 44–9, 63, 161,

162, 166Lessen, D., 70–3lifestye changes, 134Ling, P. H., 19, 44Ling gymnastics, 44logic of discontent, 77Lupton, D., 134Lyon, L., 32

Macfadden, B., 22, 23makeover culture, 151–3, 155Malcolm, N., 117male bodies, 28, 104, 107, 109, 116,

148, 166Marx, G., 33masculinity, 19, 22, 86–91, 96–7,

104–9, 115, 117, 118, 147, 166bodybuilding and, 28, 29, 31crisis of, 23, 97, 152fragile, 28hegemonic, 8, 20, 26, 87–8, 101–2,

105, 107, 108, 131, 152–3, 157–9homosexual, 106, 109

mass media, 9McDonaldization, 5, 6, 8, 156,

160–3media images, 110, 154media spectacles, 4medicalization, 129–30, 147medicine, 22megarexia, 139Men’s Health, 147–50Merleau-Pounty, M., 79methodology, 168–75metrosexuality, 97, 149, 153middle class, 33, 34, 133Mills, C., 44–5Mills, L., 44–5Mills, P., 45mobility, 53Monaghan, L.F., 11, 113, 141Montreal, Canada, 37morality, 147, 154–5Mosse, G., 19

motivation, 73Mr. Olympia, 36, 123Mr. Universe competition, 25Muscle & Fitness, 24muscle building, 86, 102, 108,

116–17, 157see also bodybuilding/

bodybuildersMuscular Christianity, 21, 23, 24

National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA), 72

nationalist ideology, 21nationalist movements, 26National Personal Training Institute

(NPTI), 49neo-liberal discourses, 4Nordic countries, 4nudity, 62nutrition, 68, 74–5, 83, 99–100,

141–6, 159–60

objectification, 9–10, 152–3objectivist perspective, 9–11Olympic Games, 4orthorexia, 143overtraining, 78, 138–40overweight, 154

pain, 80–3Palumbo, D., 67–70, 72Pavlov, I., 19pedagological work, 2, 55–62Pedersen, K., 114, 129perfect bodies, 135, 136–41, 151, 153performance-enhancing drugs, 15,

110–32see also supplementsattitudes toward, 121–30, 165background on, 112–14decision to use, 125–7factors leading to use of, 111, 112,

114, 115–19, 131–2laws on, 121prevalence of use, 115self-education about, 127–9

personal boundaries, 59–60



Index 197

personal trainers, 14, 42–3, 50, 87see also fitness professionalsadvice given by, 61certification of, 49, 50–1educational background of, 49,

50–1, 58lack of formal requirements for,

57–8personal training, 50physical culture, 19–24, 31, 72, 120,

136, 158, 163see also gym and fitness culture

physical education, 19physical exercise, 2, 3

health and, 15, 25, 135–41as leisure activity, 26, 120overexercise, 138–40promotion of, 110, 133–4

physical experiences, 78–80physical skills, 7, 65–6, 83–4Pilates, 70–5, 157, 162, 166plastic surgery, 9, 147–55pop culture, 120postmodernity, 28power, 8predictability, 5, 160–1prenatal exercise, 39professional fitness, 13professionalism, 62, 64promotionalism, 54proprioceptivity, 79, 84psychological illness, 15public health, 3, 132, 134pump, 80–3, 84Pumping Iron, 24, 25, 26, 81, 165Pumping Iron II, 31

racial discrimination, 34Reagan era, 25–6reality television, 151Reich, J., 23religion, 21, 23, 24resistance, 8Ritzer, G., 5Rohlinger, D.A., 104Rome, 19, 37Ronaldo, C., 4

Rousseau, J., 22Ryan, C., 95–7, 108

Sandow, E., 20–1, 23–4, 36, 91, 115Sassatelli, R., 26SATS, 28Scandinavia, 72Scandinavian Academy of Fitness

Education (SAFE), 49Schwarzenegger, Arnold, 24–5, 28,

166scientific management, 45, 166self-care, 135, 155, 159self-control, 140self-esteem, 61self-image, distorted, 136–41self-interest, 54, 55self-surveillance, 140sexual experiences, 81sexual harassment, 64sexuality, 58–60, 64, 86, 104–6, 116,

162sexual politics, 26shortcuts, 129Siciliano, A., see Atlas, C.singles, 33Smith Maguire, J., 48, 49Soccer World Cup, 4social capital, 75social constructionism, 6–7social context, 10–11, 132social control systems, 134social Darwinism, 21social habituation, 74socialization, 7social relationships, 85Solheim, J., 10Soviet Union, 20Spielvogel, L., 35, 38spinning, 52sports, 3, 19

doping in, 112–14media spectacles, 4

sportsmanship, 113sports movement, 1sport stars, 4stakeholders, 3



198 Index

standardization, 5, 44–9, 53, 55, 63, 64, 157, 162

stereotypes, 107steroid use, see doping;

performance-enhancing drugsStewart-Dixon, K., 100–3Stockton, A., 29strength training, 34, 86, 113,

116–17Strongfort Institute, 20structural-institutional level, 6structuration theory, 112subjective body, 14subject positions, 7, 10subversion, 108success, 152supplements, 141–6, 159–60, 165Sweden, 1, 12, 24, 26, 159

bodybuilding in, 30doping and, 121–3fitness industry in, 34

Swedish National Institute for Public Health, 121

tacit knowledge, 164Taiwan, 122Tammer, A., 24Taylor, F., 45, 166Thatcher, M., 25–6Thualagant, N., 114, 130–1Todd, J., 22totalitarian states, 20training techniques, 9transnational education companies,

49Turner, B., 141Turnhalle, 19twentieth century, 19

Unger, M., 19–20United Kingdom, 159United States, 2, 12, 37, 157

bodybuilding culture in, 18

doping in, 122–3gym and fitness culture in, 68

urban population, 33Urry, J., 6

vanity doping, 113vaudeville, 22Venus, H., 22Victorian culture, 22violence, 19vomiting, 103

Wacquant, I., 169warfare, 19, 26Wavey, D., 103–6, 108Weider, B., 37–8Weider, J., 24, 25, 32, 36, 37–8weight gain, 39weight machines, 34, 157weights, 34, 157weight training, 24, 102welfare state, 3well-being, 2Wenger, E., 7Wollstonecraft, M., 22womanhood, 22women

black, 33–4bodybuilding and, 22–3, 29–33,

107, 118–19, 162, 166fitness and, 33–4, 37, 39Japanese, 35–6physical culture and, 22–3strength training and, 34, 86,

116–17workout, 33–4World Anti-Doping Agency

(WADA), 121, 122

YMCA, 23, 36yoga, 105Your Physique, 24youth, health status of, 3



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