Training Gym

The present study draws on Scott’s (2011) notion of the Re-Inventive Institution and explores how gym members make sense and give meaning to their exercise regime. Overall, it is argued that for many participants gym exercise is more than physical training; it is also training for life. Based on a thematic analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews it is argued that gym workout is a means to create better versions of the self on mainly three levels. First, gym participants perceive themselves to be efficient and productive in general. Second, gym training is believed to increase the control they have over their lives. Third, gym members associate their gym workout with amplified emotional resilience, believing that fitness workout makes them not only fitter in a physical sense but also fitter and better equipped in a psychological sense. Surprisingly, a small group of regular gym users displayed more critical sentiments and distanced themselves from the images and values the gym stands for. The results of this study can be linked to broader political discourses on health and fitness that make use of corporate managerial vocabularies and are based on ideals of rationalization and efficiency.

Keywords: fitness, gyms, Re-Inventive Institutions, Total Institutions, thematic analysisWhether in the basement of a commercial complex, half-hidden between two corner stores, next to the tube station or on a wide green field in the suburbs, gyms have conquered urban space. Every European and North American city, and even small towns, seem to have a fitness gym. Gyms are one of the most pursued leisure places in Western societies and can be said to have established themselves as part of a white, middle-class culture (Featherstone, 2010; Howson, 2013; Phillips, 2005; Sassatelli, 2010; Shilling, 2005, 2008, 2012; Stebbins, 2009). In the UK, for example, almost 13% of the UK population is registered as members of a private health and fitness gym or a publicly-owned fitness facility, with London having the most registered users (European Health & Fitness Association, 2014).

Fitness gyms vary in location, membership fees and serve different social and economic milieus. Most urban gyms are located in the city centre and are at their busiest during lunch time and after work hours. In order to attract customers, most gyms offer more than a plain and functional working out environment but present themselves as lifestyle or family oriented places. Depending on the size and the target group, multi-purpose amenities encourage pre- or post-training activities, for example at their spas and beauty centres or they organize social activities at the weekend (Stewart, Smith, & Moroney, 2013). As Bryman (2004) notes, “hybrid consumption”, that is, consumption of several goods and services within one single place, tends to extend the time spent by the customers there. Consequently, one may think that the more time gym users spend at their gym, the more they engage with its material and social environment, and the more they are affected by the same so that the gym becomes more than just a training site for them.A substantive body of work on gyms deals with participants’ motivation to go to the gym (Crossley, 2006; Dworkin, 2003; Dworkin & Wachs, 2009; Laverty & Wright, 2010; Stern, 2008; Stewart, Smith, & Moroney, 2013). It is argued that one of the main motives is the desire to achieve a certain physique that conforms to contemporary aesthetic ideals (e.g. Dworkin, 2003). Crossley (2006) asserts, that for some participants the gym is an escape from everyday life where people can ‘turn off consciousness and submerse themselves in exercise’ (Crossley, 2006, p. 43). Laverty and Wright (2010) assert that going to the gym may provide individuals with a heightened sense of morality as going to the gym is in itself ‘a demonstration of desire to be a good citizen, to achieve and practice individual health responsibilities’ (Laverty & Wright, 2010, p. 79).

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