Online workouts and fitness instructors’ physical autonomy in times of the Covid-19 pandemic

Abstract

This paper adds to the limited number of studies about physical autonomy and practice shifts among fitness instructors who responded to the change brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic and moved their professional activity online. I conceptualize physical autonomy as the ability of moving unrestrained and unhindered. I apply the online–offline ethnography to explore the interdependencies between digital media/technologies and the embodied practices of fitness instructors in online workouts. I also pay attention to fitness instructors’ perception of their physical autonomy in the world of online training during the pandemic. This article shows that instructors’ capacity for action has become more and more dependent on new technology.