Fitness interrupted

ABSTRACTThis article investigates the entanglement between embodiment and space, by unfolding the consequences of the Covid19-lockdown on fit bodies. We draw on workout diaries and phenomenological interviews with 22 Danish gym-goers and analyze their attempts to adapt their workouts and/or generate new embodiments within their new spatial conditions. We find that lockdown threatened and disrupted carefully cultivated embodiments, and generated fluctuations. We illustrate the complexity of routinized and intensive gym-centered fitness, noting that it allows a sensation of occupying a free space and being in control – a perception that extends to other domains in their demanding personal and professional lives; but, on the other hand, it nourishes an inhibitive performance-orientation that is characteristic of the late modern world. We reflect on how the attachments to fitness embodiments reveal attachments to an order that is punitive, and difficult to replace despite severely changed spatial and material conditions.KEYWORDS: COVID lockdowngym spacephenomenologydisorientationembodimentperformance orientation AcknowledgementsWe are very grateful to the individuals who participated in our research, for sharing their diaries with us and dedicating time for interviews. We would like to thank the reviewers and the editorial team responsible for the Special Issue, with a special mention of Maria Carolina Zanette, for their generous and constructive feedback. Additionally, we gratefully acknowledge our colleagues Guliz Ger and Domen Bajde for their helpful comments on earlier versions of the manuscript, and the Human Health Platform at SDU for providing funding. Please address correspondence to Alev Pinar Kuruoglu (alev@sam.sdu.dk).Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Additional informationFundingThis work is supported by the Human Health Platform at the University of Southern Denmark.Notes on contributorsAlev Pinar KuruogluAlev Pinar Kuruoglu (corresponding author) is an Associate Professor with the Consumption, Culture and Commerce research unit at the University of Southern Denmark. Alev’s research interests lie within the political, spatial, and affective dimensions of markets and consumer cultures; with recent projects attending to the entanglements of bodies, nature, and technologies. Her work has been published in outlets such as Consumption, Markets and Culture, Marketing Theory, Sociology of Health and Illness, and Journal of Sociology as well as in edited peer-reviewed books. She co-hosts the Tales of Consumption podcast.Anne Louise FinkAnne Louise Fink is a Research Assistant at the National Institute of Public Health at SDU, and has a master’s degree in modern culture from the University of Copenhagen. Anne Louise is interested in the body and its adaptations to trauma and crisis, as well as the structural conditions of bodily and social transformation; and is currently working on research projects related to institutional violence, trauma-informed body therapies, and pain management.Dorthe Brogård KristensenDorthe Brogård Kristensen is a Professor with the Consumption, Culture and Commerce research unit at the University of Southern Denmark. Dorthe’s current interests include digital health, self-tracking technologies and algorithmic culture. She has published in New Media and Society, Journal of Consumer Culture, Critical Health Communication, Sociology of Health and Illness and Journal of Marketing Management.