Immune body? : Discourses about physical exercise in a bodybuilding gym

Anchored in the debate about medicalization, the objective of this study was to understand the relationships between physical exercise and immunity constructed in a bodybuilding gym during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve semi-structured interviews were triangulated with those who frequent the establis...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: Torres, Thyerre, Silva, Alan Camargo, Soliva, Thiago Barcelos
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2024
Country:Brasil
Institution:Universidade Estadual Paulista "Júlio de Mesquita Filho" (UNESP)
Repository:Cadernos de Campo: Revista de Ciências Sociais
Language:Portuguese
English
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.pkp.sfu.ca:article/18963
Online Access:https://periodicos.fclar.unesp.br/cadernos/article/view/18963
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Body practices
Gym
Immunity
Medicalization
COVID-19
Prácticas corporales
Gimnasios
Inmunidad
Medicalización
Práticas corporais
Academias de ginástica
Imunidade
Medicalização
Description
Summary:Anchored in the debate about medicalization, the objective of this study was to understand the relationships between physical exercise and immunity constructed in a bodybuilding gym during the COVID-19 pandemic. Twelve semi-structured interviews were triangulated with those who frequent the establishment with the academy’s publications on a social network. For data analysis, discourse and image analysis were combined. The results indicated how medicalization processes constituted, in multiple ways, a large part of the emic-imagetics discourses about physical exercise in the pandemic context. It is concluded that biopsychosocial aspects permeate the idea of immunity and its relationships with “exercising” in bodybuilding.