Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2plfb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-24T03:51:51.588Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Back from the brink: ageing, exercise and health in a small gym

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2011

EMMANUELLE TULLE  and
NIKA DORRER
EMMANUELLE TULLE*
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
NIKA DORRER
Affiliation:
Department of Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow, UK.
*
Address for correspondence: Emmanuelle Tulle, Department of Social Sciences, Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow G4 0BA, UK. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper discusses findings from a qualitative study which explored older adults' experiences of becoming regular exercisers in a gym triggered by health problems and their interactions with their younger gym instructors. A key question which the study sought to address was whether becoming embedded in the sub-field of exercise challenged traditional discourses of ageing (age habitus). While these older gym users reported significant benefits (greater health capital, expanded social networks and a return to active life after illness), they nevertheless were engaged in a complex and ambiguous negotiation of attitudes to bodily ageing and meanings of fitness and competence. In contrast, the instructors subscribed to a model of physical activity oriented towards physical capital as greater fitness. The paper suggests that these positions manifest competing understandings about what constitutes appropriate and desirable physical capital in later life. Budgetary constraints, beliefs about physical ability, professional expectations and the persistence of the discourse of decline prevent this gap from being easily bridged and allow alternative notions of ageing physicality to colonise the sub-field of exercise. The paper concludes that there is a need to develop ways of breaking down barriers in communication to overcome divergent understandings of what constitutes legitimate physical capital as we get older.

Keywords

old agephysical activityphysical capitalage habitushealthgym
Type
Articles
Information
Ageing & Society , Volume 32 , Issue 7 , October 2012 , pp. 1106 - 1127
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American College for Sports Medicine 2010. Physical Activity and Public Health Guidelines. Available online at http://www.acsm.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home_Page&TEMPLATE=CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=7764 [Accessed 5 September 2010].Google Scholar
Armstrong, L. 2001. It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life. Random House, London.Google Scholar
Armstrong, L. 2004. Every Second Counts. Random House, London.Google Scholar
Asikainen, T., Kukkonen-Harjula, K. and Miilunpalo, S. 2004. Exercise for health for early postmenopausal women: a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Sports Medicine, 34, 11, 753–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Balde, A., Figueras, J., Hawking, D. A. and Miller, J. R. 2003. Physician advice to the elderly about physical activity. Journal of Aging and Physical Activity, 11, 90–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beitz, R. and Doeren, M. 2004. Physical activity and postmenopausal health. Journal of the British Menopause Society, 10, 2, 70–4.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bourdieu, P. 1986. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.Google Scholar
Bourdieu, P. 1990. In Other Words: Essays Towards a Reflexive Sociology. Stanford University Press, Stanford, California.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Byberg, L., Melhus, H., Gedeborg, R., Sundstrom, J., Ahlbom, A., Zethelius, B., Berglund, L. B., Wolk, A. and Michaelsson, K. 2009. Total mortality after changes in leisure time physical activity in 50 year old men: 35 year follow-up of population based cohort. British Medical Journal, 338, b688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cress, M. E., Buchner, D. M., Questad, K. A., Esselman, P. C., deLateur, B. J. and Schwartz, R. S. 1999. Exercise: effects on physical functional performance in independent older adults. Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 54A, 5, 242–8.Google Scholar
DeSouza, C. A., Stevenson, E. T., Davy, K. P., Parker Jones, P. and Seals, D. R. 1997. Plasma fibrinogen levels in healthy postmenopausal women: physical activity and hormone replacement status. Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 52A, 5, M294–8.Google Scholar
Featherstone, M. and Hepworth, M. 1991. The mask of ageing and the postmodern lifecourse. In Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M. and Turner, B. S. (eds), The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. Sage, London, 371–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Featherstone, M., Hepworth, M. and Turner, B. S. (eds) 1991. The Body: Social Process and Cultural Theory. Sage, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferrara, N., Pisanelli, P., Voza, M., Abete, D., Leosco, D., Filippelli, A., Rossi, F. and Rengo, F. 2002. The aging heart and exercise training. Archives of Gerontology and Geriatrics, supplement 8, 145–56.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Frank, A. W. 1995. The Wounded Storyteller: Body, Illness, and Ethics. Chicago University Press, Chicago.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gullette, M. M. 2004. Aged by Culture. Chicago University Press, Chicago.Google Scholar
Hepworth, M. 2004. Embodied agency, decline and the masks of aging. In Tulle, E. (ed.), Old Age and Agency. Nova Science, Hauppauge, New York, 125–35.Google Scholar
Hughes, A. R., Mutrie, N. and MacIntyre, P. 2007. Effect of an exercise consultation on maintenance of physical activity after completion of phase III exercise-based cardiac rehabilitation. European Journal of Cardiovascular Prevention and Rehabilitation, 14, 1, 114–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hunter, G. R., McCarthy, J. P. and Bamman, M. M. 2004. Effects of resistance training on older adults. Sports Medicine, 34, 5, 329–48.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kunstler, R. and Stavola Daly, F. 2010. Therapeutic Recreation Leadership and Programming. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Markula, P. 2003. The technologies of the self: sport, feminism and Foucault. Sociology of Sport Journal, 20, 2, 87–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nelson, M. E., Rejeski, W. J., Blair, S. N., Duncan, P. W., Judge, J. O., King, A. C., Macera, C. A. and Castaneda-Sceppa, C. 2007. Physical activity and public health in older adults: recommendation from the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Heart Association. Medicine & Science in Sports and Exercise, 39, 8, 1435–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phoenix, C., Smith, B. and Sparkes, A. C. 2010. Narrative analysis in aging studies: a typology for consideration. Journal of Aging Studies, 24, 1, 1–11.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phoenix, C. and Sparkes, A. C. 2008. Athletic bodies and aging in context: the narrative construction of experienced and anticipated selves in time. Journal of Aging Studies, 22, 3, 211–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Postone, M., LiPuma, E. and Calhoun, C. 1993. Introduction: Bourdieu and social theory. In Calhoun, C., LiPuma, E. and Postone, M. (eds), Bourdieu: Critical Perspectives. Polity Press, London, 1–13.Google Scholar
Sassatelli, R. 2010. Fitness Culture. Palgrave, London.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scottish Executive 2005. The Scottish Health Survey 2003: Summary of Key Findings. Crown Copyright, Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Shephard, R. J. 1997. Aging, Physical Activity, and Health. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Illinois.Google Scholar
Silverman, D. 2005. Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. Sage, London.Google Scholar
Smith Maguire, J. 2008. Fit for Consumption: Sociology and the Business of Fitness. Routledge, Abingdon, UK.Google Scholar
Tulle, E. 2008. Ageing, the Body and Social Change: Running in Later Life. Palgrave, Basingstoke, UK.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Williamson, D. L. and Kirwan, J. P. 1997. A single bout of concentric resistance exercise increases basal metabolic rate 48 hours after exercise in healthy 59–77 year-old men. Journals of Gerontology: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 52A, 6, M352–5.Google Scholar
World Health Organisation 2010. Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health. Available online at http://www.who.int/dietphysicalactivity/factsheet_recommendations/en/index.html [Accessed 5 September 2010].Google Scholar