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David Ulloa

Professor Bamert

UWP 1

Fitness Discourse Community

Introduction:

Fitness has, in essence, been around forever. Since it was just the way of life, it wasnt

necessarily seen as what it is now. Although people outside of the fitness community consider

someone to be fit only if they lift weights and are physically perfect, people inside of the

community believe someone to be fit when the individual considers themselves to be both

physically and mentally healthy. With the creation of gyms, YouTube, and nutrition shops, came

to exist these fitness communities in which there is a reconsideration of who is really a fit person

and it isnt just closed to people who only lift weights and are physically perfect.

In the fitness discourse community, being fit is seen as being both physically and

mentally healthy. One can reach this level of healthiness in whichever form they want whether it

be by lifting, running, yoga, calisthenics, CrossFit and also by just living their everyday lives.

The main goal within the fitness community is to have everyone just embrace themselves with

how they look physically and how they feel mentally. The fitness community welcomes

everybody and it thrives on new members joining since the more experienced members seek to

share their knowledge of the community to as many as they can.

New Members vs Experienced Members:

New members are a crucial aspect to the fitness community by way of them being hungry

for more knowledge and being the ones who keep the community growing. These new members
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of the community often start off joining because they just want to look good. New members

later learned that being fit is more than just looking good, as it is a way in which you embrace

who you are both physically and mentally. The age of new members varies from young teens to

older people. More experienced members serve the role of sharing all their knowledge with the

new members and sometimes even with experienced members who just seek more knowledge.

When a new member walks into a gym, an experienced member instantly greets them with a

smile and interacts with them so they feel right at home. The fitness community does a great job

of making everyone in it feel like they are where they should be. As said by Donna Hutchinson

(2012), shes feeling very motivated to lose the 30 pounds she has gained over the past 7

years. This is a perfect example of the reason behind why one would want to join the gym, as a

way to improve their physical appearance. Before this process starts, the perfect way an

experienced member of the community can get someone to join the gym is by welcoming them

to the gym and not pressuring them into joining, as they should make that decision based on what

they encounter at the gym.

Physical vs Mental Health:

Physical health and appearance is the main object for most new members of the

community. Ones first reason to why they would like to join the community is more often than

not just to improve their physical appearance to impress someone else or simply to just feel right

about themselves. The main cause for this is the fact that most people are quick to judge

someone based on their appearance so joining a gym and bettering ones physical appearance is

the way to go. As stated by Ty Kiisel, Like it or not, you are being judged by how you

look...how you carry yourself. The takeaway from this is because one knows others just judge

them by their appearance, they feel as if it is crucial for them to go out and better their
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appearance. The other point here was the last part of how one carries themselves. Being part of

the fitness community makes one have more confidence in themselves and thus results in them

carrying themselves with higher regard. This directly correlates with one reaching a good state of

mental health by way of them accepting who they are. As said in the Journal of Adolescent

Health, Self-reported physical activity was shown to be positively associated with four

dimensions including friendship, gender identity, spirituality and exercise. Reaching both

physical and mental health is not just a result from lifting weights and being physically perfect

so members of the community find their own ways to reach this health. Going to the gym and

working out directly correlates with one reaching the point of mental well being and being in

acceptance of their physical body. According to the journal The Lancet, physical fitness has a

vital part to play in promoting a healthy mind and human happiness. This supports one of the

goals within the fitness community which is to have its members be both healthy mentally and be

in acceptance with their physical body. This aspect of improved mental health is evidenced by

the fact that those who exercise show improvements in other parts of life such as in the

classroom for those who attend school. According to Kristen Hotting, numerous studies

reporting better cognitive or academic performance in physically active people compared to

sedentary individuals have been published.. This serves to be a great reward for those who are

involved in the community as they improve both their mental health and are in acceptance of

their body image.

Fitness Language:

Experience members of the community pass on their knowledge of fitness to the new

members, and this includes certain terminologies that only members of this community

understand. Some examples of these terms include circuit, HIIT, reps, AMRAP, super set, and
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split. AMRAP stands for as many reps as possible, super set is when you combine two

exercises and do them back to back and split is how you break up what parts of your body you

work out throughout the week. These terms are more commonly used in the gym but they can

also be seen used in YouTube videos and in nutrition shops. The purpose of these terminologies

is both to describe the type of workout youre doing but they also serve to establish a sense of

belonging in this unique community for all members as these terms are known only within the

community. The fact that members of this community know that they have these unique terms

that only they understand is a feeling they truly cherish.

Gyms, Nutrition Shops, and YouTube:

The methods of communication that members of the fitness discourse community use to

interact include gyms, nutrition shops and YouTube. These places serve as a place that brings the

community together and is used to spread ones knowledge about the community to other. From

my own experience of how I got to join this community, it was the gym where I truly felt like

this community is where I belonged. Walking into the gym for the first time and being greeted by

smiles made it seem like if I was welcomed there. My first reason for joining was, like many

others, to improve my physical appearance. As time passed and I interacted more and more with

experienced members, I realized that being a fit person was more than just lifting weights and

getting that perfect body image. Being fit was reaching physical and mental health by way of

using whichever method I wanted, whether it was by simply just going on the treadmill, to taking

Zumba classes or lifting weights. The gym also serves to be a place where one goes to meet their

goal of physical activity, as stated by Amanda MacMillan Overall, the researchers calculated, a

gym membership was related to 14 times higher odds of meeting weekly physical activity
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guidelines. From being in the gym, I was recommended to go to nutrition shops to learn more.

The purpose of a nutrition shop is for experienced members to recommend certain supplements

that will help a new member reach their goals. From my experience with nutrition shops, I

sometimes go just to get more knowledge about fitness with no intention to buy anything.

YouTube is seen as the easiest way for one to go and obtain knowledge about the fitness

community. It is accessible from home and literally one click away. YouTubers have the impact

of inspiring many who are wanting to join the community by way of them usually showing their

journey in the community and what it takes to get to the point you want to be. These genres of

YouTube videos served to be a breaking point for me and proved to be what I needed to reach

physical and mental health. All these genres are a key clog of the fitness community as they are

what makes this a discourse community, the fact that everyone participating is helping each other

to reach all of their goals. Hence, the fitness community is in fact a discourse community as Erik

Borg stated a fitness community is usually a matter of choice...members of a discourse

community actively share goals and communicate with other members to pursue those goals.

Interview:

From interviewing my friend Angel, who is a member of the fitness community, I asked

him why he decided to join the community. His response was that he joined because he felt

pressured to lose weight while gaining muscle because people judged him for his appearance and

wanted to be considered a fit person. This directly correlates with the view that most people have

on fitness which is that one should lift weights and have a perfect body image to be considered

a fit person. Along with the fact that people judge one by their appearance. As a follow up

question, I asked Angel what his considerations are when labeling someone as a fit person and
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his response was that it was someone who is overall a well-rounded person with regards to

cardiovascular endurance and strength. With this said, Angel later stated that his view changed as

he now considered someone a fit person if they themselves considered themselves to be

physically healthy but also having a clean state of mind.

Conclusion:

The people outside of the fitness discourse community consider one to be fit if they lift

weights and are physically perfect. However, members of the community view one being fit if

the individual considers themselves to be both physically and mentally healthy. That is what

keeps the community thriving, the fact that they are all working together to all reach a state in

which they are satisfied with both their physical appearance and their mental health. The genres

that have led to the consideration of who is fit within the community are gyms, nutrition shops

and YouTube.

Works Cited

Borg, Erik. Borg Discourse Community - Documents - The Best Way to Share & Discover

Documents. DocGo.Net, 3 Aug. 2017, docgo.net/borg-discourse-community.

Hotting, Kristen. Beneficial effects of physical exercise on neuroplasticity and cognition.

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Pergamon, 25 Apr. 2013,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0149763413001012?via%3Dihub.
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Hutchinson, Donna. Team Development: The Perfect Member Experience. Www.ideafit.com,9

Nov. 2012, www.ideafit.com/fitness-library/team-development-the-perfect-member-
experience.

Kiisel, Ty. You Are Judged by Your Appearance. Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 20 Mar. 2013,
www.forbes.com/sites/tykiisel/2013/03/20/you-are-judged-by-your-appearance/#664e77226d50.

MacMillan, Amanda. Why You Really Need to Join a Gym, By the Numbers. Time, Time, 25
Jan. 2017, time.com/4646135/why-you-really-need-to-join-the-gym/.

Rachele, Jerome N., et al. The Association Between Adolescent Self-Reported Physical
Activity and Wellness: The Missing Piece for Youth Wellness Programs. Journal of Adolescent
Health, vol. 55, no. 2, 2014, pp. 281286., doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2014.01.021.

Fitness. The Lancet, vol. 229, no. 5920, 1937, pp. 400401., doi:10.1016/s0140-
6736(00)77363-6.