Can Fitness Instructors Create a Body-Positive Environment?

In a recent interview, I was asked what can be done to improve exercisers’ body image. I was surprised how much easier it was to talk about how commonly exercisers do not like their bodies, how they compare their bodies to the media images of the perfect thin and toned fit ideal, and how they exercise or dance to shape their bodies without success. Logically, then, the images need to change, yet it is difficult to change the entire mediated world of women’s fitness. Instead of changing the media images, research suggests that the instructors consider creating a class environment that builds body satisfaction (Dobrich, 2022).

As one suggestion for endorsing positive body image, Dobrich (2022) recommends that instructors focus on health to avoid external pressure to shape one’s body toward the fit ideal. This means avoiding “appearance-based motivational cuing” that increases anxiety of being judged based on appearance and obsession with and critique of one’s looks.

To explore how this may be possible in the fitness industry, I, with my fitness instructor colleague Joy, interviewed group fitness instructors to find out if they focused on health instead of body shaping in their classes.

Physical Fitness as a Part of Healthy Lifestyle

In their interviews, the instructors pressed the importance of holistic health in the classes. For example, Anna explained: “[health] is two-thirds of what I do” (p. 634). To apply this in practice, they designed their lesson plans to improve the components of health-related physical fitness: cardiovascular fitness, muscle strength and endurance, and flexibility. Although not specifying what holistic health meant, the instructors believed that improving physical fitness is one way of educating individual exercisers to choose better lifestyle behaviours.

Body Shape Issues

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At the same time, the instructors were well aware of media pressures to look thin. Laura believed that media advice can lead to body image distortion and eating disorders. Olivia explained that there is “that persistent [drive] to achieve that ideal body” (p. 641), but added that it is natural to have “an issue” with one’s body shape: “It’s my muffin top, it’s my flabby thighs, it’s my cellulite, it’s my grandma arms, it’s my double chin” (p. 640). She believed, however, that individual women need to learn to ignore the perfect media images and accept their bodily flaws that can be improved in the class.

Despite encouragement for body acceptance and positive body image, the instructors considered that the fit-looking body and weight control were central aspects of health-related physical fitness as well as a healthy lifestyle. In fact, the instructors believed that most participants attended their classes to lose weight. Overweightness meant not ‘being in shape’ and the instructors promoted the ‘fit body,’ a lean and toned body, as a healthier option in their classes. This meant that although all participants necessarily had a body problem, it was possible to build a more fit body by regularly participating in fitness classes. This physically fit body, then, was a source of self-confidence and a necessary part of a healthy lifestyle.

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Instructors as Role Models for the Fit Looks

The instructors also believed that they had to role model the fit looks. Jenny explained: “I have an issue when I see sloppy overweight instructors, when you know they’re not in shape.” For Jenny, this type of body was the healthy body. At the same time, the instructors believed that an instructor with a perfect body may intimidate the exercisers. Kim, for example, revealed that, “In some respects, I very much want to be like my participants. If someone [doesn’t] have the so-called ideal body they might be more relatable to the participants than the person that has this ideal body” (p. 640). However, while an instructor with a more average body type may be a realistic role model, an overweight or “flabby” instructor would be judged more harshly than a toned instructor.

The Elephant in the Room

The instructors found that the body pressures were not openly acknowledged within the fitness community and also preferred to “stay away” from discussions of weight problems in their classes. Kim explained: “It’s like the elephant in the room: We all know about it, but no one really talks about… looking toned and tight and tanned. It’s almost secretly required” (p. 641).

It was clear that the instructors preferred to focus on health in their group fitness classes. At the same time, the ideal body shape was an ever-present part of group exercise, although not necessarily openly discussed. The instructors negotiated the participants’ expectations to lose weight and their own intention for endorsing health into a class environment where the participants were to build a fit, lean, and toned body that was required for a healthy lifestyle. Exercises in these classes needed to be led by instructors who were ‘in shape.’ The instructors did not want to openly spend time addressing weight-related issues and found the requirement of modeling the fit body a problematic, but generally silenced topic.

Despite their best intentions, the external pressures to build the ideal, fit body intertwined with the instructors’ aim to promote health in their classes. Health turned into an additional tool to motivate exercisers to shape their bodies and as such, did not entirely alleviate body obsession and critique. If health, indeed, can be harnessed to support the narrow body ideal, we need to continue to find additional ways to build a positive body image in exercise classes.