Background

The economic structure of physical activity is undergoing radical process of change. For the consumers of private fitness centres this has concretized in a few years as a new payment system based on membership fees. Health clubs want to draw people in to more active lifestyles and to commit them to regular exercise and payment systems. New fitness programs are integrated smoothly into other products and services of Fitness centres. Fitness centres have become the department stores of active lifestyles, in which one can choose indoor and outdoor sports services such as swimming, marathon schools, massage, child care, personal trainers and diet consulting.

The development towards the department stores of active and health lifestyles is related to the modern idea of building bodies. Modern fitness and physical activity work through 'body techniques' and ‘disciplines’ (Foucault 1992; Featherstone. 2000; Parviainen 2002; Markula 2004). People can mould their bodies by using various body techniques. The project expects that people may have at least five different targets to change and improve their bodies. First, many people improve the physical condition of their bodies: heart rate, muscles and flexibility. Most people improve their aesthetic appearance to make their bodies slimmer, more athletic or create a generally healthier look (Markula 1995). Third, customers can improve their mental state through yoga and mediation programmes or through the positive psychological effects of physical exercise in general. The fourth aspect is learning new bodily skills such as pirouettes or volts. Finally, people use body techniques to express themselves and to communicate by gestures and movements. The last two have a minor role in fitness classes. The reasons for purchasing a membership of a health club, however, are not merely connected to 'body techniques' and ‘disciplines’. By membership of a health club membership people wish to acquire social capital that promotes their career and status in their workplaces (Aura 2006).

Objectives and themas

Our hypothesis is that new fitness programmes utilise long-standing body techniques to produce a more user-friendly and more attractive exercise version that everybody can easily learn. We analyse the productizing of physical exercise through ten of the most common fitness concepts and licenced trademarks in Finland. They represent four typical categories of group fitness classes at today’s health clubs: dancelike movements (hip hop, Latin dances), sporty movements (weight lifting, spinning), combat movements (boxing, martial arts) and stretching/meditative movements (Pilates, yoga). The designers of new fitness concepts utilise different sports activities, martial arts, yoga traditions, body/mind techniques, ballet and ethnic dances. The project has five general themes and research questions:

1. Exercise Product Development. Our purpose is to study what kind of elements new fitness products are composed of by focusing on their innovative aspects and emotional design (Mason 1999; Norman 2004). We investigate how new products are launched and how fitness companies use the media (Internet, TV and DVDs) to market and distribute their products. What kind of promises do developers make regarding the effects of their programmes? How do they “test” their exercise programmes? What kind of expertise and bodily knowledge do developers have and how do they use it in development processes?

2. Globalization and rationalization. Our aim is to describe the rationalizing process of physical activity on the global market and compare it to earlier studies of other global lifestyle industries (e.g. Ritzer 1993; Aharoni 2000; Gratton & Taylor 2000; DuGay & Pryke 2002). We analyse the franchising principles and licences that fitness companies use and their effects on everyday physical activity practices. What kind of conditions of employment do health clubs offer when recruiting new staff? How do they design their services when trying to maximise their profit? What kind of images do fitness centres use in marketing their services?

3. Fitness Labour. Our hypothesis is that franchising also affects the nature of the work of fitness instructors. Fitness work is regarded here as emotional labour (Hochschild 1983; Fineman 2000; Klemola & Heikinaho-Johansson 2006) which requires performing and aesthetic skills. We expect that in instructing classes, fitness workers must also represent the brands of fitness companies and the fitness center in which they are employed in a positive light (Heitzmann 2003). How should or should not their personality (character, temperament) influence on the content of classes? How can fitness instructors use their own expertise and tacit knowledge when they instruct standardized classes using ready-made phrases?

4. Moving consumers. We examine customers’ expectations of standardised fitness products in Finnish fitness centres. We assume that the fitness products aim at stimulating emotional and kinaesthetic pleasure that motivates people to reach their targets. What kind of features do consumers consider as captivating, relaxing, irritating and frustrating in fitness classes? What kind of physiological effects de they expect that products can and should create? What kind of physical capital do consumers expect to obtain in a fitness class (Frew & McGillivray 2005)?

5. Kinaesthetic products in the lifestyle industry.  We analyse the connections of exercises programmes to other lifestyle products (Kennedy & Thornton 2003). Our hypothesis is that the products and services of fitness centres are developed as a cluster of products. The cluster of products consists of the immaterial services of health clubs (personal trainers, massage, body therapies, outdoor sports activities, child care), sports equipment (heart rate monitors, chi balls), popular music (dance hits), fashion (clothes, body aesthetics), food industry (low-fat heath foods and drinks) and media (magazines, TV series, action movies). What kind of lifestyles do the clusters of products offer consumers? How are immaterial kinaesthetic products built into physical products (such as clothes or equipment) and vice versa? How can the facilities and settings of health centres create the “total experience” of fitness life style?

Research material and methodology

Our research is multidisciplinary in nature and uses both qualitative and quantitative methodologies. We interpret one research material using a multidisciplinary theoretical framework (Beaton & Funk 2008). Our multidisciplinary theoretical frame is based on the philosophy of movement, the phenomenology of body, sociology and critical organisation studies drawing on gender studies, cultural studies and physical education.

We collect research material in several ways. We use both ethnography i.e. fieldwork and other traditional qualitative methods such as interviews. The fieldwork is needed to understand the rationalizing process of fitness centres. By attending the fitness classes of health clubs in Tampere in 2008 and 2009, our purpose is to describe the contents of standardised fitness classes as they appear to our moving bodies. Writing descriptions and keeping diaries, our purpose is to analyse classes as kinaesthetic products. By participant observation in fitness centres and informal conversations with other consumers, our purpose is to examine how the facilities of fitness centres are able to create a “total experience” of fitness lifestyles (Divine & Lepisto 2005). We also use fitness DVD videos, CD, guidebooks and the websites of the fitness products as ethnographic material. By analysing this material our purpose is to examine what kind of promises developers make regarding the effects of their programmes and how they test their exercise programs. We interview fitness instructors of skills and competencies they need in their work, and conditions of their employment. In analysing interviews, our aim is to show the principal features of the emotional and aesthetic work of fitness instructors by comparing findings to those of other case studies in new corporeal work (Holliday & Hassard 2001; Smith 2001; Sturdy et al 2001).

We supplement one qualitative research with an Internet survey addressed to the members of fitness centres in Tampere. We investigate consumers’ expectations of standardised fitness products in motivating them to take exercise. Our purpose is to investigate whether the clients of the health clubs make a difference or have a preference regarding globally supplied fitness products and fitness instructors’ own classes. We want to find out how consumers count on these new global trademarks and their promises of high quality (Theodorakis et al. 2004; Lagrosen & Lagrosen 2007). 

One hypothesis is that in productizing physical activity developers have to ignore some inherent aspects of physical activity. Using the phenomenological method, in particular “negative thinking” (Madison 1981; Parviainen 2006; Parviainen & Eriksson 2006), we will intensify the analysis. Our aim is to examine the missing elements of these fitness products i.e. what is lacking. We expect that programmes are intended to build the individual body, thus, developers omit social, playful and communicative aspects of physical exercise. By the phenomenological method, we aim to recover the hidden potentials of physical culture that enable alternative ways to build new services in health organisations.

The results of this research will be useful both for the ordinary clients of fitness centres and professionals in various health sectors and in the recreation business. In developing a theory of productizing, the research will yield new concepts not only for the diverse disciplines of physical culture but also for research which focuses on service work, franchising and experiential design.