Physical Education professionals in Fitness Centers: the corporal pain like labor performance

Abstract

The senses and meanings related to the body and pains are valorized in a particular way by different social groups in a specific time in history. Therefore, the main objective of this work was to identify and discuss how the Physical Education professionals act between a “limit” and a labor performance in a big Fitness Center. With the theory and methodology of the Symbolic Interactionism and the Anthropology of Performance, the research consisted in an ethnography with these professionals during ten months between 2012 and 2013. The analyses based on the field diary indicated that the labor competence of the Physical Education professional was in some cases associated with the corporal performance, seen the capacity of prescribe exercises and practice in the “edge” of pains.