Drawing on empirical research, this fascinating new book explores the embodied experiences of ‘gym goers’ and the fitness cultures that are constructed within gyms and fitness spaces. Gym Bodies offers a personal, interactive, ethnographic account of the multiplicity of contemporary gym practices, spaces and cultures, including bodybuilding, CrossFit and Spinning. It argues that gym bodies are historically constructed, social, sensual, emotional and political; that experience intersects with multiple embodied identities; and that fitness cultures are profoundly important in shaping the body in wider contemporary culture. This is important reading for students, tutors and researchers working in sport and exercise studies, sociology of the body, health studies, leisure, cultural studies, gender and education. It is also a valuable resource for policy makers and practitioners within the fields of sport, leisure, health and education.

Charles LaSalle and his City Gym Boys first gained notoriety with their ripped bodies and popular beefcake calendars. But since LaSalle founded the group in 1997, they have made it their mission to mentor urban youth on the lifelong benefits of fitness and exercise. With practical advice on everything from diet to turning household objects into workout tools, Get a Bangin' Body explains why pumping iron is passé, and shares a body-weight-only program that anyone-whatever their age, income, or fitness level-can undertake. This unique exercise book encourages communities across the country to take charge of their health by implementing a workout program of push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats, and planks that will build a naturally lean, toned, and healthy physique. Get a Bangin' Body will show readers how to inexpensively, conveniently, and effectively build the body of their dreams.

This book compiles several years of multi-faceted qualitative research on fitness doping to provide a fresh insight into how the growing phenomenon intersects with issues of gender, body and health in contemporary society. Drawing on biographical interviews, as well as online and offline ethnography, Andreasson and Johansson analyse how, in the context of the global development of gym and fitness culture, particular doping trajectories are formulated, and users come into contact with doping. They also explore users’ internalisation of particular values, practices and communications and analyse how this influences understandings of the self, health, gender and the body, as well as tying this into wider beliefs regarding individual freedom and the law. This insight into doping goes beyond elite and organised sports, and will be of interest to students and scholars across the sociology of sport, leisure studies, and gender and body politics.

Building muscle has never been faster oreasier than with this revolutionary once-a-weektraining program In Body By Science, bodybuilding powerhouse John Little teams up with fitness medicine expert Dr. Doug McGuff to present a scientifically proven formula for maximizing muscle development in just 12 minutes a week. Backed by rigorous research, the authors prescribe a weekly high-intensity program for increasing strength, revving metabolism, and building muscle for a total fitness experience.

Personal accounts celebrating the place of exercise in women’s lives—and as the site of women’s community.

From body-positive Instagram influencer and content creator Meg Boggs, an inclusive and empowering fitness and lifestyle guide to inspire readers of every shape and size. For years, Meg Boggs believed the narrative told to her by society: she thought that as a plus-sized woman, she could never be fit; she could never be strong; she could never love exercise; she could never be enough. But when Meg became a mom, she decided to rethink her preconceived notions and embrace her body for what it is, not what diet culture said it should be. In Fitness for Every Body, Meg shares her personal story and inspires you to celebrate your own body for all its capabilities. Featuring a dozen step-by-step, full-body workouts, this book is more than a workout guide or a training manual. It’s a reminder that you’re more than just your weight, that you are stronger than you believe, and that just because you might not be thin, doesn’t mean that you can’t be an athlete. Your body is capable of doing incredible things—you just have to let it. Equally uplifting and enlightening, this body-positive fitness guide will inspire you to love your body no matter your size and to approach food and exercise in a way that benefits both mental and physical health and wellbeing.

From an elite Special Operations physical trainer, an ingeniously simple, rapid-results, do-anywhere program for getting into amazing shape For men and women of all athletic abilities! As the demand for Special Operations military forces has grown over the last decade, elite trainer Mark Lauren has been at the front lines of preparing nearly one thousand soldiers, getting them lean and strong in record time. Now, for regular Joes and Janes, he shares the secret to his amazingly effective regimen—simple exercises that require nothing more than the resistance of your own bodyweight to help you reach the pinnacle of fitness and look better than ever before. Armed with Mark Lauren’s motivation techniques, expert training, and nutrition advice, you’ll see rapid results by working out just thirty minutes a day, four times a week—whether in your living room, yard, garage, hotel room, or office. Lauren’s exercises build more metabolism-enhancing muscle than weightlifting, burn more fat than aerobics, and are safer than both, since bodyweight exercises develop balance and stability and therefore help prevent injuries. Choose your workout level—Basic, 1st Class, Master Class,and Chief Class—and get started, following the clear instructions for 125 exercises that work every muscle from your neck to your ankles. Forget about gym memberships, free weights, and infomercial contraptions. They are all poor substitutes for the world’s most advanced fitness machine, the one thing you are never without: your own body.