Abstract
This article is part of an ethnographic research survey conducted over the course of a year in the resistance training sector of a fitness center located in a suburb of the city of Rio de Janeiro, the athletes of which have a low income status, and the majority of whom have professional occupations or jobs that involve a high threshold of physical effort. From the anthropological standpoint of symbolic interactionism, the main objective was to analyze how the “limits” of pain of the body related in a symbolic way to the resistance training in the fitness center and the physical efforts demanded in their professional occupations or jobs. The analysis of the observations indicated that these students perceived the body in an instrumental and utilitarian way when relating the pain of physical exercise to their daily work routines. Thus, the relationship between work and physical activities in the representations of the body “limits” of these subjects expressed through pain is implicit. These data are relevant to think about health interventions and practices in the field of Public Health.
Key words
Pain; Fitness centers; Physical education and training; Work; Ethnography