Swedish study likens choreographed fitness to fast food

Exploring the development of the modern fitness concept, a widely reported study by two Swedish academics has suggested that the way in which contemporary choreographed fitness programs are delivered, particularly those of Les Mills International, in many ways resembles the way in which the fast food industry works.

In a study Doing for group exercise what McDonald's did for hamburgers: Les Mills, and the fitness professional as global traveller, published in the Sports, Education and Society journal, Thomas Johansson, Professor at the University of Gothenburg, together with Jesper Andreasson, senior lecturer at the Linnaeus University state “visit a typical gym and you will encounter a highly standardised notion of what the human body should look like and how much it should weigh.

“This strictly controlled body ideal is spread across the world by large actors in the fitness industry.”

With their research partly based on interviews with personal trainers and group fitness instructors, the Swedish academics then describe “the emergence of a strictly regulated and globalised culture in the field of group fitness training.

“Les Mills – a giant in the fitness industry – operates based on a franchise model where permission to use the company's programmes is sold across the whole world.

“Today, over 14,000 gym(s) offer a Les Mills program. The company is represented in over 80 countries, including Sweden, and caters to over four million fitness class participants every week.”

Professor Johansson then goes on to explains “Les Mills implies a standardised set of techniques that look basically the same in all forms of group fitness training.

“It’s really a business empire built around group fitness.”

Suggesting that Les Mills’ choreographed fitness programs, limits the utilisation of competence Jesper Andreasson adds “this of course limits the individual instructors' chances of tapping into their full competence, as they have no way of changing the movements, music or the way they give instructions.

“Their abilities are not fully utilised since they have to adhere so strictly to a pre-designed terminology and choreography. At the same time, individual gyms often promote the whole thing as a quality index.

“The concept consists of the company's head trainer presenting strictly regulated movements, including which music should be played while they are performed. The instructions are updated every three months and then spread throughout the whole chain of certified Les Mills instructors. As a result, local instructors have a very marginal influence over the fitness classes they lead.”

The authors argument in likening choreographed fitness to fast food was in the uniformity of  programs such as Les Mills’ – with the same programs being delivered worldwide.

What the researchers concluded is that there is this mixture of control, regulation, and standardisation on one side, and the struggle to be ‘free’ and surpass these boundaries that are set by the fitness industry on the other.

The study authors are set to publish a book, The Global Gym: Gender, Health and Pedagogies, in the coming months.

Editor’s note: “While this story has been widely reported, with some media suggesting the study is part of an anti-Les Mills campaign, it is appropriate to highlight that the uniformity of product and product delivery has always been at the core of Les Mills’ philosophy.

“As then Les Mills International Marketing Manager Sean Hall wrote in Australasian Leisure Management in 2003 'clients can expect a Bodypump class to be delivered with the same consistency, quality, and passion whether it is in Rio or Rejkjavik.'

“In this respect, Les Mills is no different to any other major international brand, in the way a bed will always be comfortable in a Hilton Hotel, Coca-Cola will always taste the same, a Volkswagen Golf will always drive in a certain way, an iPhone will perform consistently and, yes, a Big Mac will always be of a consistent .. er .. quality.

“Specifically likening Les Mills to McDonalds, alone among major international brands, particularly given the unhealthy associations of fast food, therefore seems a rather cheap shot designed to generate media and public attention ... in which it has succeeded.”

Click here to read the abstract of Doing for group exercise what McDonald's did for hamburgers: Les Mills, and the fitness professional as global traveller, published in Sports, Education and Society.

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