Working or Working Out? Examining the Trainer-Performer- Hobbyist Nature of Part-Time Les Mills Instructors in a Philippine Gym

This thesis examines part-time Les Mills instructors in the Philippines, a hitherto unstudied group of individuals within contemporary fitness culture who teach group exercise classes as a hobby. All of them have regular employment outside of the fitness industry, but they invest time, effort, and money to teach Les Mills-branded programs in a local gym referred to in this study as The Fit Stop.

The methodological approach combined ethnography with critical discourse analysis. The researcher drew upon data obtained by observing and interviewing participants as well as historical texts on exercise and training, which were used to produce a genealogical survey of fitness culture. By combining the two approaches, the study is able to situate localized experiences of part-time instructors in the Philippines within the broader history of global exercise culture.

It is argued in the thesis that part-time instructors are distinct in the history of fitness cultures because they combine the commonly separated roles of hobbyist, trainer, and performer. As trainers, they engage in a distinct form of “body work” (Twigg et al., 2011), which allows them to shape class participants’ bodies without needing to physically touch them. Les Mills instructors use visual and auditory cues that they weave together with apparent naturalness. The participants in this study are also performers, both inside and outside the group fitness studio, managing their participants’ impressions, while motivating them to move. Finally, part-time instructors are serious hobbyists who view group fitness as a hobby, even if it possesses the characteristics of professional work.

Underpinning their logic is the assumption that hobbies are done for enjoyment rather than financial returns. By understanding part-time instructors’ experiences and motivations, fitness companies can better manage their relationships with this distinctive type of trainer.