Kinesiology
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2253
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Item TRAINING THE BODY FOR HEALTHISM: REIFYING VITALITY IN AND THROUGH THE CLINICAL GAZE OF THE NEOLIBERAL FITNESS CLUB(2013) Wiest, Amber Lynn; Andrews, David L; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Against the backdrop of changing understandings of (public) `health' and `fitness' in the contemporary United States, and through a nuanced critique of healthism (Crawford, 1980; Kirk & Colquhoun, 1989; Skrabanek, 1994), the aim of this project is to investigate how mediated renditions of `healthiness' are constructed and maneuvered in the for-profit fitness industry--and interrogate the non-necessary interrelationship between health, fitness, and (bio)citizenship in the historical present (Grossberg, 2006). This is examined through a critical explication of Amber's experiences and observations drawn from her period of (ethnographic) employment in the fitness industry. Focusing specifically on personal training as a biotechnological and pedagogical tool, we explicate how personal training becomes complicit in the communication of particular "healthist" understandings, which unerringly benefit private enterprise (as well as corroborate a pervasive political individualism) through the normalization of the individual's moral responsibility to embody, practice, and ultimately consume healthist practices and ideologies.Item Relationships Between Health Behaviors, Perceived Health Status, and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Adolescent Girls(2008) Goldsholl, Stacy Danielle; Young, Deborah R; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Poor physical fitness and diet contribute to increases in cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk factors including BMI, waist circumference (WC), systolic and diastolic blood pressure (SBP and DBP), and HDL-C levels. These behaviors are also associated with positive perceptions of health status. It was hypothesized that the associations between positive health behaviors and CVD risk factors would be mediated by perceived health status in adolescent girls. Regression models were used to test for independent effects and mediation. 185 girls were analyzed, 83% were African American and 50% were overweight. Perceived health status predicted WC, BMI, and SBP. Fat consumption predicted WC and SBP. There were no associations between health behaviors and perceived health status. Adolescent girls are able to accurately assess their overall health status regardless of fitness or dietary behaviors. Interventions should encourage girls to consider these healthy behaviors when assessing health status to increase participation in these behaviors.Item Global Capitalism Meets Local Postcommunism: Tensions in Transition as Manifested through Physical Culture and the Female Body in Romania(2008-11-21) Chin, Jessica; Andrews, David L.; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Nearly two decades after communism officially ended in Romania, the nation continues to struggle in its transition from state socialism to liberal democracy. The increased presence and influence of Western images, democratic ideals, and social ideologies produces a complex and unstable tension with persisting legacies of communism and socialist ideologies. This dissertation is a critical analysis of the ways in which various tensions are manifested within the changing physical culture in Romania, particularly through performative bodies and constructed spaces of leisure and physical activity. In addition, participation in sports and other physical activities related to fitness and health are examined to reveal disciplinary techniques that reinforce normalized constructions of gendered and classed bodies. Using a qualitative, multi-method approach, empirical data was primarily collected in gyms and fitness clubs of three major cities in Romania. Through a contextual, interpretive, and theoretically-informed analysis of the empirical findings, this project intends to expand upon and articulate theories of postcommunist transition, gender, and physical culture in the Eastern European context--opening new lines of inquiry that consider both the empowering and problematic implications of creating and negotiating new subject positions within postcommunist environments.