Entre a saúde e a estética: representações sociais de corpo saudável entre frequentadores de academias da cidade do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

A healthy lifestyle has become indispensable for people concerned about their health and aesthetic cares. This preposition is based on scientific knowledge and it is also present in the contemporary speech spread in mass medias. In this scenario, a higher number of people have wanted to attend fitness centers to practice physical activities regularly to achieve a healthy body. Due to some beliefs spread by the fitness segment marketing, people have high expectations and frustrations that lead to dangerous practices and waiver of lifestyle that is beneficial if practiced with prudence. The present study is developed according to the Theory of Social Representations and has the aim to identify the Social Representations of a healthy body of people who attend fitness centers. Thus, this study attempts to figure out if the Social Representations of these people match the scientific information of health or if they are more influenced by the consensual knowledge spread on internet, by non-specialized channels. It was used the structural approach as the method and the sample was composed by 120 people who frequently attend fitness centers in Rio de Janeiro. The data collection was done answering open questions and multiple choices questions. The results show that the Social Representations of a healthy body are mainly related to the health aspect and the aesthetic aspect is cited subordinately. The health practices are mainly based on the tripod: good nutrition, physical activities and rest. The health satisfaction level is much higher than the aesthetic satisfaction level. There is no significant difference between men's and women’s level of satisfaction with their health, although when it comes to aesthetic satisfaction level women have higher levels of dissatisfaction. The analysis of the data indicates that certain aspects related to the goals of the practice of physical activity are not cited or are hidden. Although the participants' responses indicate that the main source of information used is professional, the results also indicate a high consumption of internet content created by celebrities/fitness personalities on social networks.