Group fitness instruction for older adults: toward a substantive, grounded theory of age capital

One vital role of fitness instructors is that of educator, yet scant theorization about this educative role exists. To address this lacuna in scholarship, we utilized a constructivist grounded theory methodology to develop a theory of embodied education that takes place between the fitness instructor and older exercisers in group exercise classes. The aim was to explain how fitness instructors could teach in a manner that would enhance the inclusivity of the social exercise environments for older exercisers. We collected data from: 1) eight certification and certificate programs used to train fitness instructors who work with older exercisers; 2) observation of and semi-structured interviews with 22 fitness instructors in various group exercise settings; and 3) go-alongs and semi-structured interviews with 14 older exercisers. Findings revealed the need for fitness instructors to better understand, and develop teaching competencies that take into consideration, the embodied and sociocultural experiences of aging (e.g., slang, music, and dance forms popular across older adults’ life course), as well as teaching in a manner that balances drawing attention to the body through education with distracting from the affective experience of exercise through energetic performance. Toward this aim, we introduce the concept of age capital as a pathway for fitness instructors to empathize with what it might be like to be an older exerciser.