“If it’s not Iron it’s Iron f*cking biggest Ironman”: personal trainers’ views on health norms, orthorexia and deviant behaviours

Abstract

Orthorexia nervosa (ON) describes a pathological obsession with healthy eating to avoid ill health. In the Swedish context, ON is also understood in terms of unhealthy exercise. Fitness gyms are popular health-promoting places, but exercise-related problems, disordered eating and ON-like behaviour are increasing. Personal trainers (PTs) play an important role in detecting unhealthy behaviours. The aim of the present study was to illuminate PTs’ understandings of healthy and unhealthy exercise and eating behaviours in relation to orthorexia nervosa in a fitness gym context. Five focus groups with 14 PTs were conducted. These were analysed using interpretative qualitative content analysis and Becker’s model “Kinds of Deviance.” In contrast to PTs’ health norms (practicing balanced behaviours and contributing to well-being), ON was expressed mainly in terms of exercise behaviour and as being excessive and in total control. The PTs maintain that extreme behaviours are legitimized by an aggressive exercise trend in society and that they fear to falsely accuse clients of being pathological. Certain sport contexts (bodybuilding, fitness competitions and elite sports) and specific groups (fitness professionals) contribute to complicating PTs’ negotiations due to a competition, performance and/or profession norm, making it difficult to determine whether or not to intervene.

Orthorexia nervosa: Verhaltensauffälligkeit oder neue Störungskategorie?

“…Auch wird diskutiert, ob ON eine Verhaltenssucht sein könnte [13][14][15]. Schließlich gibt es auch Autoren, die ON keinen Störungscharakter zuzuschreiben und dieses Verhalten als sozialen Trend verstehen [6,[16][17][18].…”

“…Hier sind es vor allem die Überbetonung von Normen, Pflichten und Regeln sowie das zwanghafte Bedürfnis, einem strengen Schema zu folgen, die eine Überlappung der Phänomene annehmen lassen. Einige Autoren scheinen sogar so weit zu gehen, ON und Sportsucht als Ausdruck eines exzessiven gesunden Lebensstils gleichzusetzen [17]. Der Zusammenhang zwischen körperlich-sportlicher Aktivität und orthorektischem Essverhalten soll im folgenden Abschnitt eingehender diskutiert werden.…”

Perspectives on power relations in human health and well-being

“…Boys described how they were expected to participate in physical activities, while girls stated that they were expected to do more domestic work than boys at home (Jonsson et al, 2017). Håman, Lindgren, and Prell (2017) illuminate PTs’ understanding of healthy and unhealthy exercise and eating behaviours in relation to orthorexia nervosa in a fitness gym context. Focus-group interviews were conducted with 14 PTs and analysed using firstly an inductive and secondly a deductive method according to the four types of deviant behaviour—pure, conforming, falsely accused, and secret (Becker, 1997).…”

“…Focus-group interviews were conducted with 14 PTs and analysed using firstly an inductive and secondly a deductive method according to the four types of deviant behaviour—pure, conforming, falsely accused, and secret (Becker, 1997). In orthorexia, pure deviation behaviour was related to excessive and controlling behaviours, conforming behaviour was related to balanced behaviour and contributed to well-being, falsely accused behaviour was related to extreme behaviours in line with a forceful exercise trend, and secret deviant behaviour was related to healthy behaviours with an unhealthy mind (Håman et al, 2017). An important aspect of health in young people is for them to receive sufficient support to gain the power needed to influence their own life in a healthy way.…”

Deporte, cultura y sociedad: un estado actual de la cuestión = Sport, culture and society: current state of the art

“…Uno de los temas que siempre ha sido trabajado dentro de los tópicos clásicos en el estado de la cuestión ha sido la nutrición y el deporte. Las relaciones existentes entre estas categorías son elementos de especial relevancia cuando nos enfrentamos a la relación establecida entre los comportamientos nutricionales de los deportistas (usualmente, de los deportistas de élite) y el resto de la población (Haman et al, 2017). Situaciones límite como la ortorexia nerviosa, cuya descripción básica se caracteriza por una obsesión patológica por la alimentación saludable para evitar problemas de salud, en el contexto sueco van mucho más allá de ese horizonte geográfico y puede afectar a un nutrido grupo de deportistas de alto nivel a lo largo y ancho del globo.…”