(Re)conceptualising physical activity participation as career

Abstract

Physical activity is increasingly positioned as playing an important role in preventing and mitigating many of the decrements associated with biological ageing. As a result, public health messages encourage older people to remain active in later life. Despite this, physical activity participation rates among older adults are low. This may be in part related to the conventional approach to understanding physical activity participation as a product of motivation. We contend that this approach does not allow for a deeper exploration of the wider structural, historical and discursive contexts in which physical activity participation occurs. Therefore, we propose that physical activity can be reconceptualised as a career. Through a synthesis of findings from four studies exploring physical activity experiences in later life, we demonstrate that beginning and maintaining a physical activity career requires a disposition towards physical activity, the legitimation of physically active practices and dealing with contingencies. In addition, we demonstrate that maintaining a physical activity career requires investment and deliberation to adapt physical activity practices continually within an individual's own personal biography. As such, we conclude that current strategies to promote physical activity to older adults are unlikely to result in increased levels of participation. To promote physical activity to older adults an understanding of how structural, cultural and historical contexts influence participation is needed.

Sitting as a moral practice: Older adults’ accounts from qualitative interviews on sedentary behaviours

“…One way to address this issue might be through the development of more ‘relatable guidelines’ that go beyond understanding sitting simply in relation to epidemiological evidence and recognise the lived realities and experiential expertise of older people (Phoenix & Bell, 2018). Guidelines should move away from placing sedentary behaviour in opposition to physical activity and acknowledge that it may be challenging to build more activity into people's lives (Palmer et al, 2018b, 2019; Phoenix & Bell, 2018). It may be more beneficial to understand how sitting forms part of wider patterns of movement throughout the day (Phoenix & Bell, 2018), and what shapes these patterns (e.g.…”

From non-runner to parkrunner: Subjective athletic identity and experience of parkrun

“…Therefore, we hypothesise that regular engagement in parkrun and external running is facilitated by the belief that the new behaviour endowed participants with physical capital consistent with both a sporting habitus and the dominant narrative of health. As Palmer et al (2019) argue, the legitimation of new physical activities is likely an important process that helps produce durable dispositions towards such practices. Legitimation is a process which takes time and repeated engagement and, in a Bourdieusian sense, confirms the presence of illusio .…”

“…As such, for parkrun to be successful it must act as a nudge to create changes to identity that are strong enough to bring about the creation of new dispositions. As two of us have argued elsewhere (Palmer et al, 2019), creating new dispositions towards sport and physical activity takes time and requires a social context that legitimises such dispositions and a level of reflexivity that allows for the negotiation of contingencies (injury, illness etc.). In noting the importance on dispositions, we find it instructive to draw on the social theory of Pierre Bourdieu (1984, 1990).…”

“…Increasing physical activity has been presented as a practical response to improve health outcomes and reduce health inequalities (Haskell et al, 2009). However, public health interventions, imbued with the neoliberal ideology that underpins the means to these ends (Palmer et al, 2019), often fail to realise these goals, falling short of long-term behaviour change (Pettigrew et al, 2019).…”

“…A desire to situate health interventions in ‘contextually appropriate’ settings is only beginning to emerge (Reis et al, 2016: 1342). Indeed, as Palmer et al (2019) have argued, the structural, cultural and biographical processes which promote long-term physical activity participation are still poorly understood. Parkrun is a terrain in which these processes might be captured in vivo, that is, in a contextually appropriate setting.…”