FROM FITNESS TO WELLNESS: THE THREE STAGES OF HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT IN FITNESS CENTERS

Abstract

The article refers to changes in fitness centers throughout their history. The development presented here is a result of a research developed in the city of Goiania, using interviews with teachers and coordinators of fitness centers as well as participant observation and analysis of documents. It was noticed that the fitness centers have undergone three stages in their historical development. These stages are determined by the intensity of insertion of the production rationalization. Nowadays, there can be found fitness centers that are close to all three stages; as such development happens in an uneven way. The shift of the terminology used by the fitness centers from fitness to wellness, expresses, in a symbolic way, such changes.