We conducted two rounds of focus group interviews with instructors from Belgium, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Jordan, Israel, Spain and the US on how the current crisis has an impact on their being a group fitness instructor. More specifically, we are interested in the following aspects:
- In what is social distancing carried out and understood among LM instructors (what is done, virtual classes etc)
- How are the social dimensions of instructor-hood and its legitimacy negotiated among LM instructors during the pandemic (how is it felt and motivated, still being a fitness professional, role model and more)
- How do LM instructors justify their roles as promotors of a healthy lifestyle discursively in the midst of a pandemic?
- To what extent do mobility restrictions (within the city/country/region, globally) affect LM instructors’ sense of belonging to a global LM family / tribe?
- How does the status/country/gender/class/socioeconomic status of an instructor affect the change and what are the strategies of coping with the situation? (do they talk about the particularity of different countries, what does it say in relation to gender, nationality, culture and more?)