On the 11th of March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declares the coronavirus to be a pandemic, which is followed by strict measures to contain a spread of the disease.  Yet, COVID-19 is a distinctively different pandemic to the one that was declared in 2012, namely, physical inactivity (Hall & Laddy & Philipps et al. 2020, 1). During the corona related lockdowns, exercising at home employing (online) on-demand services has become increasingly popular. One of the suppliers are the New Zealand-based Les Mills International; currently the worlds’ biggest provider of standardized fitness workouts. With their altruistic motto — for a fitter planet — their exercise routines were taught in more than a hundred countries by approximately 130.000 instructors before the pandemic. Although their virtual alternatives seem successful, group-fitness instructors face severe professional consequences due to corona-restrictions; resulting in the immediate closure of gyms as well as social distancing. By conducting focused group discussions online with Les Mills instructors active in six different countries, this chapter will provide insights into how group-fitness instructors negotiate their roles as fitness professionals during a crisis that challenges/threatens both personal and global health. Respondents discussed how the pandemic has changed their ability to perform their professions, and how they continue to live out their instructorhood in new and alternative ways.

Research question and purpose: Les Mills is a New Zealand-based fitness distributor with a community consisting of approximately 140.000 instructors worldwide who teach standardized work- out routines. This paper aims to explore how the COVID-19 pandemic and related measurements, such as social distancing affect the everyday lives and professions of Les Mills International (LMI) group fitness instructors. The aim was met with the following research questions: RQ1: How are social distancing and social connectedness understood, and how do they condition LMI instructors’ understanding of their profession? RQ2: What do LMI instructors think about the #LesMillsUnited campaign to maintain a strong trainer community in the midst of the pandemic? RQ3: How do LMI instructors think that group fitness will change long term due to social distancing? Research methods: Using qualitative measures and a case-study-based approach, data were gathered through interviews with LMI-certified group fitness instructors. Seven semi-structured focused group dis- cussions with fifteen group fitness instructors from different countries were conducted and audio recorded. The first round of virtual discussions took place in April 2020, and the follow-up talks in September 2020. A thematic analysis was employed to analyze the material. Results and findings: According to the participants, online classes as a means of upholding group fitness in times of social distancing is an insufficient substitute to face-to-face instructing, lacking social connectedness that is normally maintained through successful rituals or social scripts. Navigating “instructorhood” during the pandemic includes emotional labor where not only relationships to clients are challenged, but instructors also experience societal pressure to reinvent themselves as instructors. Implications: With no way of telling how long social distancing needs to be practiced, the group fitness industry is facing unprecedented challenges. Making sense of the group fitness profession currently preoccupies instructors who may now have to redefine to themselves how they can teach, and who for.

The concept of health is culturally contingent, and fitness practices provide a venue to gain insights into the construction of health. In this case study-based article, I focus on group fitness instructors' narratives on healthiness and fitness rituals. By combining Foucault's notion of the 'microphysics of power' and the socio-cultural phenomenon healthism, I employ a genealogical approach that reveals how healthism renders a discursive space for group fitness instructors ('local fitness experts') to navigate their understanding of health norms. A qualitative method consisting of 22 semi-structured interviews was used. Group fitness instructors teaching in Austria for a global group fitness distributor (Les Mills) were interviewed. The results show that eliminating risks to health is the highest imperative to the instructors, which is traced back to a dichotomy between 'disciplined training' and 'fun training', where fun training is seen as feminine and risky. Furthermore, instructors underline their health literacy through skeptical consumerism - choosing health for the sacrifice of fun or finding fun in the fatigue.