“Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry

• Personal trainers rely on fit physiques as sources of credibility.
• This “bodily capital” enables health authority in dealings with clients.
• Trainer–client interactions become spaces where diagnosis and treatment take place.
• Trainers without high levels of bodily capital face structural disadvantages.
• Results indicate that bodily capital may be necessary for physician credibility.

Although scholars have noted the connection between appearance and assumptions of health, the degree to which these assumptions matter for establishing authority in social interaction remains less clear. Using a theoretical framework involving “bodily capital”—that is, the value generated from appearance, attractiveness, and physical ability—I investigate the role of appearance in the U.S. fitness industry. Drawing on data from interviews with 26 personal trainers and 25 clients between 2010 and 2011, I find that a trainer's fit-appearing physique imbues their interactions with a degree of moral and health authority. This corporeal credibility engenders trust among clients and allows exercise to be understood as a form of health work. The implications for academics and medical practitioners reach beyond the gym setting and extend recent research linking appearance to health, authority, and medical credibility.