‘It’s not just you come into the gym and do your weight training’: a narrative exploration of muscularity’s role as identity capital

Abstract

The current study explored muscularity and weight training’s role as capital in people’s identities across various contexts. Eleven weight trainers from two gyms were interviewed (three females, eight males) about their desires for muscularity and the role it played in their lives. Thematic narrative analysis identified narratives that framed the individuals’ muscular desires, behaviours, and importance. Muscularity formed a versatile resource—identity capital—that was a key part of the individuals’ body projects. These body projects and identity capital facilitated the individuals’ identity performances in a range of contexts (e.g. occupation, gender). Three narratives emerged (individualist, illusionist, and promoter) that highlighted the intertwined tangible (e.g. leanness and strength) and intangible (e.g. control and self-empowerment) attributes associated with muscularity and weight training that facilitated successful identity performances. These narratives achieved goals of self-empowerment (Individualist), self-protection (Illusionist), or self-advertisement (Promoter) which enabled successful identity performances. The current findings advance existing literature by suggesting muscularity is a versatile form of identity capital that can facilitate multiple identities (e.g. occupation, gender) and contexts. The potential benefit to an individuals’ sense of self also highlights the positive effect of muscularity weight training as a tool for self-promotion and personal growth.