Gyms and exercising in the fight against covid-19: Reflections on the social determination of the health-disease process +

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to explain the contradictions when services provided by gyms are advocated as essential to health in times of the COVID-19 pandemic. We analyzed how the hegemonic conception that links exercise and health was used to justify the reopening of these establishments when cases and deaths are on the rise. We seek to show how this discourse takes on an ideological character. While exercising is necessary, as a commodity its value is subsumed under its exchange value, that is, it is produced primarily to respond to capital accumulation needs. We reiterate our agreement with the importance of exercising to health, but we question the universal character ascribed to it without considering it as a historically produced need and therefore linked to the specifics of a given historical time.