Gym Culture, Identity and Performance-Enhancing Drugs

Gym Culture, Identity and Performance-Enhancing Drugs
Author: Ask Vest Christiansen
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 213
Release: 2020-05-27
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1000070131

This book is about gym culture, the pursuit of fit, muscular bodies and the use of drugs as a means to get there. Building on the international research literature and in-depth interviews with men who have experience of image and performance enhancing drugs (IPEDs), the book explores the fascination with muscles, motivations for using drugs to enhance them, assessments of risks, and experience of side effects. The book examines what the altered body does to the men’s identity, self-image and relationships with peers and partners. Taking an evolutionary psychological approach, it also investigates the biological and psychological foundations of the fascination with the muscular body and discusses the notion of precarious manhood. Building on these analyses the book considers the political and regulatory initiatives in place to prevent the use of IPEDs and assesses those strategies’ potential to reach their aims. This is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the issue of drugs in sport, the ethics of sport, sociology of sport, sociology of the body, masculinity or public health.

Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs and Substances

Performance and Image Enhancing Drugs and Substances
Author: Aaron Smith
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2018-06-18
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1351029320

In the pursuit of more muscle, enhanced strength, sustained endurance and idealised physiques, an increasing number of elite athletes, recreational sport enthusiasts and body-conscious gym-users are turning to performance and image enhancing drugs and substances (PIEDS). In many instances, such use occurs with little regard for the health, social and economic consequences. This book presents a nuanced, evidence-based examination of PIEDS. It provides a classification of PIEDS types, physical impacts, rates of use, user profiles, legal and sporting status, and remedial program interventions, covering both elite and recreational use. It offers the perfect guide to assist students, government policy makers and sport managers in understanding the complex issues surrounding PIEDS consumption.

Fitness Doping

Fitness Doping
Author: Jesper Andreasson
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 218
Release: 2019-06-25
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 3030221059

This book compiles several years of multi-faceted qualitative research on fitness doping to provide a fresh insight into how the growing phenomenon intersects with issues of gender, body and health in contemporary society. Drawing on biographical interviews, as well as online and offline ethnography, Andreasson and Johansson analyse how, in the context of the global development of gym and fitness culture, particular doping trajectories are formulated, and users come into contact with doping. They also explore users’ internalisation of particular values, practices and communications and analyse how this influences understandings of the self, health, gender and the body, as well as tying this into wider beliefs regarding individual freedom and the law. This insight into doping goes beyond elite and organised sports, and will be of interest to students and scholars across the sociology of sport, leisure studies, and gender and body politics.

Fitness Culture

Fitness Culture
Author: Roberta Sassatelli
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 244
Release: 2010-08-16
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0230292089

This book provides a sociological perspective on fitness culture as developed in commercial gyms, investigating the cultural relevance of gyms in terms of the history of the commercialization of body discipline, the negotiation of gender identities and distinction dynamics within contemporary cultures of consumption.

Performance Cultures and Doped Bodies

Performance Cultures and Doped Bodies
Author: Jesper Andreasson
Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
Total Pages: 152
Release: 2021-06-30
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1863352422

Why has doping, both as a practice and a social phenomenon, been approached largely as a question of context: sport or fitness? Individuals may use substances to enhance sporting performance or within the framework of gym and fitness culture to create a perfect body. But clearly, people who dope are not bound to a singular context. It is quite the opposite, as individuals weave between and move across various settings in their trajectories to and from doping, as goals, identities, ambitions, and lifestyles change over time. Still, these stark categorizations often made in public discourse – and reinforced by scholars – have continued to ignore these lived experiences and limited our understanding of doping.  Building on data gathered through ethnographic fieldwork, studies of online doping communities, and in-depth case studies, this book embraces the challenge of moving beyond traditional and historical doping dichotomies – such as those of sport or fitness, online or offline, pleasure or harm, masculinity or femininity, and health or harm – and, in a sociologically informed analysis, it develops new terminology to understand trajectories to and from doping. It argues there are multiple ways to understand doped bodies and doping practices, and that we must approach these questions from the perspective of both/and rather than either/or. By imploding these divisions, it offers updated and nuanced ways of both empirically and theoretically rethinking doping use and experiences attached to the practice.

Drugs, Identity and Stigma

Drugs, Identity and Stigma
Author: Michelle Addison
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 289
Release: 2022-07-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3030982866

This book calls attention to the impact of stigma experienced by people who use illicit drugs. Stigma is powerful: it can do untold harm to a person and place with longstanding effects. Through an exploration of themes of inequality, power, and feeling ‘out of place’ in neoliberal times, this collection focuses on how stigma is negotiated, resisted and absorbed by people who use drugs. How does stigma get under the skin? Drawing on a range of theoretical frameworks and empirical data, this book draws attention to the damaging effects stigma can have on identity, recovery, mental health, desistance from crime, and social inclusion. By connecting drug use, stigma and identity, the authors in this collection share insights into the everyday experiences of people who use drugs and add to debate focused on an agenda for social justice in drug use policy and practice.

Doping in Sport and Fitness

Doping in Sport and Fitness
Author: April Henning
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2022-12-12
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1801171572

Doping in Sport and Fitness argues that rigid differentiations between doping contexts are less clear than it might seem. Breaking down these boundaries allows for a more complete understanding of substance use patterns, behaviours, and policy responses related to sport, fitness, and society.

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport
Author: Ivan Waddington
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 281
Release: 2009-01-13
Genre: Sports & Recreation
ISBN: 1134084250

An Introduction to Drugs in Sport provides a detailed and systematic examination of the extent of drug use in sport and attempts to explain why athletes have, over the last four decades, increasingly used performance-enhancing drugs. Richly illustrated throughout with case studies and empirical data, this book is essential reading for anybody with an interest in the relationship between drugs, sport and society.

The Body in the Mind

The Body in the Mind
Author: Ornella Corazza
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2023-03-31
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1911623729

Explores the emergence of exercise addiction, body image disorders and the use of enhancement drugs in a society that strives for appearance.