Your Body is your Business Card

The course reading, “Your body is your business card”: Bodily capital and health authority in the fitness industry,” was one that I could relate to being an athlete. Personal trainers have to be at their physical best to make the people they are training feel comfortable and to show that they are the best at what they do.

I could not walk into Schembechler Hall at the end of my off season out of shape. I would be forced to do extra work outs to make sure that I can reach my maximum potential. My body is my business card, and in the world of athletics I could relate to the personal trainers that Huston mentioned in the introduction of his study. I have always been fit, I agree that being fit  “influences authority and credibility in interpersonal interactions,” (63) or at least it helped in my case. In high school I appeared to be the strongest. I got the hardest hits, ran the most yards, and became the best player. When I got to Michigan none of that mattered, I was put in a pool of over 100 guys of all shapes and sizes. Some of them were overweight and close to being obese. I was sure that “obesity is a looming national problem.” (64)

 Obesity is a problem that has become significant in the Unites States over the past few years. With the increase of fast food chains that offer the world’s most unhealthy foods at remarkably low prices, I can imagine that some of my teammates were consuming just a little bit too much of it; even I would get a quick bite to eat at the McDonalds by my house after a long day at practice.  College was a different. I did not have a personal trainer at my high school and here I was being tested by some of the fit men that I have ever seen.

“A personal trainer’s bodily capital provides a degree of moral authority that establishes trust with clients and allows their work to be seen in terms of healing and treatment.” (Hutson, 66). I can agree with this statement, I would NEVER take advice about physical fitness from someone who is not at his or her physical best. As an athlete I have to know that I am working with the best and the body of the personal trainer is the only way of knowing the potential that they can help me achieve.  I have to see the work that the trainer has done in the past, and I can assure you that the athletes that came in with me that are obese are obese no longer. As I take move along in my career I will make sure that my trainer looks his physical best. After all, your body is your business card.