Abstract
Human secretions can indicate how some social groups understand the large number of possibilities to use the body. This study aimed to analyze how sweat can be perceived by the users when they are in a fitness center. An ethnography research was conducted during one year in Rio de Janeiro city, comparing a small and a large fitness center, the former located in a popular neighborhood and the latter in a noble neighborhood. Therefore, as long as sweat was noticed in a positive way in the small fitness center and related to performance improvements, in the other fitness center sweat was conceived as something repulsive, limiting the meeting between users and the exhaustive exercises.
Key words:
sweat; bodily secretions; fitness centers; ethnography; physical education and training