This fall, students will have the opportunity to rethink what counts as a classroom in EDUC 0810: Education of a Bodybuilder: Histories of Physical Fitness in the United States, a new course developed by Professor John Palella.
What happens when we look at gyms as sites of learning? How have fitness instructors shaped cultural ideals? These are the kinds of questions Palella invites students to explore.
“Since the 1800s, educators and entrepreneurs alike have taught Americans how to improve their bodies through multiple modalities,” the course description notes. “These original ‘body-builders’ created a billion-dollar industry as they laid the foundations for social media, constructed a new model of American manhood, and sold themselves as ‘professors’ of fitness.”
From 19th-century strongmen and mail-order muscle-building pamphlets to VHS-era home workouts and today’s TikTok gym influencers, the course traces how fitness instruction has evolved and how it has always been entangled with power, identity, and pedagogy.
Palella encourages students to examine the gym not only as a physical space, but as a cultural classroom. “I am excited to empower students to think about how personal trainers act as educators, how fitness media serve as curricula, and how strength training operates as a pedagogy that’s as disciplining as it is empowering,” he said.
Fitness instruction has existed and evolved throughout history. In the 19th-century, “physical culture” magazines urged men to train like Greco-Roman warriors and ads promised to turn “weaklings” into icons of masculinity. During the Cold War, President John F. Kennedy famously advocated for “vigorous youth” as a patriotic goal, prompting American schools to adopt strict physical education standards. The 1980s saw the rise of the home workout video, with instructors like Jane Fonda and Richard Simmons bringing fitness into American living rooms.
Today, social media has transformed fitness once again. Platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok are filled with influencers posting daily routines, nutrition tips, and body transformation stories. Palella sees these digital spaces as rich terrain for analysis. “Students will gain tools to critically assess how knowledge is created, marketed, and consumed outside of schools,” he explained.
Education of a Bodybuilder is designed for students across disciplines, whether they’re interested in history, education, health, social media, or cultural studies.
“Whether they dream of designing a training app, teaching fitness through a justice-oriented lens, or reshaping how health is represented online,” Palella said, “this class offers a historical foundation and a future-facing framework.”
Students with questions can reach out to Professor Palella directly at john_palella@brown.edu.