Exercise is medicine: critical considerations in the qualitative research landscape

Abstract

Since the American Medical Association and the American College of Sports Medicine partnered to launch Exercise is Medicine® (EIM) in 2007, the program has gained traction in 43 countries. The EIM discourse has been fruitful for framing exercise/physical activity as a form of disease prevention and/or symptom management for chronic conditions and mental health. This editorial ‘sets the stage’ for the articles within the special issue that coalesce a critical inquiry dialogue on EIM, by outlining taken for granted assumptions inherent in EIM. Assumptions include that people’s inactivity (and poor health) necessitates quick/planned intervention, exercise is positive/good for everyone and that the connection of exercise to medicine enhances credibility. Assumptions are problematized through grounding them in a neoliberal discourse of healthism, which emphasizes individual responsibility and/or experts as gatekeepers and facilitators of risk management through exercise. Three challenges to each of the assumptions are offered to explore EIM as socially, culturally and politically constructed, expanding the critical EIM dialogue. An overview of each of the articles within the special issue is then outlined to show ‘examples in use’ of critical theories and methodologies grounded broadly in interpretivist forms of inquiry and social constructionism. We conclude with noting the impetus and goal of this special issue--to spark further interest, dialogue and critical qualitative research on EIM –bringing forward the personal, socio-cultural, political iterations and potential of EIM.