The paper examines the relationship between the human body and fitness from a sociocultural perspective. From the perspective of body anthropology, the focus is on social conventions about physical appearance, and consequently, the body is perceived as a resource shaped by culture, and not just as a mere physical entity. The sports, athletic, fit body is analyzed as a product of a specific discourse, in this case – fitness culture. In order to better understand the concept of fitness culture, the paper offers a comparison of the relationship between sports and the body, and the relationship between fitness and the body. The "advantage" of the fitness industry over professional sports is that it seemingly provides a wide training ground for different bodily practices, which are actually an integrative part of the global cultural pattern and acquired, learned, self-regulating bodily practices. Fitness culture in the work is defined as a social and cultural construct, created by man under the auspices of leisure and individual recreation in modern society, and the body within it as a place/space of submission and the desire to achieve an ideal (fit) body.
