The nation of Americans makes amends in January for another another indulgent holiday season. Others declare “Dry January” to be a sober month. Some utilize the start of a new year to concentrate on different aspects of personal development, including starting a meditation practice or a new skincare regimen. Perhaps the most widely kept promise is to start a new exercise regimen.
Fitness professionals maintain that the finest form of exercise is one you will frequently engage in and one you will like, rather than perceive as a duty. And some followers seem to take this advise even farther as more and more custom boutique workout regimens appear. Fitness has often been compared to religion as a place where people can find community, ritual, and ecstatic experience.
Can exercising be a religion? It’s practically impossible to answer given how difficult it is to define religion. Is religion a social construct? Transcendence? A sense of the divine? Is it based on the Bible, customs, or creeds? All of these characteristics may be present in a religion or may not.
In my research on CrossFit and SoulCycle, I investigate the concepts of why fitness and religion are such a powerful mix as well as why some people perceive fitness as religious.Consider Ally Love, a top cycling coach with Peloton. When Love, a former theology student, led her weekly “Sundays with Love” rides, some riders argued that Peloton should categorize her material as Christian because she delivered sermon-like lessons on subjects like accountability and selflessness and occasionally played music from Christian musicians.
Then there are programs that are overtly centered on religion and use exercise to deepen religious observance. In order to “bring others closer to Christ,” the Catholic exercise program SoulCore incorporates rosary prayers with core work, stretches, and functional fitness motions. While in Saratoga, California, a Conservative Jewish synagogue offers a “Neshama Body & Soul” session that blends prayers with lunges, jumping jacks, and planks.
