Abstract

Exercise is increasingly prescribed by health agencies in the United Kingdom amongst those
at risk of or recovering from serious illness. Nevertheless, research investigating how the
physically active body is experienced during rehabilitation is sparse. The present study
investigated older adults’ embodied experiences and changing perceptions of self in one
cardiac rehabilitation scheme in the East of England. Fourteen interviews were completed
with participants in a cardiac rehabilitation scheme. A figurational approach was utilised
which emphasised the need for participants to delineate their own logic of experience from
the perspective of their active body during cardiac rehabilitation. Data were thematically
analysed and individual experiences were situated within power relationships within and
beyond the exercise class. Findings suggested there remains a tension between biomedical
paradigms of treatment which emphasise physiological processes and the heterogeneous
nature of participants’ lifelong experiences, illnesses, coping strategies and personalities
which were described and which were central to participants’ rehabilitation. Moreover,
data demonstrated how individuals re-negotiated their sense of self within changing
networks of embodied relationships which created a complex interweaving of identities
centring upon their changing sense of embodied ‘I’ in relation to fluid ‘we’ and ‘them’
identities within the exercise setting. Self-perceptions were socially produced throughout
the process of rehabilitation and moderated by health and exercise professionals and other
participants. The extent to which participants were empowered within the exercise setting
was therefore highly heterogeneous. Findings suggest that the messages participants
receive about cardiac rehabilitation must reflect the heterogeneity of recovery trajectories
that could be experienced.