Voice as a Marker of Professional Identity: Exploring Occupational Voice Use by Fitness Professionals

Fitness instructors (FIs) are professional voice users of the instructor type. They are required to use their voices to coach, motivate, and acknowledge the clientele while leading their classes or sessions. FIs are expected to recruit and retain clients to their sessions, and in order to do so, create themselves as a brand within the marketplace. FIs are at increased risk of developing dysphonia, yet few of them report concerns about this occupational risk factor. In order to devise risk mitigation plans and policies, it is essential to understand how these professionals use their voices in the workplace. This study aimed to explore the phenomenology of occupational voice use in FIs.

A semistructured interview was used to explore the thoughts, attitudes, and beliefs toward occupational voice use in seven FIs. A thematic approach was applied to analyzing the data.

Four major themes emerged from the data: voice as a marker of professional identity, industrial and organizational issues, knowledge of voice and voice use at work, and scientific thinking within the profession.

FIs relied on their voices in numerous ways: to coach their clients, but also to recruit and retain them, to motivate them, and to encourage them on their fitness journeys. Voice was considered to be an integral part of the work identity of FIs in this study. Participants focused largely on the need to project their voices to be understood by clients in different instructing scenarios, yet, alternative ways of using voice to achieve these ends were discussed. FIs could be considered a unique type of professional voice user, in that as well as instruction, there is a performance aspect to their work, as they seek to both teach and entertain, their clientele.