Web workouts and consumer well‐being: The role of digital‐physical activity during the UK COVID‐19 lockdown

• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Author: Sue Cronshaw
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joca.12375

SPECIAL ISSUE

Web workouts and consumer well-being:

The role of digital-physical activity during

the UK COVID-19 lockdown

Sue Cronshaw

Liverpool John Moores University,

Liverpool, United Kingdom

Correspondence

Sue Cronshaw, Liverpool John Moores

University, Liverpool, United Kingdom.

Email: s.cronshaw@ljmu.ac.uk

Abstract

By using three areas of well-being, psychological,

physical, and social this study aims to explore the per-

ceptions of consumers engaging in digital-physical

platforms and communitiesduringtheUKCOVID-19

lockdown and the impact such participation had on

their well-being. Ninety people were recruited via an

online study, all were using online workouts, and

self-selected to participate. The use of virtual ethnog-

raphy gave further insight into the functions of these

platforms and their role in social connection. Partici-

pants discussed the benefits to their mental health,

theprovisionofstructuretotheirday,thesocialcon-

nection it provided, and the alleviation of feelings of

isolation. The findings also demonstrate how numer-

ousconsumergroupsinsocietycouldusedigital-

physical platforms as a potential way of connecting

thosewhoareunabletoengageinface-to-face

settings.

KEYWORDS

well-being, digital-physical activity, online communities

Received: 4 September 2020 Revised: 3 March 2021 Accepted: 16 March 2021

DOI: 10.1111/joca.12375

This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits

use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or

adaptations are made.

© 2021 The Author. Journal of Consumer Affairs published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Council on Consumer

Interests.

J Consum Aff. 2022;56:449–464. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/joca 449

1|INTRODUCTION

In January 2020, The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared the COVID-19 pandemic an

International public health emergency (Zheng, 2020). Countries across the globe began shutting

borders and taking steps to stem the spread of infection. On March 23, 2020, in accordance with

the advice from WHO and Public Health England, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced

that the country would engage with lockdown rules and procedures.

The subsequent changes in lifestyle were dramatic and had far-reaching consequences for

both people's health and the economy. The impact of lockdown strategies has been seen during

previous pandemics such as SARS, people's sense of uncertainty and isolation can have a detri-

mental effect on the nation's well-being (Cava et al., 2005). A decade later and these factors

were identified again as a by-product of the COVID-19 lockdown in the UK, as Lei and

Klopack (2020) argue, feelings of alienation and hopelessness were common, leading to an

impact on people's long-term well-being.

Businesses across the UK were forced to close, adapt or re-think their current offering. One

of the sectors having to adjust to the required changes in business practice was the fitness

industry, specifically gyms. The pivot to digital-physical activity led to the development of com-

munities with membership benefits reaching far beyond physical fitness. Existing gyms, along-

side well-known online fitness experts, flooded the internet with a plethora of workouts. Joe

Wicks motivated just under 1 million school children and their parents to participate in “PE

with Joe”as a start to the home-schooling day (Guinness World Records, 2020) while Davina

“own your goals,”Les Mills and many other fitness providers around the country were broad-

casting daily workouts. Digital-physical activity has re-designed existing perceptions of exercise

in the UK, the intention of this study is to explore the perceptions of people participating in

such activity and the role these workout communities played in supporting consumer's psycho-

logical, physical, and social well-being.

2|LOCKDOWN AND WELL-BEING

The loss of social interaction due to physical distancing measures and self-isolation has left

many people in the UK feeling a sense of loneliness and a lack of connection with others. Lone-

liness, a “psychological manifestation of social isolation, associated with adverse impacts on

mental and physical health”(Razai et al., 2020, p. 1) can have profound psychological effects

on individuals (Philippe et al., 2020). Loss of usual routine and not taking part in normal day-

to-day activities can cause frustration and a sense of isolation. Perceived social isolation can

have serious consequences for “cognition, emotion, behaviour and health”(Hawkley and

Cacioppo, 2010). This was supported by the guidance published by Public Health

England (2020), when they identified that during lockdown, people may feel frustrated, lonely,

low, and anxious (Table 1).

The area of well-being is complex and multi-dimensional, with much debate around defini-

tions, as each conceptualization of well-being has an emphasis on a particular area, depending

on the context. The OECD define well-being as subjective, involving “good mental states,

including all of the various evaluations, positive and negative, that people make of their lives

and the affective reactions of people to their experiences”(OECD, 2013). This is echoed by Bal-

derjahn et al. (2020, p. 460) who assert that well-being is “emotional and cognitive assessments

of personal life satisfaction.”This suggests that well-being is more a general evaluation of how

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