Introduction:

The vision of physical activity as an experience, determined in part by social organization, is essential to understand and promote its practice. Researchers carried out a qualitative interpretative study focused on the meanings of physical activity and its practice in Santanderean men's and women's everyday life. The participants were 20 women and 21 men, chosen by theoretical sampling.

Development:

Physical activity's main understanding is as a body movement that requires more effort than daily life, which is a way to take care of health and to achieve a "normal" body, and also a gendered practice that generates appearance and is a source of pleasure for its practitioners.

Conclusions:

Meanings of physical activity show elements of its recommendations and the link between "normal" body weight, health and beauty, concepts fed by the biomedical discourse in which the risk of getting sick is a consequence of the choices people make about their lifestyle. These notions coexist with others about physical activity and the body, which trace a rupture between the meaning of physical activity and its practice. From these, authors elucidated a central aspect of the reflexive process behind the practice of physical activity: The body awareness that motivates and accompanies its practice, partly provided by the pleasure produced by the intimate physical experience of physical activity.

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