The Naming of Pilates Exercises as an Endeavor to Create Meaning

This study examines the naming of exercises in Pilates workouts. Since the names of workout exercises do not always conform to conventional coding—that is, they are not universal or fixed but are a product of negotiation and idiosyncratic creation—they carry a great deal of symbolic value. Moreover, they presumably simulate a certain experience as it appears to human perception and mirrors familiar realities and concepts. The idiosyncratic terms arise when working with individuals and groups based on the trust that develops between the instructors and the workout participants. While both types of vocabulary are geared towards ensuring effective performance of the exercises, the idiosyncratic nomenclature is often adapted to the individual or the group, their knowledge, their cultural background, and their sensitivities. The present paper, based on theoretical frameworks from various disciplines—cognitive semantics, onomastics, and semiotics—utilizes a combination of methods, including participating observations, semi-structured interviews, and content analysis, to examine the strategies through which the encoding vocabulary promotes the practical goals of the physical workout, as well as the processes of signification triggered by these naming practices.