We argue that the healthy, fit and athletic body plays an essential role in the waycontemporary managerial identities are construed. Drawing on insights from JudithButler, we study these bodily identities as a form of regulation in organizations. Weidentify the cultural basis of regulation, show how it operates through specific norms,and detail how it implies gender. Based on an empirical study of men and womenin management who are passionate about their healthy and fit bodies and athleticlifestyles, we demonstrate how norms set by managerial athleticism – understood asa particular regulative regime – operate through three discursive practices: perfectingthe body, advocating against non-fit bodies, and becoming a role model. We showhow the norms operate in both explicit and abject fashion and how they are implied inmasculine language and materialized in physical (athletic) bodies. We offer new insightson how bodily identity regulation occurs and elucidate the gendered complexity andcontradictions inscribed in managerial athleticism

Keywordsbody, fitness, gender, health, identity, management, managerial athleticism, regulation,sportsCorresponding