Physical practices and body activities: in the SUS ‘does the order of factors change the product’?

Abstract

Introduction: In Brazil, especially within the policies, programs, and actions of the Unified Health System (SUS) that link human bodily movement to health, there is a debate about the convergences and divergences between the terms/concepts of 'body practices' and 'physical activities'.

Objective: To reflect on the mentioned convergences and divergences, which was done by presenting some concepts, followed by a discussion of possible synergies and complementarities.

Development: This reflection is linked to the field of Public Health, particularly the subfield of Policy, Planning, and Management, as it seeks to understand how this conceptual and terminological debate reverberates in the daily actions of the Brazilian healthcare system. Both concepts, ‘body practices’ and ‘physical activities’, have undergone changes considering the temporality between the seminal concepts and their reinterpretations, as they came into contact with other frameworks, being questioned and criticized. In the national context, the conceptual debate resulted in the use of a distinct term – body practices, while internationally, the proposed changes retained the original denomination – physical activity.

Final considerations: Regardless of the term used, even "physical practices and body activities," as we provocatively suggested, within the policies, programs, and actions of the SUS, it must signify a catalyst for different dimensions of the relationship between human bodily movement and health, integrating the biological, social, cultural, and economic perspectives with the aim of reducing inequities and expanding access to such practices for the entire Brazilian population.