Digital media has been deeply embedded in the daily lives of contemporary youth, where individuals inhabit both editable digital body representations and irreducible physical bodies, making the construction of physical self an unprecedented dynamic negotiation process. Existing studies have advanced independently along three threads: Physical self and body image, digital media and physical experience, and embodied cognition and physical activity, yet an integrated analytical framework connecting the three is still absent. This paper systematically reviews core literature across the three domains, proposes the integrated concept of Physical Self Negotiation defined as the dynamic process where individuals interpret, select, and integrate their bodily perceptions between digital and physical experiences, summarizes four typical negotiation strategies (assimilation, separation, resistance, and integration), and constructs the Digital-Embodiment Negotiation Model（DENM）, clarifying that physical activity serves as the core resource for embodied resistance. This paper further identifies four major research gaps: the absence of a process perspective, the binary division between digital and embodied bodies, the neglect of physical activity, and insufficient qualitative evidence targeting youth. Based on this, it puts forward a future research agenda covering measurement development, qualitative exploration, dynamic mechanism testing, and application transformation, providing a conceptual foundation for youth physical self and health promotion research.

Chen Li. Physical Self Negotiation in the Digital Age: An Embodied Cognition Perspective. Frontiers in Sport Research (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 4: 55-62. https://doi.org/10.25236/FSR.2026.080409.

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