When I reached the weight area I noticed the surrounding walls covered in mirrors. Throughout the gym floor, next to water fountains, you can find plastic containers hinged against the wall filled with antibacterial cleaning agents and paper towels. The open space and the high ceilings trapped the sound of the ongoing pop music interrupted by the occasional grunt or the crash of a dumbbell on the matted floors. The metal on metal as weight bars are hoisted back onto their rack. The commotion of treadmills, elliptical, and stationary bikes is the white noise of the gym. Briefly, I analyzed my surroundings observing how the weight area was mostly male dominated with a handful of women, an absolute disparity in comparison to the cardio sections. …show more content…
She averted her eyes when fellow exercisers walked by, around or near her as she made her way to the weight area. Her attire was very well coordinated composed of a bright pink shirt and matching shoes contrasting with her black spandexs. As she reached the dumbbells section she seemed to want to see herself, but not be seen; an impossibility with the brightness of her apparel and the open space in which every wall is mirrored. Knowledgeable of what her weight lifting regimen entailed she went about her routine for about thirty minutes resting in intervals of about one to two minutes, casually looking at her phone. She hardly looked beyond her reflection in the mirror. Soon after she re-racked her weights and made her way to the cardio section and climbed up the Stairmaster she rapidly climbed for what seemed to be fifteen minutes, soon after I lost sight of her. Switching my attention to other spaces in the gym, I noticed other women in the weight space who lifted alone. They all lifted with head phones on and never took them out the entire session. They seemed to be in a sort of weight lifting trance. Also each of them had to lift in front of the mirror. Others had a personal trainer accompany them through their routine. I connected this to probably having something to do with the need of directions while working …show more content…
She told me her name was Sarah Del Cid and that this was her 2nd year working out and tries to “hit” the gym 5-6 times a week. Curiously, I asked her age she answered 43, impressed with her physique I wondered what she did for a living she said “a nanny and a mother of two, a 18 year-old and a 14 year-old”. Sarah was taken back with the interest I showed her; as a result struck a brief conversation with me about why she liked to work out and said “I like to look nice and for my health... just to be healthy”. She continued stating “my fitness routine focuses more on my health, but I competed in professional figure modeling competitions that were very strict” Consequently; I asked her what she thought about women working out with weights since traditionally it has been marked as a masculine endeavor. Sarah laughed asserting “that’s naïve… everyone thinks you become less feminine and grow large muscles like men... that is not the case…muscles are beautiful on women
Marcia K. Anderson. ”Women in Athletic Training.” Journal of Physical Education, Recreation & Dance 63.3 (1992): pp. 42. Journal Article.
Similar to a church altar where baptisms take place, the speaker begins by depicting the bench press as an altar of change and transformation. Illustrating the setting in this manner suggests that the speaker begins to wonders what drives the bodybuilder to lift an inanimate object repeatedly w...
Entertainment has been an established part of the American culture almost since its founding. The types of entertainment that most Americans enjoy in today's world are going to the movies, going out to eat, and exercising. Different forms of exercise vary from running and playing sports to weight lifting. Those who enjoy weight lifting can choose to do so in the privacy of their home, in a community center like the YMCA, or in a health club. At a health club one can expect to find a wide variety of people; however, some of these people add to the downside of working out at a local health club because they can be annoying and obnoxious. Three types of these annoying, obnoxious people found at the weight room of a local health club are the show-off, the know-it-all, and the wanderer; these types can be identified by their physical appearance, their social behavior, and their attitude.
The culture of the gym is slowly coming together just after two days of observations. The gym is primarily a male dominant place to do but in our college the only area that is completely dominant is the weight lifting area and that’s only during prime hours. Also on the note of personal space there is noticeably a tendency for both male and female to have a certain amount of space around them like a personal bubble.
Masculinity’s need for femininity has been a concept that I have witnessed in my own experiences; for example: gender-based spaces. I believe the most prominent example of this in my own life takes place in weight room here at UW-Whitewater. As a particularly male dominated space, it is very easy to feel intimidated. Most of the men present will either make girls who are also there for the same purpose as them feel as if they are in the way, or perhaps worse, they will be very intrusive and assume that their assistance is required. Both of these aspects are a factor in male masculinity’s need for femininity. For one, a feminine, female-identifying person such as myself partaking in the same activities that are often thought of as “manly” takes away the sacredness that such an activity only “belongs” to men. Moreover, my own independence as a woman, especially in a male-dominated z...
According to the Sports Medicine and Arthroscopy Review’s article on the female athlete triad, in the past forty years, American women have become increasingly involved in athletics as a result of laws allowing them to participate in sports. (Lebrun and Rumball) For instance, Cathy Rigby won eight Olympic gold medals in gymnastics during the ‘60’s and 70’s when these laws were just coming into effect. (Brunet) Nevertheless, there is an ugly hidden underbelly to the many benefits of women’s increased participation in sports. Many sports have very high standards for body image, which has led to the increasing prevalence of three “separate… but interrelated conditions” collectively known as the female athlete triad. (Lebrun and Rumball) Despite Cathy Rigby’s aforementioned success, an article by Dr. Michael Brunet reveals that she was severely affected by the most well-known of the female athlete triad: the eating disorder. This eventually caused her to suffer cardiac arrest twice. (Brunet) These effects are not limited to elite athletes, however; high school athletes are also affected by the triad, particularly those participating in sports “in which leanness is perceived to optimize performance” or which use “specific weight categories.” (Lebrun) The three components of the triad, osteoporosis, amenorrhea, and disordered eating, are increasingly becoming an unfortunate effect of distorted body image on sports.
Even though I was not entering a non-traditional sport I was still faced with some of the same issues that women who are entering bodybuilding, power lifting or boxing are. No matter what gender you are or what sport you play there will always be sacrifices and rewards but when one enters a sport that is in many ways considered "off limits" the sacrifices seem greater but in the end so are the rewards. No matter how frustrated I got because I was never given the same opportunities as the boys were I never quit because I loved the game and the game...
...hat the facilities are at best decent and nothing relatively superior, is for the use of a gym that isn’t over crowded, and filled with like-minded individuals of the same age and race. My research methods such as an inductive method including participant-observation allowed me to observe the members and how they interacted amongst each other. Most of what I learned came from the women’s locker room, where many of them felt as ease as they discussed diets, workouts, and health issues. The one aspect that did change after using the facilities was that the price included within the membership was not for high end machines, or for state of the art locker rooms with luxurious amenities. The price is paid to be part of a network of older individuals, with like-minded ideas of staying fit for the sake of being healthy, and to work out in a crowd-free, judgment free area.
What is stereotype? The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines stereotype as “believing unfairly that all people or things with a particular characteristic are the same.” Stereotypes are everywhere. Stereotypes cover racial groups, gender, political groups and even demographic. Stereotypes affect our everyday lives. Sometimes people are judged based on what they wear, how they look, how they act or people they hang out with. Gender and racial stereotypes are very controversial in today’s society and many fall victims. Nevertheless, racial and gender stereotypes have serious consequences in everyday life. It makes individuals have little to no motivation and it also puts a label about how a person should act or live. When one is stereotype they
Women in bodybuilding is a recent phenomenon. It is an example of the cultural transformation and revolution that has been in the process for many years now. Leslie Heywood, the author of the quote above, is an assistant professor of English at the State University of New York, Binghamton. As stated by a critic of her recent book, Bodymakers, "Heywood looks at the sport and image of female body building as a metaphor for how women fare in our current political and cultural climate. Drawing on contemporary feminist and cultural theory as well as her own involvement in the sport, she argues that the movement in women's bodybuilding from small, delicate bodies to large powerful ones and back again is directly connected to progress and backlash within the abortion debate, the ongoing struggle for race and gender equality, and the struggle to define "feminism" in the context of the nineties. She discusses female bodybuilding as activism, as an often effective response to abuse, race and masculinity in body building, and the contradictory ways that photographers treat female bodybuilders." It is evident from this brief yet descriptive narration of her book that Heywood believes both cultural costs and benefits of women in the sport of bodybuilding exist, as well as in any other field in which women push the restraints of social acceptance.
Although fitness centers and gyms may appear to be a place to break a sweat and work out with the intention of not being seen without makeup and in grungy clothes, this may not be the case, in particular when it comes to college gyms. Contrary to the findings Tamara L. Black displayed in her dissertation for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology from the University of California in Los Angeles, in which she depicts the situation of the classical fitness center as exercise dominated, after observations made while participating in the Boston College Recreational Complex, fitness centers may be more heavily focused on expressing sexual and social relations than for health related issues. Although she does not elaborate on this view of the gym, she does recognize that “popular media, cultural stereotypes, and some empirical literature depict gyms as places to meet people, where sexualized interactions are likely to take place, where bodies are on display as objects of desire” (pg. 40). This may be the perfect definition of the situation that I found in my observations. Shari L. Dworkin and Faye Linda Wachs, in Body Panic: Gender, Health, and the Selling of Fitness, acknowledge “mainstream media construct men as active and women as inactive. In this view, women are often shown as ‘being visually perfect’ and passive, immobile, and unchanging’” (pg. 40). Perhaps we have media to blame for this hyper-sexualization of a situation that was initially intended for self-fulfillment and health related practices.
Women should not lift heavy things or else they will get bulky. At least that is what one of the biggest myths of female fitness will tell you. Just 17. 5 percent of American women, and only 20 percent of college-age American women, meet the aerobic and strength training recommendations of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (2012). Women who incorporate weight lifting into their workout routine are significantly decreasing their likelihood of living with gender common diseases. The myths surrounding women and weight lifting by far exceed the truth and realistic benefits. The stereotypes that have formed from extreme bodybuilding and body sculpting figures are far from the physiques of the average women. Hiding behind strength training myths is more often an excuse to get out of the hard work it takes to live a healthy and quality lifetime. Strength training is not a task to shy away from, and is something every single woman should be doing. It is time for women to learn the truth and bring on the heavy lifting.
Everyday there are females who do not experience the full benefits of an exercise program because they fail to include a strength training workout as part of their regimen. One reason why females tend to stray away from strength training is the lack of knowledge concerning the benefits they can experience with this type of workout, while others fail to include it because of myths that surround it.
Many women choose not to strength train or lift weights as they fear becoming “too bulky” or “manly looking”. The appearance of female bodybuilders typically causes this fear as they, like male bodybuilders, strive to have muscular, virtually fat-free bodies. However, the hormone profile of natural women prevents them from having the same musculature and strength as men.The male sex hormone, testosterone, has anabolic (muscle/strength increa...
Exercise can help improve aesthetics in multiple ways. Weight loss is not only one of the most targeted goals of exercise because of its health benefits, but also in today’s society, it is considered attractive. Many people who exercise for aesthetics do so to slim down and improve their figure. Another aesthetic advantage of working out is muscle development. A large percentage of people who strive for an athletic or muscular build work out by lifting weights, which is the most efficient way to develop muscle. At the same time that exercise burns fat, it also increases lean muscle mass, another trait that is seen as attractive in modern society. However, building muscle does more than just looks, individuals with higher muscle mass are generally stronger and healthier as well. Since there is a strong relationship between attractiveness and health, many people who begin working out for aesthetics change their goals and motives to be health-related and vice versa. In the end, both are very popular reasons why people choose to