The gym where I train and workout, the Dubuque Martial Arts Group, is a place where I know who I am. It is a place I can go to escape my problems for a while and release some stress. It's not the actual physical building, but rather the events that have occurred there over the years. It's where I have formed some of my closest friendships. It is the place I have invested years of hard work for many of my accomplishments. To some it may seem odd that a place associated with sweat, blood and physical pain mean so much to someone. However, in my eyes it's almost like a second home.
A certain familiarity is developed over time that makes it home. Sitting here I can vividly picture being there. I drive my car into the pot-hole filled parking lot off the highway and park in the same spot I always have, people just seem to know that's my spot. Walking around to the back I open the brown door and enter. The familiar damp smell of sweat still pierces my nose when I walk into the hallway even after all these years. The rhythmic beating of the speedbag and clanging of the punching bag hanging from the ceiling echo through the hall. When I walk into the gym I see our instructor Dean with his long dreads sitting at his desk talking on the phone. It sounds as if he is trying to set up some fights for us. I turn my head to the left and see everyone doing their own thing. Chris is kicking the stuffing out of the heavy bag, he thinks he's such a bad-ass. Mitch and Don are goofing around as if they were fifteen, even though they're almost forty. Stretching out is Cara, she's the only female fighter but I wouldn't mess with her.
I head to the locker room to change my clothes. In the locker room are Dan and Jason. I say hello an...
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...ng side of it tend to invest much more time and effort into what we do there. Therefore we spend a lot more time together than with any of the others. A unique bond forms between us. We are almost like a family. We know what each of us goes through while we are there. We all know what it feels like to work ourselves to exhaustion night after night in preparation for a fight. We know the dread of waking up before the suns up to run. We know the feeling of stepping into the ring in front of a thousand pairs of eyes looking only at you. We know what it feels like to look across the ring and stare into the eyes of a man who would like nothing better than to knock you out cold. We know the adrenaline rush followed by the ring of the bell. Only we feel the pride accompanied when our hand is raised in victory, or the disappointment of having it left hanging in defeat.
Fox, Josh. "10 Reasons the Moon Landings Could Be a Hoax." Listverse. N.p., 28 Dec. 2012. Web. 20 Feb. 2014.
No one can physically prove that the US landed on the moon. So, will Americans ever know the real truth about the moon landings? What one's eyes see, one believes. So, from all the evidence that NASA obtained, it proves that they really did send men to the moon in 1969.
At the Gym, written by Mark Doty, dramatizes the conflict within the mind of a bodybuilder and his desire to change who and what he is. The speaker observes the routines of the bodybuilder bench-pressing at a local gym, and attempts to explain the driving force that compels him to change his appearance. The speaker illustrates the physical use of inanimate objects as the tools used for the “desired” transformation: “and hoist nothing that need be lifted” (5,6). However, coupled with “but some burden they’ve chosen this time” (7), the speaker takes the illustration beyond the physical use of the tools of transformation and delves into the bodybuilder’s mental state. The speaker ends by portraying the bodybuilder as an arrogant, muscular being with fragile feelings of insecurity.
The gym is a place where a typical American college student goes to work out their bodies. Based on the fact that I personally could be considered a gym rat, a stereotypical name for someone who spends a lot of time in the work out area. This is partially by choice being on the swim team requires the strength training equipment that is available to our disposal in the gym. While I have been to the gym many times I haven’t really taken the time to take in the other people around me. Within this ethnographic exercise I will explore the college gym norms within Roger Williams University.
The inconsistencies of the moon landing led many to believe that this historical event had never happened. As a result of all this evidence being debugged, Evidence shows that this event indeed happened. Even with the errors made in the obtaining in the photos and evidence. NASA still proves that they went to the moon with logical answers as well as many pieces of evidence and supporting detail. Without the clarification of the actual happenings of the moon landing, there would no longer be a truthful and concise timeline of what really happened.
A gym as defined by the Oxford Dictionary states that it is a “membership organization that provides a range of facilities designed to improve and maintain physical fitness and health.” Within our society, the culture of a gym or health club is comprised of those who wish to maintain their physical health, as well as form a bond for like-minded people to support one another with their health goals within a shared environment. I have chosen to observe and understand the culture that embodies the Westford Regency Health Club, a local Massachusetts gym with higher than average membership pric es and a higher end reputation in comparison to the average franchised gym, such as Planet Fitness. I chose this particular gym for the sole fact that it is labeled as a “health club,” rather than a gym, which brings about the notion that it is somehow superior in regards to its facilities and membership privileges. For my research, I used an inductive method including participant-observation, as well as field notes gathered from my visits as a new member.
Social psychology is defined as the study of the relationships between people, their community and their environment (King, 2011). People tend to conform to society to feel accepted. However, their circumstances play a role in their capability to conform. For example, people are inclined to wear specific attire to the gym. The typical workout outfit is gym shorts, a t-shirt, and running sneakers, and typically, females put their hair up in a ponytail holder. Wearing anything other than these articles of clothing is abnormal and breaks the social norm.
Wrestling is more than just a sport; it is a way of life. And for those who enjoy its opportunities, it is something that takes the mind off of all of life’s troubling times, and puts one man against another to get their hand raised. Competition makes everything evolve, and there is no other sport that epitomizes what competition truly is. Wrestling spans the entire globe, and although it incorporates several different styles and many National and World events, remains overlooked by most.
Personal space, body language, and overall interaction between the participants in the gym was something that I hadn't paid enough attention to in the past, from the distance I could see that their interests. The intimate couples that I noticed in the gym seemed again sought to have created a private space for them by erecting invisible barriers through their private body language directed only at each other, resulting in considerable more space between these couples and other groups of people in the gym. It was a clear and present body language of please do not bother us attitude left a sense of diffused power that would be involved power relationships that operate without covert commands and requests. The dynamics of the couple was something that was very obvious, in that I was able to note the dominant and the submissive person. The person who had a tendency to meet the needs and the one who had the ability to be demanding.
CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, CLAP, echoes through my head as I walk to the middle of the mat. "At 160lbs Aidan Conner of La Junta vs. Rodney Jones of Hotchkiss." All I can think of is every bead of sweat, every drip of blood, every mile, every push up, every tear. Why? All of this: just to be victorious. All in preparation for one match, six minutes. For some these six minutes may only be a glimpse, and then again for some it may be the biggest six minutes of their life. Many get the chance to experience it more than once. Some may work harder and want it more than others, but they may never get the chance. All they get is a moral victory. Every kid, every man comes into the tournament with a goal. For some is to win, for some is to place, others are just happy to qualify. These six minutes come on a cold frigid night in February at a place called the Pepsi Center. Once a year this gathering takes place when the small and the large, the best of the best, come to compete in front thousands of people. I am at the Colorado State Wrestling Championships.
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.
Wrestling holds the title of the oldest sport in known history. The legends of Greek mythology tell the tale of Greek God Zeus defeating Cronus in a wrestling match for the possession of the universe at the beginning of time. Wrestling appeared all over the ancient world, from France to Mongolia, in artwork, writing, and even cave carvings, wrestling appears everywhere.
The thought of sitting around all day, not being productive and watching television sounds pleasurable; however, it is not even remotely healthy. Modern day Americans have become accustomed to being unproductive and watching TV for long periods of time while simultaneously eating junk food. Whether it be talking on the phone with mother or consuming a greasy pizza on the sofa, sitting down and not enduring any physical activity can lead to obesity. Also, American elementary schools have been serving children unhealthy meals and they are consuming more fat than they are fruits or vegetables. Americans need to change school’s menus, reduce the price of gym memberships, and discard the use of false advertisements.