When we briefly touched upon the expectations for athletes
yesterday it got me thinking about the different ways men and women view a
healthy body, how biological is use to create ideal and how the genders often
have different goals for a “fit body”. Generally it is evident by what each
does at the gym. And given the uproar about the new gym, it felt fitting. Having
been to the new gym and quite a few others I notice that the standard has been
holding true; women will be on cardio machines most of the time they spend at
the gym and will lift weights/ use machines or mats for a small portion of the
time. While men will possibly participate in cardio for a small period of time
and then lift weights most of the time they are there, a lot of the time I've noticed it is straight to the weights. Of course there are exceptions these
observations, but if you walked in the gym and took note of the number of woman
on cardio machines or the number of men lifting weights you would seen these
hold true. The expectation woman hold for themselves is to have a thin body,
usually when it comes to working out the method in which we tell others we are
doing well is often the weight we've lost. However, while weight can be a
factor for men it is often how much their lifting abilities have increased or
the various muscles that can be seen now. Why isn't it both ways? Why can’t the
genders want both, it’s healthy. There are quite a few men who do, but speaking
about women; most are opposed to have a lot of muscle. Often woman will say
they couldn't achieve muscle like men and I don’t feel that’s completely accurate,
women are much better at building lower body muscles while men are better at
building upper body. Okay so we can build muscle and yes, who doesn't want to be strong, and yes
muscle is good, but most woman just want to be toned and don’t want bulky
muscle because it makes them more masculine. Just as we can see thin males
without muscles as more masculine. Now I guess the question comes down to why
we view these specific bodies as what is perfect for our gender and who decided
it couldn't be more even?
-Joan W.
I agree with you that most of the cardio equipment is used by women, but what about the times that you go into the weight room and see all the guys using the cardio equipment. I am in the weight room on campus almost every day and I more often then not could count more women lifting weights then males. so not all women believe in the "fit" body look.
ReplyDeleteI think it's hard to judge how many men or women are using cardio or weights relative to one another, especially at a gym, because anyone at the gym is there to get in shape. It takes work involving both cardio and weights to get in shape and stay in shape therefore people at the gym are probably participating in both activities. However, I will say that I agree that men are more worried about their arm muscles and how much they can bench than most women are.
ReplyDeleteI agree that more women tend to use cardio machines more then lift weights, especially on campus. I do think that there is a close ratio of males to females that use the tread mills, but males don't tend to use elipticals or the bikes. Also, some women don't believe in the 'fit' body look, there are a lot of women that participate in body building competitions or just like to have more muscle. I think it's just a matter of the individual's own preference and that males and females participate in both cardio and lifting.
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