Motives, Impacts, and Lifestyles: Xport Fitness
Abstract
For this essay I chose a place to observe a fitness area community, and it’s participants behaviors and apparent traditions. During the observation that I was conducting I came up with a research question that supported the idea of what this community was about and how the behavior and experiences of some of the participants that I recorded related to it. In order to support my research I used two sources stated below.
Whenever someone is trying to show that they are making a clear improvement in their life, either physically or mentally a usual factor that helps this idea is this person joining a fitness center, whether it is of personal choice to attend the gym or suggested by somebody else, being a fitness or gym member has always been something society looks up to. It is indeed not by mere coincidence that fitness members have the reputation of being “healthier” individuals, in fact there is scientific proof that shows that fitness life not only affects our physical well-being but that it is reflected in our day-to-day life. For this essay the observation field I chose to observe and research about, was Xport fitness an all-inclusive member only fitness center in the Bronx, with wide varieties of activities offered to the members; activities such as yoga classes, aerobics, cardio bicycler classes, pool, saunas steam-rooms and massage spas. All these commodities by the place offered me the opportunity to better analyze the participant’s behaviors in different commotions. The focus of this essay will be based on the experiences noticed based on the observation, interactions noticed amongst the participants, behaviors of certain groups, behaviors as well depending in the area of the gym where these participants were located, as well as providing proof for the research that explains what positive health benefits factors does being a gym member provide and how it overall impacts one’s life.
From what I could gather of the observations I noted, Xport fitness is an inclusive environment, with adult participants from all ages, sex, genders, and sexual orientation. It is so inclusive that there is even a daycare for those parents who have no one to leave their children with while they work on themselves. There is signs on the locker rooms that say that is a camera free area, and safe area for the members if someone is victim of harassment or witnesses something to call management. Not just did I notice these signs, but I also felt that this is indeed a safe space where nobody really bothers others, and I am sure others feel the same energy from this fitness center since I am there frequently and have heard no complaints yet.
Since I go to the gym regularly it has been easier for me to proof some of my theories about the forming part of the fitness community, for example based on my initial 2 observation I deduced that members feel fulfillment by attending the gym, by the way they looked at themselves in the mirrors, by the way the took pictures or recorded themselves, even by the way they looked at their biceps and muscle thigh covered in sweat as they finished their workout. Observing this community for more than once has proven to me that indeed these fitness members’ egos are being fulfilled, because I see the same regular faces, coming back to see more results, or to “feel” or achieve their goal.
On my first two-hour observation, I noticed a middle-aged woman that caught my attention, she was wearing red lipstick, with blondish- to yellow hair high top bun, and fitted clothes, she was on the treadmill at rather a slow pace I dare to say her speed was at 1.5 or 2.0. For every slow step she took, it appeared to commemorate a picture, or a “selfie” to be more specific, she would stick out her red lips as in duck faces, throwing peace signs. This behavior right here I noted right away since it supported my claim for believing fitness centers to be self-esteem and confidence boosters. On the back area where all the weights and heavier stuff where situated, there were more males found than females, there was a count of about 10-11 males and 3 females including myself. Something I noticed and a person who caught my attention in this area was, a man wearing a cape, as he worked out, I thought that perhaps he was still in the Halloween spirits or perhaps his costume was late, but to my surprise nobody was amazed by his outfit, in fact nobody seemed to care, it was either the New Yorker attitude or they were used to him arriving at the center with unusual outfits. From this same person I noticed that he would get closer and advice other males in the area on how to work out certain machines, as would other males go around waiting for their turns to the weights. Based on these two specific observations and based on others, it gave me the idea of further analyzing the participants in different groups, in this case I separated the males vs females, and chose to analyze and research their motives for attending the gym. A research article by Foteini Zervou Et al, called Motives for exercise participation: The role of individual and psychological characteristics, says: “The results showed significant sex and BMI differences. More specifically, exercise motives were based on competition/ego for males, whereas females preferred psychological condition and appearance motives.” (Zervou et al, 2017) This study showed that most of the time females’ motives when attending the gym is for physical and psychological reasons whereas in the contrary men’s motive is based more on competitive factors. Based on the two observations I provided and others I noticed, I can confirm this to be true, I noticed that females were either working out alone, and if in groups it was just for company one wouldn’t tell the other what to do, while by the other hand male participants were either in groups and if not in groups, occasionally what appeared to be a stranger would pass by and instruct or “advise” the other on how to work out, which proves the ego filling and the internal competitiveness on who knew the workouts best.
As we may all know at the gym there is little to no talking or verbally interacting with each other, because they are all busy or just focused on their workout. Some of the very few words I did get to notice though as I did my observation was, people calling each other “Sis” or “bro”, also since this is a big gym and there is about 9 trainers on the floor, I noticed they called the participants “beast” a lot, when they noticed they were successfully lifting heavy weights or when they finished their routine routine. I noticed a skinny boy with an incredible strength though, pushing what looked like to be a tractor gigantic wheel, besides him was a trainer counting the times he would push and flip the wheel to the other side, I noticed the trainer say to the boy “keep going. Now go beast mode”. I’m not certain if this is just a universal understandable reference, but what I do know is that this phrase right here definitely helps the boy keep pushing and this time even harder! Also, as I was using one of the pulling weightlifting machines there was a girl, slim and curvy with black straight long hair on a ponytail, along with her trainer an average sized man with a very fit body. He was training her for boxing, I recall she was hitting the punching bag he was holding, and he told her “Beast mode, beast mode!”, as if this was something they had practiced before, or a code communication for them.
Not only did I observe people during their workouts, but I was also noticing how people behaved in the sauna and steam room. I noticed that the participants mostly went to these two rooms right after their workout as a form of relaxation. I noticed in the sauna and steam room the people were more approachable and more talkative, I even remember the girl who was training w for the boxing classes was there at the steam room and started telling me about how she feels much more alleviated now that she has joined the gym. She told me she did not feel productive before, and that now she is doing something she has always wanted to, and asked me how long I had been going to the gym? After saying the gym Xport Fitness was great and she had been recommending to her friends to which I replied, “I feel less pressure on my shoulders after having joined this gym, I’ve been here for about 5 months.”
One of the articles I chose for my research says, “Overall, it is argued that for many participants gym exercise is more than physical training; it is also training for life.” (Dogan, 2015) Furthermore this article explains the idea that indeed gyms do offer different and new renewed perspectives in the lives of those who attend… “First, gym participants perceive themselves to be efficient and productive in general. Second, gym training is believed to increase the control they have over their lives. Third, gym members associate their gym workout with amplified emotional resilience, believing that fitness workout makes them not only fitter in a physical sense but also fitter and better equipped in a psychological sense.” (Dogan, 2015) This exemplifies the many positive attributions attending to the gym or being part of this fitness “culture” or group can attribute to one’s life, from thinking themselves in more positive ways to better handling their lives, to feeling more contempt with themselves emotionally, just like the person who I talked to in the steam room, and I argued.
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References
Doğan, C. (2015, August 20). Training at the gym, training for life: Creating better versions of the self through exercise. Europe’s journal of psychology. Retrieved November 09, 2021, from https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4873055/
Zervou, F., Starvou, N., Koehn, S., Zounhia, K., & Psychountaki, M. (2017, June 21). Motives for exercise participation: The role of individual and psychological characteristics. Taylor & Francis. Retrieved November 9, 2021, from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311908.2017.1345141
