Ego Lifters Classification

Anyone who has ever been inside a gym has seen roughly the same picture: weights, treadmills, elliptical, pull-up bars, hamstring curl stations, and that weird machine that no one is quite sure exactly what it works out, or how to use it, but the guy who looks like he could rip a car in half swears by it. For first time gym users this can be overwhelming and even a little intimidating. This along with the gym being crowded, and the fact that the gym can be just downright boring can lead some to bypassing the gym altogether. So for those of us who aren’t competing to be Mr. Olympia or competing in March Madness there has to be something else that doesn’t involve spending hours on the treadmill and lifting weights. I mean let’s face it, most

I developed a character to be a representative of the main audience for my essay by taking the characteristics of individuals observed in McComas’ weight room and combining them into one persona. Based off of this, the persona is a male Virginia Tech college student who is familiar with the weight room and the concepts of body building. He is in good physical shape, and wears typical gym clothing, such as gym shorts, sweatpants, t-shirts, or wife-beaters. He has long-term experience with the majority of the weight and machines found in McComas’ weight room, and falls into the category of “serious lifters,” rather than just an occasional gym-goer. He is very perseverant in his work out regiment, and has a focused mindset.

are often called “gym rats” just because they spend a good amount of their time in the gym,

Another observance that I made regarded the male and female distributions throughout the day at the UNC Asheville gym. During the morning there was a disproportionate amount of females, with an estimated 65% of the makeup of the gym being females with most using the cycling machines. However later in the day males were the most populous demographic in the gym, and by far the majority was occupied using the weight room or the weight machines. I propose that this may be due to the main motivation differing between males and females using the gym. Society tends to put more pressure on females to lose weight and be in shape, while there is more pressure on males to have large amounts of muscle and generally be larger, with less emphasis placed

“Girl” workouts are widely known among the CrossFit community (“‘The Girl’s’”). Each of the “girl” workouts are given a girl’s name and Glassman said this was because he didn’t want to explain the same workout over and over again on different days, he wanted a workout where he could say a name and no explanation would be necessary. He said that the workout Fran leaves a person completely listless and he joked that “anu workout that leaves you flat on your back, staring up at the sky, wondering what the hell happened, deserves a girl’s name” (“Origins of

These types of people are always bragging about their motivation; their snapchat stories consist of health, fitness, and ‘gains’. These snap chatters usually show off their ‘gains’ by flexing their arm muscles, and snapping a picture to post on their story captioning it; “nowhere near my goal yet” or “day by day I’m getting closer”. Breakfast, lunch and dinner for these folks are protein shakes; they cannot function without protein shakes along with having to record themselves prepare it. These people live at the gym, their snapchat stories usually consist of videos; squatting, powerlifting, and making sure someone records them maxing out their goal. Overall, this type of person is determined and somehow motivates others to focus on exercising

Working out can appeal to many different types of people. Various individuals have different motivations for visiting their local gym. I have found that just by observing people around me while working out, helps pass the time and distract me from my screaming muscles. In my observations I have determined there to be three different general types of people that spend time in the gym. Those types are: The Muscle Heads, the Average Joes and the Socials.

A key component of maintaining a healthy lifestyle is exercise. Working out helps control body fat and can prevent certain health conditions and diseases. As people are captivated by the goal of having a healthy and muscular body, this obsession can lead to the deviant behavior of bodybuilding. A deviant behavior is an act that departs from the usual or accepted social standards. Questions that many ask are, “Why do bodybuilders want to have a body that is so abnormal? As well as, why do they exercise so often?” Bodybuilders workout excessively in the face of societal norms that promote exercise in moderation.

We have beaten down on men so much to look down upon their own bodies. They feel the need to compare themselves to other men and decide if their body is perfect or buff enough. At the gym especially, men like to “show off’ their “gains” as they call it. But, they do it in a way that is supposedly

Whichever gym you go to, there always has and always will be different types of men pumping iron and sweating beads of testosterone. However, at the end of the day we all have this one thing in common: we want a better body. The perfect balance of muscle and size is something we crave to not only improve our self-image, but to also increase our stock with our love interests. Gym-goers come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Below we go over a list of the five most common types of people you'll see at your gym.

according to StatisticBrain.com, which specializes in collecting data on business, consumer, sports, financials, and world news. (http://money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/articles/2013/01/02/the-heavy-price-of-losing-weight). While just joining a gym rather than committing time to build your gym has many benefits like the Atmosphere. You are in the lifting atmosphere, and this motivates you to lift. You see others around you, and you give it your all on every set so when people watch you, they say, "wow, this guy's an animal." Conveniences. Gyms offer things like protein shakes, towels, day care, tanning, massaging, and steam rooms. These aren't all necessary things, but they do make the lifting experience more comfortable but come with many disadvantages as well like, Distractions. You go to the gym to workout, not to chat with other members. Gyms can be too distracting for many people, whether it be their workout pals or fitness chicks, socialization in the gym takes away from your workout. The lack of freedom you can't just do whatever you want in a gym, things that you would do at home that would embarrass you, like screaming. You also can't sprawl across the middle of the gym floor after a set of squats. Waiting in line a lot of gyms get extremely crowded during certain days and times, and those days and times may be the only day and time that you can get to the gym. If you're doing a fatigue related workout with short rest periods, this becomes impossible when there's a line to use the equipment. Location sometimes, the closest gym to you, won't be that close. It becomes very inconvenient to drive 30 minutes away to get to the gym. This might even stop some people from doing their workouts because they don't

When I head to the gym, I will often go straight to the cardio area to do a warmup, where I will see mostly girls hitting the treadmill or elliptical. However, after my warmup I head over to the weight room where I will see mostly guys. I believe that it has to do with social force because it deals with downsizing females, health and their expectations of what a certain genders body should look like. Females are downsized when it comes to doing weights because it shows that they are strong and society view girls as a weak and fragile person. So when they see a girl doing weights it ruins the picture the society his set for them. Another reasons why girls would go straight to the cardio area is because scientifically girls have lower metabolisms which makes them gain more fat from eating. Since cardio is for losing weight that’s why girls tend to go there. Last reason is that society has an expectations of what a girls and boys body should look like. For boys, it should be big, tough, and strong and for the girls it's the opposite. The reason for this is because men are suppose to protect the family while the women is supposed to care for the family. So society can’t see things when it changes. Based on the definition of social force, it influenced both the genders to choose an area to work out because it is different than what is

An interesting place to view societies play on gender standards, is the gym. Here you can find people of all walks of life working on their health and fitness. While observing, I found a fairly balanced distribution of men and women, ranging from college age to well into their retirement years. Although the gym is a place for everyone to feel comfortable, toting the slogan “The Judgement Free Zone”, modern culture has made it so that not everyone feels comfortable in their own skin.

Gyms employ a number of methods to further most peoples’ lack of desire to work out. The front room(s) of a gym are usually elegant and almost hotel-like, with a marble reception desk and spotless floors. There may be some

The machinery that aims to build muscle in gym members is only building “gymtimdiation” that in turn is driving members away. Anxious feelings stem from the confusion of how to use gym equipment combined with a fear of asking how to do so. People tend to dread appearing unknowledgeable or inexperienced at the gym, and this fear, commonly called “gymtimidation”, causes people to stay at home or not exercise to their full potential. The diagrams of instructions on equipment are vague, rudimentary, and unhelpful to new gym members wanting to use the devices. Simple diagrams on workout machinery tend to create apprehension in gym members who are inexperienced with workout equipment, while the gym creates assumptions about their product such as: the customers will read the labels, the diagrams are easy to read, people are not intimidated asking for help, and that they offer a satisfying workout experience.