Presentation Image:
Citation:
University Of North Carolina. (n.d.). photograph, Chapel Hill
Presentation Script:
Hi, my name is Ethan, and the topic that I chose is gym culture. I have always been interested in gym culture due to its increasing popularity and social media presence among younger people. For my observation, I decided to check out Ram’s Head gym at UNC Chapel Hill. This is because this location is the closest to the first-year students, and I feel I would be able to connect with the first-year students more than the others as I am in the same situation. In this picture, this is the gym I went to. Some assumptions I had about the gym subculture is that most of them would essentially live at the gym, and if I’m being honest, I thought they wouldn’t be the smartest either. I also came in with the belief that people at the gym decide to go for only a couple of reasons, such as physical health or wanting to look better. I attempted to dive deeper into what motivates people to consistently spend time, money, and energy going to the gym.
Before conducting my observations about the gym culture at Ram’s Head, I did secondary research related to the topic. I decided to dig deeper into why people worked out, and what I found was very interesting. An article that studied one million Americans older than eighteen found that Americans who exercise had 43.7% fewer “poor” mental health days than those who did not exercise. According to the study, there was a “significant” association with self-reported positive mental health (Chekroud et al., 2018). I then wanted to research more into the outward desires to workout, such as physical attractiveness. In this study, the most muscular men in the survey were perceived as more attractive (Aaron et al., 2017).
For my observations, I decided to go when the gym was close to empty and then go when the gym was bustling. Looking back at my first observation when the gym was empty, there was little interaction, and it felt as if every person was completely locked into their workout. In my first interview, he explained that he was always a skinny kid in middle and high school, making him insecure, so he decided to lift weights. I asked why he kept lifting, and he claimed that it gave him a form of discipline in his everyday life. In my second observation, I walked in and immediately noticed the dichotomy between the last time I had gone. There was music blasting and much commotion as many groups went to the gym, something I didn’t notice in my previous observation. I interviewed a group that claimed they initially worked out to get together but continued because of the increased mental health they experienced. I found that what initially motivates many people to work out is something like their physical appearance, but what caused the people I interviewed to stay was the benefits it gave them physically and mentally.
My initial assumptions were not confirmed, as the people, I observed and talked to were very kind and intelligent. I want to interview more people to prevent anecdotal evidence, as it was fascinating to learn about the motivations for working out and being inspiring. I believe what motivates people to spend time, money, and energy to consistently go to the gym is the mental and physical health that comes along with going consistently.
Explication of Research:
Preface:
As someone who does not go to the gym frequently, I have always been fascinated by gym culture due to its increasing social media presence. For my observation, I decided to examine Ram’s Head gym at UNC Chapel Hill. This is because this location is the closest to the first-year students, and I feel I would be able to connect with the first-year students more than the others as I am in the same situation. Some assumptions I had about the gym subculture is that most of them would essentially live at the gym, and if I’m being honest, I thought they wouldn’t be the smartest either. I also came in with the belief that people at the gym decide to go for only a couple of reasons, such as physical health or wanting to look better. I attempted to dive deeper into what motivates people to consistently spend time, money, and energy going to the gym.
Background Information:
Before conducting my observations about the gym culture at Ram’s Head, I did secondary research related to the topic. I decided to dig deeper into why people worked out, and what I found was very interesting. The first study I researched about was an observational study on 1.23 million Americans older than eighteen years old. This study aims to find an association between mental health and exercise, as they claim this connection is unclear. This study found that Americans who exercised had 43.7% fewer “poor” mental health days than those who did not exercise. They found that there was a “significant” association with self-reported positive mental health (Chekroud et al., 2018). I still wanted to research more about mental health, but I needed my subsequent study to be more specific. This study is different from the previous one as it narrows it down to the subtopic I will be studying, specifically gym culture. This study already assumed a relationship between better mental health and exercising, so the specific goal of this study is to categorize the types of exercise into different groups. They found that weightlifting, running, and sports had the most significant relationship with improved mental health (Bafageeh & Loux, 2022). I then wanted to research more into the outward desires to work out, such as physical attractiveness. In this study, the researchers focus on how upper body strength impacts perceived attractiveness. They predict that the stronger the upper body, the more attractive a man is perceived. This was true, and contrary to many beliefs, there was no “cutoff” to upper body strength and perceived attractiveness. The most muscular men in the survey were always perceived as the most attractive (Aaron et al., 2017). Lastly, I wanted to research how exercising impacted physical health. In this study, the researchers found that weightlifting is correlated with reducing both systolic and diastolic blood pressure in subjects that suffer or are close to suffering from pulmonary hypertension (de Sousa et al., 2017)
First Observation:
After doing the preliminary secondary research, I conducted my observations. Looking back at my first observation when the gym was empty, not a single interaction with another human had occurred. It felt as if every person was locked into their workout and had their bubble, and my inclination was not to pop it. In my first interview, his name was Pranav, and I wondered why he worked out, and Pranav graciously explained that he was always a very skinny kid in middle and high school, which made him insecure, so he decided to lift weights. I asked why he kept lifting, and he claimed that it gave him a form of discipline in his everyday life. I then decided to interview one more person and came across what appeared to be a newcomer to the gym. He is much skinnier than Pranav and is wearing a Led Zeppelin tee shirt that seems one size too large, baggy sweatpants, and muddied Air Force Ones. I asked him about the gym, and he said he has always wanted to work out, but he never had a car, and his local gym was way too far to walk. This was a factor that I failed to account for originally in my hypothesis: there are barriers to entry to the gym, such as monetary or vehicular restrictions.
Second Observation:
In my second observation, I walked in and immediately noticed the dichotomy between the last time I had gone. There was music blasting and much commotion as many groups went to the gym, something I did not notice in my previous observation. I thought this would be an ideal time to engage in my second observation as I felt it would be a much different experience than when I first observed. I interviewed a group, and they were incredibly friendly, and they claimed that they initially worked out to get together but continued because of the increased mental health they experienced. This group was incredibly kind and even offered to let me work out with them. I could not turn that down, so I took their offer up. Throughout the workout, I was nowhere near them physically, yet they were incredibly gracious and screaming words of encouragement at me. I had a massive smile by the end of the lift due to the fantastic support. In my second observation, I found that physical appearance initially motivates many people to work out. However, the benefits it gave them physically and mentally caused many of the people I interviewed to stay. Also, I did not expect an outlier when two people explained that they work out to become better at sports, which I did not initially consider.
Conclusion:
Based on my previous observations, I believe what motivates people to spend time, money, and energy to consistently go to the gym is the mental and physical health that comes along with going consistently. My initial assumptions were not confirmed, as the people, I observed and talked to were very kind and intelligent. If I continue this research further, the next step would be interviewing more people to prevent anecdotal evidence, as it was fascinating to learn about the motivations for working out. I understand why some people are afraid of going to the gym, as it can feel as if people are judging you constantly. However, if I were to draw one conclusion from my observations, there are so many reasons why people decide to go to the gym, but it mostly boils down to self-improvement. Therefore, I feel as if it is very rare to find someone who will judge another for just trying to improve themselves, whether it be physically or mentally.
References:
Bafageeh, F., & Loux, T. (2022). The relationship between types of physical activity and mental health among US adults. Mental Health & Prevention, 28, 200244. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2212657022000162.
Chekroud, S. R., Gueorguieva, R., Zheutlin, A. B., Paulus, M., Krumholz, H. M., Krystal, J. H., &
Chekroud, A. M. (2018). Association between physical exercise and mental health in 1· 2 million individuals in the USA between 2011 and 2015: a cross-sectional study. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 739-746. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30099000/.
De Sousa, E. C., Abrahin, O., Ferreira, A. L. L., Rodrigues, R. P., Alves, E. A. C., & Vieira, R. P. (2017).
Resistance training alone reduces systolic and diastolic blood pressure in prehypertensive and hypertensive individuals: meta-analysis. Hypertension Research, 40(11), 927-931. https://www.nature.com/articles/hr201769
Sell, A., Lukazsweski, A. W., & Townsley, M. (2017). Cues of upper body strength account for most of the
variance in men’s bodily attractiveness. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 284(1869), 20171819.
University Of North Carolina. (n.d.). photograph, Chapel Hill
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