It seems that America today is built for everyone to be overweight. Food is more unhealthy, more available, and come in larger sizes. We don't walk anywhere, we drive literally everywhere we go and then complain when our parking spot is too far away. We don't get enough exercise because we sit inside and stare at a screen for eight hours a day before driving home only to stare at a screen for another three or four. And, the majority of the population lives like this so since our neighbors and best friends aren't changing their ways to be healthier, why should we?
Our bodies need exercise daily. Back in the day, when our parents were growing up, they did not have to worry about getting their daily amount of exercise in because they had to walk or ride their bikes to half of the places they were going. That took care of itself. Nowadays, we have fancy cars to hop into and deliver us to the place of our choice much quicker and easier than walking. Our parents used to walk miles to the grocery store or to a restaurant without complaints, and it was very good for them. Walking places can be physically healthy and mentally relaxing too. Today however, my friend who lives ten houses down the alley wont even walk to my house. He says "it is like a two second drive so I am basically not using any gas." That is when you know today's life is skewed.
Part of the problem though is that we simply don't have the time in our busy days to walk places or to go work out. We don't have the 2 hours it takes to get ready, drive to the gym, work out, shower, put on clothes, and drive back. Well the truth is that you dont need that much time at all in order to get a day's worth of calorie expenditure in. If your day really is packed to the point where you dont have any more than twenty minutes to spare, then change shoes, put on some shorts and take a twelve minute jog around the neighborhood. That should get you about a mile and a half a good sweat with almost no time used to do it. Simple exercise outings like that can improve your health exponentially and save you from feeling guilty about sitting in a chair all day and eating that double cheeseburger for lunch (I am not saying that running a mile everyday justifies eating a double cheeseburger for lunch everyday, not even close).
Sometimes it is good to look around at people these days and think about what we can do to help ourselves and society be a little bit better and healthier. One thing everyone can do is exercise a little more. Sacrifice that short car ride and take the fifteen minutes to get a little work in. Hopefully that little bit of exercise will turn into a lot sooner or later, and what do you know, it could add double digit years on to your life. Who knows.

Stong? Or Sexy? Or BOTH?

In class this past Wednesday, we analyzed some women. No, no, it wasn't in any kind of perverted way, we simply looked at VERY fit women and were asked to report what we thought of them. This got me to thinking. Obviously guys like women that are physically fit, but is there a line? Is there a point where the women are too fit or too strong to be attractive? Well, those are two completely different questions and two completely different answers.
When it comes to a women being too fit to be "hott," I say impossible. If there is a female that is just ridiculously in shape, contains a few muscle lines and can probably out run you, I think that is very attractive. It may be just me though since I am attracted to the athletic type, but I think that it is impossible to be overly in shape. There is a difference between being overly in shape and overly strong though.
There are women out there that are beasts. Usually athletes, they can probably out lift a lot of male athletes and have enough muscle mass to satisfy them for lifetimes. Even if these women are still skinny and fit, this does not attract me. When the girl has bulging muscles and is cut like an NFL player, that pushes me away. I just like it when the girl is in shape, not ripped out of her mind.
Why? Why don't I like girls who are extra strong? I am really not sure. Maybe it is because it makes them seem more manly. Maybe it is because they become intimidating. Maybe it makes them too good to be true. I don't know why buff girls don't make me happy. But the fact of the matter is, that they don't. I just like the fit girls and not the strong ones, and I'll have to settle for that.

Women Started Getting Involved

Did you know that during the draft for World War 1, many of the men who were drafted did not proceed to the war because they failed the physical test to become a member of the army. We are talking like millions of American men. That is so sad. American used to be so out of shape that some of us did not even earn the right to begin training for the army because they thought it was a lost cause. Some people failed the conditioning test, some people failed the eye test, some people failed the health test, and there were many more tests available to fail. Bottom line is, America was not very healthy.
World War II comes around and what do you know, the same thing happens. Millions of men get turned away from the army because of their physical condition and capabilities. Also, at this time, women started getting involved. Females started joining the army, and a lot of them were in better shape than some of the males. Not only did they have to get in shape to join the army, but those wives whose husbands had been shipped off to do their country a great service had to be in shape to because they had to now start working to earn their family a living. So not only were they taking care of their usual daily jobs of home maintenance, but they were also working hard to earn money and stay above water while their spouses were gone for an extended period of time. World War II is really when the women started taking a rise in society and this stuck out to me because women hold a large role in the workforce today. I had never thought about when that had really began. I knew that back in the day, women did not do much besides take care of things around the house, and of course I knew that a good amount of wives these days work full time, but I had never thought about when the time was that women really started working hard. Today I came to that realization and for some reason, it hit me like an epiphany.

Muscular Christianity

When looking back on the history of sports in class, one movement/event that stuck out to me was Muscular Christianity. Muscular Christianity is that idea that since the human being consists of three elements, the mind, body, and spirit, exercise is a good way to use all three. Obviously when you exercise you are using the body, but if you playing some sort of active game, or exercising in any way that involves thinking, then you are also using the mind. And, exercise is great outlet for stress, anger, or negative feelings in any way as exercising usually puts people in a good mood following their work out. So all three of the elements of humanity are being used in an uplifting way and that is what Muscular Christianity wants.
Piggy backing off of this idea, all of the YMCA started including gyms into their facilities and this attracted a lot more of the youth population to come spend time at the Y. When looking at the overall picture, this is a huge win win win for the whole party. The young people have an easily accessible option for exercising and improving their health, the YMCA is attracting way more people than it ever has, and Christianity is also attracting more people to their belief system as they are credited with the brilliance of the idea. AND everyone probably seems to be more happy and healthy on top of everything. To me, this is really when team sports and the emphasis on the important of exercise really took off. And even though America is one of the most overweight countries in the world, it has seemed to work to some extent because YMCAs everywhere are constantly hosting athletic leagues, events, and get togethers, helping everyone everywhere be more happy.