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.
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