Postmodern Aerobics
These days, I'm living life flat-out, literally and figuratively. I say literally since I'm lying face up in a back float right now, and figuratively since I'm in the final stretch of my coursework for a degree in literature. I come to the pool, though, even with exam deadlines looming over my head, or perhaps be-cause of them, since I need to feel all the gravity fall away, experience even for just a moment the feeling of weightlessness.
From my vantage point in the pool, I can see the aerobics class hard at work in the plate-glass exercise room on the balcony above. The other side of that room is lined with mirrors, and many of the members watch themselves step, extend, and jiggle. I can hear the bass line of the retro disco music pounding down through the foundation, overpowering the strain of classical music wavering from the radio on the pool deck. I lay my head back in the water and think about how unhappy they look, their faces wrought in sweat, determination, and desperate amusement.
It occurs to me that they are engaged in a kind of postmodern aerobics. No excesses enter that stripped-down room with them; they bring to it only a sharp perception of their bodies, fragmenting themselves into pecs, abs, and buns of steel. Constantly assessing themselves in terms of the minimal, they self-consciously measure the body fat on their upper arms and thighs with a small device that pinches their flesh between two levers. Even more painful to watch is the process that follows as they evaluate the units with stern faces, consulting each other in an almost robotic fashion. It seems they'll let nothing get in the way of sculpting the exterior, perfecting the outer package. "The stomach needs work," I will hear one of them say later in the locker room; she will not say "my stomach" or "my torso." Each one proceeds to talk about an element of her body as if it were something she has managed to separate from herself. And I've never once heard them mention the soul.
While members of the "Masters" competitive team may possess some or all of these qualities, "Sunset" swimmers do not think this way. We come to the pool in search of our souls, that part of ourselves that loves to be submerged and buoyed and enveloped by water.
With 600,000 people across Australia who have participated in aerobics at one point in time, it can be manifested that aerobics is one of the most marginalized sports within the country (Ausport, 2000). With such a marginalized sport, there are many stereotypes that are associated with just the word aerobics. This is explored through the survey that was conducted and was answered by the students at StAC. Many of the stereotypes that are believed in society are that aerobics is a sport dominated by females and that it more of a dance class. This report will evaluate the possible influences that have shaped students’ perceptions using Figueroa’s Framework and Maslow’s hierarchy. Aerobics is a form of physical exercise that combines rhythmic aerobic exercise with stretching and strength training routines with the goal of improving all elements of fitness (flexibility, muscular strength, and cardio-vascular fitness) (Balbach, 2013). It is usually performed to music and may be practiced in a group setting led by an instructor. It can clearly be seen that with music and a fitness instructor leading the class that many people may have these common stereotypes fulfilled. Figueroa’s framework explains the concepts of equity, access and equality through the 5 levels constructed by Professor Figueroa (Crossley, 2013). Another significant piece of evidence held in this report is Maslow’s hierarchy and is the theory involving the psychology of human development (Macleod, 2007).
At the Gym, written by Mark Doty, dramatizes the conflict within the mind of a bodybuilder and his desire to change who and what he is. The speaker observes the routines of the bodybuilder bench-pressing at a local gym, and attempts to explain the driving force that compels him to change his appearance. The speaker illustrates the physical use of inanimate objects as the tools used for the “desired” transformation: “and hoist nothing that need be lifted” (5,6). However, coupled with “but some burden they’ve chosen this time” (7), the speaker takes the illustration beyond the physical use of the tools of transformation and delves into the bodybuilder’s mental state. The speaker ends by portraying the bodybuilder as an arrogant, muscular being with fragile feelings of insecurity.
"Swimming Drills." Mountain View Masters Swim & Social Club. Mountain View Masters, 2014. Web. 4 Jan. 2014. .
Western attitudes to African people and culture have always affected how their art was appreciated and this has also coloured the response to the art from Benin.
Angeles, Los. (2009). African arts. Volume 28. Published by African Studies Center, University of California.
The right to assisted suicide is a significant topic that concerns people all over the United States. The debates go back and forth about whether a dying patient has the right to die with the assistance of a physician. Some are against it because of religious and moral reasons. Others are for it because of their compassion and respect for the dying. Physicians are also divided on the issue. They differ where they place the line that separates relief from dying--and killing. For many the main concern with assisted suicide lies with the competence of the terminally ill. Many terminally ill patients who are in the final stages of their lives have requested doctors to aid them in exercising active euthanasia. It is sad to realize that these people are in great agony and that to them the only hope of bringing that agony to a halt is through assisted suicide.When people see the word euthanasia, they see the meaning of the word in two different lights. Euthanasia for some carries a negative connotation; it is the same as murder. For others, however, euthanasia is the act of putting someone to death painlessly, or allowing a person suffering from an incurable and painful disease or condition to die by withholding extreme medical measures. But after studying both sides of the issue, a compassionate individual must conclude that competent terminal patients should be given the right to assisted suicide in order to end their suffering, reduce the damaging financial effects of hospital care on their families, and preserve the individual right of people to determine their own fate.
shown unrealistically thin and men with muscles larger than life. The idea that these unrealistic bodies are
The gym is the world of gods and heroes, goddesses larger than life, a place of incantations where our bodies inflate and we shuffle off our out-of-gym bodies like discarded skins and walk about transformed. . . . Here, in this space, we begin to grow, to change. The transformation has begun, and our flawed humanity is falling off fast. We are picking up our shoulders, elevating our chins, shaking ugliness from our shoulders with a series of strokes, the glistening dumbbells, listening to our blood's rush. Our pasty misshapen bodies are developing clean lines. Our day's tribute of trials and heartaches is fading, for here, in this gym space, we become kings and queens. Larger, invincible, gods in ourselves. (Introduction, Bodymakers: A Cultural Anatomy of Women's Body Building)
It is the final hour of observation of the night, and, as the members of the water polo team rush to the opposite end of the pool that I am observing from, I become dazed. Sitting in five excruciatingly long, overwhelming college-level classes, listening to small-minded people rant about some political event or another, and watching my basketball team practice without me is enough to make the aqua blue walls of the pool area inviting. I stare off into the wall, wondering if, just like the water, I can jump right in and disappear.
Automated doors slide open revealing a multitude of fitness machinery and flooding the air with the sound of weights clinking and the synchronized rhythmic stomping of twenty pairs of Nikes hitting the floor simultaneously in the step aerobics class; it’s time to get physical. On any given day, at any time, in gyms all across America the same scene is played out, (Guy). A handful of muscle bound jocks, serious about competitive weight lifting, can be seen spotting each other in the free weights area. Mirrors in the bathrooms, dressing rooms, and on the fitness center floor are consumed by pimped out prima donnas and jewelry adorned divas alike; preoccupied with primping and flexing their way to personal greatness/fitness. Normal, average, everyday people just trying to fit an hour or so workout into their busy schedule; they want to get in, get pumped, and go on with their day - these are the best types of gym dwellers.
“I’ve often wondered what it would be like if we taught young people swimming the same way we teach sexuality. If we told them that swimming was an important adult activity one they will all have to be skilled at when they grow up, but we never talked with them about it. We never showed them the pool . . . but when they asked a question about how swimming felt or what it was about, they would be greeted with blank or embarrassed looks . . . Miraculously, some might learn to tread water, but many would drown” (11).
Without delay, I sunk right back in the water. My doubts began coming back to me, making me realize I might of been over my head on this one, but I persisted. I reached surface again and began swimming towards the rightmost shore. It wasn’t the best journey, as I kept bobbing in and out of the water, but I managed to reach the shore. The moment I got stood back on my own feet I stood back on them as a new man; I enjoyed the danger I just experienced, besides drinking a hefty amount of lake
In our ever-changing society, the one common thread that now every American seems to possess is a desire to have a body that is not hour-glass (1950’s) nor waifish (1990’s), but one that is lean, trim, and can physically go the “extra mile”. I speculate that the all-around athletic look is so popular because it is probably one of the hardest body types to achieve. In earlier times, hour-glass figures were the product of genetics and corsets, and the emaciated Kate Moss look could simply be achieved by starvation. To be physically fit inside and out is something that every person can control and achieve, but only through strong self-discipline. “The $52.9 billion fitness industry is constantly coming out with activities and products designed to get and keep us interested in working out” (Whigham-Desir 84). Two of these types of work-outs, specifically Tae-Bo and Spinning, were created just for the purpose of keeping “us” interested in working out. Despite this revolution in the fitness industry, many false preconceived notions about losing weight persevere and impede the movement.
Kasfir, S. L. (2007) African Art and the Colonial Encounter: Inventing a Global Commodity, Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Swimming is a physical activity that has that has a long part in human history, that has evolved a lot since the past, and is very beneficial to the health of your not only your body but also your mind.