How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.
[quote]unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.[/quote]
My wife and I just moved but we were living in Santa Barbara. I have never been in an area where so many people are fit, and in all different ways. Some are big time hikers, cyclists, lifters, runners, etc. The town is all about being outdoors and hitting the beach. aaahhhh…i will miss it
Here in Baltimore, your fitness endeavor of choice seems to depend on your social class. For the more well-to-do and higher educated folk, there’s lots of cyclists, runners, and hikers. The team sport of choice is lacrosse (check where most of top ten US lacrosse colleges are).
For the more blue collar folk, they seem to stick to the gym. The girls for the most part do the hamster wheels and machines, while guys bench and curl, and use the machines. I know some do MMA stuff, or at least they buy the t-shirts.
[quote]unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.[/quote]
I am in Oklahoma as well, and you are right, people are just now becoming concerned about their health. There are A LOT of overweight okies (too many country fried steaks and mashed potatoes and gravy lol) that don’t care about their health. I saw something on the news one time that 60 percent of okies are overweight, and that a large percentage of those people are not doing anything about it.
I don’t think people are really concerned about their health. The working out and exercise concept is totally new to them, and there have been a lot of gyms pop up in the past few years. I have been a member of 4 gyms here, and everyone seems to be a social hangout. People are just there to talk and socialize and not work out. It’s just a status thing, going to the gym, just to say you go, and not working out.
Oklahoma needs to get it in gear for the sake of our people.
[quote]tmoney1 wrote:
unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.
I am in Oklahoma as well, and you are right, people are just now becoming concerned about their health. There are A LOT of overweight okies (too many country fried steaks and mashed potatoes and gravy lol) that don’t care about their health. I saw something on the news one time that 60 percent of okies are overweight, and that a large percentage of those people are not doing anything about it.
I don’t think people are really concerned about their health. The working out and exercise concept is totally new to them, and there have been a lot of gyms pop up in the past few years. I have been a member of 4 gyms here, and everyone seems to be a social hangout. People are just there to talk and socialize and not work out. It’s just a status thing, going to the gym, just to say you go, and not working out.
Oklahoma needs to get it in gear for the sake of our people.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s what I was talking about tmoney. I think it’s terrible how they just don’t care. I’ve also seen in the gym what you were talking about socializing. Then they’re shocked when you say, “if your not going to use that could you let me in there?”
I live in Minnesota and am currently a senior at Winona State University. Aside from the athletes on the sports teams (our football and basketball teams are actually pretty good), there are only a handful of gym goers - mostly bouncers who bench and curl a lot and crazy women who spend hours on the elliptical machines trying to get “toned.”
Quarter squatting and bounce-benching are the norm in my gym. Aside from my lifting parter, who is a beginner that I finally convinced to come with me one day, I don’t really know anyone else who lifts, or is even concerned with proper diet and exercise.
By the way, my school was ranked #18 in Men’s Fitness’ “20 Fattest Universities” article. Thank god I have T-Nation!
Go WSU Warriors!
[quote]vbm537 wrote:
unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.
My wife and I just moved but we were living in Santa Barbara. I have never been in an area where so many people are fit, and in all different ways. Some are big time hikers, cyclists, lifters, runners, etc. The town is all about being outdoors and hitting the beach. aaahhhh…i will miss it[/quote]
I’m from San Luis Obispo which is not too far from SB. It’s pretty much the same as SB in terms of the way people view fitness. ALways hot chicks in the gym and on the beaches.
[quote]unforgiven2 wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.
I am in Oklahoma as well, and you are right, people are just now becoming concerned about their health. There are A LOT of overweight okies (too many country fried steaks and mashed potatoes and gravy lol) that don’t care about their health. I saw something on the news one time that 60 percent of okies are overweight, and that a large percentage of those people are not doing anything about it.
I don’t think people are really concerned about their health. The working out and exercise concept is totally new to them, and there have been a lot of gyms pop up in the past few years. I have been a member of 4 gyms here, and everyone seems to be a social hangout. People are just there to talk and socialize and not work out. It’s just a status thing, going to the gym, just to say you go, and not working out.
Oklahoma needs to get it in gear for the sake of our people.
Yeah, that’s what I was talking about tmoney. I think it’s terrible how they just don’t care. I’ve also seen in the gym what you were talking about socializing. Then they’re shocked when you say, “if your not going to use that could you let me in there?”
[/quote]
Yeah I agree, the people get mad for you having to use the equipment, while they are talking about their kids and what they did on the weekend and everything else non gym related.
I am really concerned about the well-being of our fellow sooners, we gotta get in shape.
Where do you work out at?
How is fitness viewed in my neck of the woods? The small group of illegaly acquired islands, by the US, in the middle of the Pacific that I love? rofl
It’s a mixed bag of variety. Let’s keep it simple starting with the…
Majority or General View-
Cardio is fitness accompanied by yoga, pilates, lengthening and toning muscles. Fats are felt to be bad. So are the carbs, but generally everyone still eats like crap to support fitness. Static stretching following some cardio on the machine prevails.
Long runs are a staple in most of the high school and college athletic teams. High rep weight work and machines are heavily promoted. The core is seen as the most important and usually the only thing worked on in the gym. The circus ball is then the best way to work it. Females are afraid of lifting heavy or as heavy as 20% of their bodyweight because they’ll look like a dude.
In summary, while Hawai’i is full of active people and activities to do…it does feel as if it’s image or aesthetics that influence function/performance. Rather than the other way around or the possibility of the two being separate.
We are home to the Honolulu Marathon, the Honolulu Triathalon (olympic qualifying race), and the Ironman Triathalon. People are placed on pedestals for doing a long distance race of any sort. Strength sports are a different story. It is difficult to shake fitness myths off of many here.
There are a decent number of people who would agree or are interested in what I read here on T-Nation and it’s contributors. Otherwise, cardio is king.
There are two local (within 35 miles) gyms in the deserted stretch of the midwest in which I’ve lived for most of this past year. One is of the dirty / run down / no frills sort and the other is a shiny new women-only center.
The latter has 4x as many members as the former though at least half of the members of the former are women as well. That puts the ratio of women working out to men working out locally at around 10:1 which is interesting in and of itself.
There are a half-dozen or so guys who obviously know what they’re doing and have spent some time lifting. Of those one is a pretty big guy and one or two of the others may get that way some day if they choose to do so.
Around 5% (+/- a point or two) of the local population are members of one of the gyms so it’s relatively safe to say that exercise isn’t a big component of daily life here.
[quote]mazevedo wrote:
vbm537 wrote:
unforgiven2 wrote:
How is fitness viewed in your area? I know there are other people from Oklahoma on the board, but I believe it’s around more populated areas. In the area I’m from people are just becoming health conscious. Other then at the first of the year the gym struggles to stay in business.
Me and my buddies bounce fron the county complex to the school gyms I’m associated with. It really makes you appreciate people who actually care about their health and physique.
My wife and I just moved but we were living in Santa Barbara. I have never been in an area where so many people are fit, and in all different ways. Some are big time hikers, cyclists, lifters, runners, etc. The town is all about being outdoors and hitting the beach. aaahhhh…i will miss it
I’m from San Luis Obispo which is not too far from SB. It’s pretty much the same as SB in terms of the way people view fitness. ALways hot chicks in the gym and on the beaches.[/quote]
I went to Cal Poly in SLO so I know what you are talking about. Summer time there is awesome.
I live in in what could be called primarily a college town, so there are alot of fitness minded individuals here, and for a prety small town (30,000) there are quite a few gyms and fitness facilities outside what the University offers. Now whether all these people will continue with their fitness pursuits once they leave college, who knows…
I went to school in OK, and all my friends and people I hung out with were athletes, so we all worked out. Other than the athletes though, there weren’t many people that did much at all. It wasn’t ever very hard to get on the equipment at the rec center, but I usually just lifted in the athletes weight room.
Now that I graduated I’m living in rural kansas and there are very few people that actually lift weights. There are some people that go run, but I can count on one hand the guys that are consistantly in the weight room.
I live in the north east of England (Newcastle), and in a recent survey it came out among the top in the country for the amount of people exercising. 24ish% exercised moderately 3 times a week, with the top activity being walking. And people wonder why everyone is fat.
Funny thing is that it does actually seem fitter than other places, at home (further south)I could go out running all winter in the biggest and most popular park in the city and not see a single person.
I can’t speak for Pittsburgh as a whole, but everybody that I hang out with lifts. Not exactly a fair sample given that it is one of my main interests.
There are also a good number of gyms throughout the entire area. One road that travels from the city center out through the south hills has a fitness center, personal training studio, or chirpractic/fittness/machine shop every mile or so.
Thanks to a thread last weekend, I noticed that there is a lifting/training facility about a hundred yards from the shop that I work out of.
Between gyms and equipment suppliers, I guess you could say that it is pretty high on the list of priorities localy.
There are some fat people around, but not too many.