essay about going to gym

Essay on Gym

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100 Words Essay on Gym

The importance of gym.

Gyms are places where people go to exercise. They have various machines and weights to help improve strength and fitness. Regular gym workouts can lead to better health and increased energy.

Benefits of Going to the Gym

Going to the gym can help you stay fit and healthy. It can also help to reduce stress and improve sleep. Regular exercise can also boost your mood and improve your mental health.

In conclusion, going to the gym is an excellent way to stay fit and healthy. It can also improve your mood and overall well-being.

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250 Words Essay on Gym

Introduction.

Gyms, short for gymnasiums, are dedicated spaces where individuals engage in physical exercise to maintain or improve their health and fitness. In the modern era, gyms have evolved from simple workout spaces to sophisticated facilities, offering a variety of equipment and services.

The Evolution of Gyms

The concept of a gymnasium dates back to ancient Greece, where it served as a training facility for competitors in public games. Over time, the idea evolved and expanded, with the modern gym emerging in the 20th century. Today’s gyms are equipped with advanced machines for cardiovascular workouts, strength training, and flexibility exercises, reflecting the growing understanding of the human body and the importance of physical fitness.

The Role of Gyms in Society

Gyms play a crucial role in promoting health and wellness in society. They provide an environment conducive to regular exercise, which is essential in combating lifestyle diseases like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Moreover, gyms foster a sense of community, offering a social platform where individuals can connect and motivate each other towards achieving their fitness goals.

The Future of Gyms

The future of gyms looks promising, with technology playing an increasingly significant role. Virtual reality, wearable tech, and AI-powered equipment are set to revolutionize the gym experience, making workouts more personalized, efficient, and enjoyable.

In conclusion, gyms, from their ancient origins to their modern-day sophistication, have continually adapted to meet society’s changing needs. As technology advances, so will the gym experience, further emphasizing the gym’s importance in promoting health, wellness, and community.

500 Words Essay on Gym

The gym, a physical arena that serves as a battleground for individuals seeking to improve their health, fitness, and overall well-being. It’s a place where personal barriers are broken, goals are set and achieved, and the human body is pushed to its limits. The gym is not just a place for physical exercise but is also a platform for mental growth and social interaction.

Moreover, the gym provides a structured environment that fosters discipline and commitment. Consistent gym-goers must manage their time effectively, ensuring they can balance work, social life, and fitness. This discipline often spills over into other areas of life, leading to more organized, productive individuals.

The Social Aspect of Gym

While the gym is often associated with individual pursuits, it also plays a significant role in social interaction. It serves as a melting pot of diverse individuals, all united by a common goal of achieving better health. This shared experience can foster friendships, camaraderie, and a sense of community. The gym provides a platform for social learning, where individuals can learn from each other’s techniques, routines, and experiences.

Overcoming Challenges in Gym

New gym-goers often feel overwhelmed by the array of equipment and the perceived expectations of others. It’s important to remember that everyone starts somewhere, and most gym-goers are more focused on their own workouts than judging others.

Lack of knowledge can be addressed through personal trainers, fitness classes, or even online resources. Physical limitations can be worked around with modified exercises or alternative workouts, emphasizing the importance of listening to one’s body and not pushing beyond safe limits.

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The Advantages of Going to the Gym Every Day

Determined female athlete jogging on treadmill in a gym.

Without a doubt, regular exercise can benefit your health, mind and body. Not only does it boost your energy, increase lean muscle mass, decrease your risk for certain health conditions and help you manage your weight, but it also improves your mood and enables you to live longer. Sounds pretty amazing, right?

Now, all you need to do is figure out how to tap into these life-altering benefits . The good news is you have a lot of options when it comes to exercise. From fitness classes and cardio equipment to strength training and other recreational activities, the benefits of gym time are endless.

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Advantages of Gym Workouts

If you have a gym membership or you're thinking about signing up for one, the most important thing to remember is that you have to use it. The advantages of gym workouts are that they provide several different ways to exercise, so going to the gym every day does not have to become boring and tedious.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recommends that adults get a minimum of 150 minutes a week of moderate-intensity or 75 minutes a week of vigorous-intensity aerobic activity. Plus, you should include two or more days of muscle-strengthening exercises that involve all major muscle groups.

At first, this probably seems like a lot of exercise. However, if you spread those minutes out over the course of a week, you'll soon see just how easy it is to fit it in, especially if you're going to the gym every day.

Types of Gym Workouts

Depending on the size of your fitness facility, you may have everything you need under one roof to get the awesome benefits of gym workouts. This includes:

‌ Cardio equipment ‌. Most gyms are home to a few different pieces of cardio equipment such as stair climbers, rowing machines, spin bikes, recumbent bikes and treadmills. As long as you are healthy and able to participate in most types of exercise, consider alternating between these cardio machines to get your 30-plus minutes of cardio exercise, three to five days a week.
‌ Strength training ‌. Heading to the weight room at least two to three days each week will help keep your muscles strong, your bones healthy and allow you to control your weight. Focus on full-body workouts with exercises for each of the major muscle groups.
‌ Fitness classes. ‌ Access to group fitness classes is one of the advantages of gym workouts. Not only do you get the heart-pumping, muscle-building benefits of the exercises, but you also tap into the motivation and encouragement of working out with other people.
‌ Other recreational activities ‌. Some larger facilities offer additional recreational activities such as swimming, racquetball, basketball, pickleball or an indoor track. Consider swapping out a few of these activities for your regular cardio workouts.

Benefits of Gym Workouts

Going to the gym every day can help improve your cardiovascular system, strengthen your muscles, help you maintain your weight, boost your mental health and decrease the odds that you'll develop other health conditions.

Exercising daily strengthens your heart and allows it to pump more efficiently with less strain. It also keeps your blood pressure and blood sugar levels in the normal range and keeps your cholesterol levels in check. Plus, it may help manage the symptoms of depression and anxiety .

Daily gym workouts may also lower your risk of developing certain conditions such as type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome and osteoporosis.

Be Aware of Overtraining

Getting to the gym on a regular basis can do wonders for your health. However, too much of a good thing can also have negative effects, especially if you're not careful.

If you exercise daily, make sure to pay attention to any signs and symptoms of overtraining, including excess fatigue, a decrease in your performance, problems with sleep and recurring injuries. If you notice these things happening, it might be time to assess your workouts and scale back on the number of days you're going to the gym.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Physical Activity for Everyone
Mayo Clinic: Exercise: 7 Benefits of Regular Physical Activity
MedlinePlus: Benefits of Exercise
American Diabetes Association: Blood Glucose and Exercise
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Physical Activity Prevents Chronic Disease
Mayo Clinic: Depression and Anxiety: Exercise Eases Symptoms
American Council on Exercise: Signs of Overtraining

52 Gym Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best gym topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ most interesting gym topics to write about, 💡 good essay topics on gym.

Benefits and Importance of Going to the Gym When one exercises, the heart becomes stronger so it is efficient in pumping blood to the body so vital organs are kept healthy and in order.
Sports Facility and Gym at Ahmed University The establishments will provide students with an environment conducive to engaging in various sporting activities and maintaining a regular fitness routine The primary purpose of the sports facility at Ahmed University is to enable students […]
The Planet Fitness Gym Website Analysis The most realistic responses from the users can be the requests related to the design change and the instructions regarding the usage of the navigation bar.
Small Business Idea for Fitness Workout Gym The advantages and disadvantages of the four different forms of business organization, which include the following: The business is very easy to form considering that no legal requirements are required, except a business license.
Business Effectiveness: Fitness Gym “Elite Personal Training” The case considers the idea of opening a fitness club by in the city of London, Ontario. The main concept is involving the idea of personally training individually the clients of the gym.
Operations Management in a Luxury Gym To help in the analysis of the business, questions concerning the operations management of the facility were presented to some of the gym’s clients and attendants.
David Barton Gym’s Marketing and Communication However, considering the treatment of the company’s employees, it is possible to observe that the company has a poorly developed employment policy.
Safety of Silver’s Gym The issues that must be addressed in the report include the need for the appropriate safety measures at the gym, including availing of an automated external defibrillator.
Gym Website Design and Monetization Besides, most gym websites never offer a complete view of the gym facilities and, therefore, to attract more people to the website, the gym’s photos and videos should be posted on the website in order […]
Ethics and Professional Standards of Fitness Gym One area where ethics and professional responsibility apply to fitness gym is in the relationship between the trainer and the client in the gym.
Business Proposal for Gym in the Retail Sector
Benefits From Using Home Gym Equipment
Analysis of Gym as a Social Space
Overview of the Ways of Overcoming Gym Anxiety
Comparing Gym Memberships That Are on and off Site
Analysis of the Factors of Gym Boutique Development
Being an Innovative Gym: The Key to Increasing Income
Demographic Profile for Customers Most Likely Use the Gym
The Correlation of Gym and Yoga
Experimental and Non-experimental Evidence on Limited Attention and Present Bias at the Gym
Fire Safety Management Plan For Uni Gym
Gender Differences That Take Place Within a Gym
Which Gym Business Model Is Better to Change Obese Lifestyle of Australia?
Overview and Analysis of the Problems of Gym Stereotypes
Marketing Plan: Wounded Warrior Gym
Reasons Why Gym Business Subscriber Numbers Are Falling
Gym Teaches More Than Just Football College
Habit Formation and Activity Persistence: Evidence From Gym Equipment
Health Club and Gym Membership: Reasons and Benefits
Atmosphere During a Workout in Gym
Overview of Home Gym Full Body Training Routines
Legal Issues and Legal Structure of Starting a New Gym
Male and Female Exercisers and Their Gym Hygiene
Going to the Gym Is an Expensive Waste of Time
Deconstructing the Psychology of Cheating in Ait Gym
Consumer Protection Law in the Large Scale Indian Gym
On-Site Exercise Room vs. Off-Site Gym Membership: A Comparison
Every Kid Should Be Required to Take Gym
Project Management: Creating Gym Center
Review and Analysis of the Gym-Based Exercise Session
Should Gym Classes Affect the Grades’ Grade Point Average?
Overview of Social Structure and Hierarchy at the Gym
Gyming vs. Exercising at Home: Comparative Analysis
Which Gym Business Model Is Better to Change Obese Lifestyle of Australia
A Study of the Culture Surrounding the Gym Community
The Popularity of Nutrition Supplements Among Youth in Gyms
Advantages and Disadvantages of Gym Training
The Reasons Why Girls Should Go to the Gym
Why Every School Should Give Students One Period for Gym Every Day
Solving Issues Regarding Gyms in Saudi Arabia
Balance Training in Recreational Gym Users
Anatomy Ideas
Golf Topics
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Tennis Essay Titles
Basketball Topics
Metabolism Research Topics
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Football Topics
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Importance of Exercise Essay

500 words essay on exercise essay.

Exercise is basically any physical activity that we perform on a repetitive basis for relaxing our body and taking away all the mental stress. It is important to do regular exercise. When you do this on a daily basis, you become fit both physically and mentally. Moreover, not exercising daily can make a person susceptible to different diseases. Thus, just like eating food daily, we must also exercise daily. The importance of exercise essay will throw more light on it.

Importance of Exercise

Exercising is most essential for proper health and fitness. Moreover, it is essential for every sphere of life. Especially today’s youth need to exercise more than ever. It is because the junk food they consume every day can hamper their quality of life.

If you are not healthy, you cannot lead a happy life and won’t be able to contribute to the expansion of society. Thus, one needs to exercise to beat all these problems. But, it is not just about the youth but also about every member of the society.

These days, physical activities take places in colleges more than often. The professionals are called to the campus for organizing physical exercises. Thus, it is a great opportunity for everyone who wishes to do it.

Just like exercise is important for college kids, it is also essential for office workers. The desk job requires the person to sit at the desk for long hours without breaks. This gives rise to a very unhealthy lifestyle.

They get a limited amount of exercise as they just sit all day then come back home and sleep. Therefore, it is essential to exercise to adopt a healthy lifestyle that can also prevent any damaging diseases .

Benefits of Exercise

Exercise has a lot of benefits in today’s world. First of all, it helps in maintaining your weight. Moreover, it also helps you reduce weight if you are overweight. It is because you burn calories when you exercise.

Further, it helps in developing your muscles. Thus, the rate of your body will increases which helps to burn calories. Moreover, it also helps in improving the oxygen level and blood flow of the body.

When you exercise daily, your brain cells will release frequently. This helps in producing cells in the hippocampus. Moreover, it is the part of the brain which helps to learn and control memory.

The concentration level in your body will improve which will ultimately lower the danger of disease like Alzheimer’s. In addition, you can also reduce the strain on your heart through exercise. Finally, it controls the blood sugar levels of your body so it helps to prevent or delay diabetes.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of Importance of Exercise Essay

In order to live life healthily, it is essential to exercise for mental and physical development. Thus, exercise is important for the overall growth of a person. It is essential to maintain a balance between work, rest and activities. So, make sure to exercise daily.

FAQ of Importance of Exercise Essay

Question 1: What is the importance of exercise?

Answer 1: Exercise helps people lose weight and lower the risk of some diseases. When you exercise daily, you lower the risk of developing some diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and more. It also helps to keep your body at a healthy weight.

Question 2: Why is exercising important for students?

Answer 2: Exercising is important for students because it helps students to enhance their cardiorespiratory fitness and build strong bones and muscles. In addition, it also controls weight and reduces the symptoms of anxiety and depression. Further, it can also reduce the risk of health conditions like heart diseases and more.

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Importance of Going To The Gym

Only 30 minutes of exercise for five days a week can be your ticket to a better life. And if you can stretch that a bit more then attaining that perfect figures you always dreamt of can be an easy walk. Visiting the gym on an everyday basis is one of the best ways to take care of yourself. All those sweating and exercising will not only help you build muscle or lose weight, but there are many other physical and mental health benefits of the gym that you had no idea about.

Here’s presenting the few standard and the other not so common reasons why gym can be good for you.

Tuning into a healthy lifestyle: Going to the gym is a healthy start on the path to a better lifestyle. The regular gym will not only provide you with a better physique, but it will also increase your stamina and will eventually make you realize a healthy lifestyle and a routine diet can be a good thing.

Losing those extra inches: Joining a gym needs dedication and hard work, it will not instantly slim you down or make you grow a muscle but the gradual change you feel in your body will make you more energetic and build your stamina. Based on the rule of thumb, burning 500 calories on a per day basis will help you to lose 1 lb. per week which is ideal for a person with moderate weight. In case you are on the bulkier side than losing 2 lbs. per week should be your basic goal.

Steering clear of nonsensical diet fads: If you are looking for quick weight loss, please be aware there is no such thing. Crash diets make you lose weight initially, but it also results in the nutrient deficiency that makes you sick and in the longer run when you fail to keep up with your crash diet you will again start gaining weight. Gym, on the other hand, will tone you down gradually, and regular exercise will keep you in shape.

One thought on “ Importance of Going To The Gym ”

Wow, I had no idea that a gym makes your heart healthy, and it also allows you to socialize with other gym people. My friend noticed that he’s out of shape after staying at home for a year because of this pandemic. Hopefully, he’d consider visiting one of these gyms as a way to get fit!

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One of my college essays, my life in the gym.

I imagine that when most people view a crowded gym full of loud, grunting, sweaty humans, they become somewhat intimidated. And why would they not? Walk into any gym at its peak hours and it will seem as if mass chaos has broken loose. The hulking body-builders. The agile, muscular athletes, and the occasional mom on her way home from work, all striving to improve themselves through discipline and determination, can create quite a spectacle. While this loud, clanking room, filled with an array of different people may not be the picture-perfect definition of peace and tranquility, for me, it has become a second home of sorts.

Five days a week, fifty two weeks a year, I have been lifting since I was in the seventh grade. My interest in weight training began as almost an insecurity issue, but quickly blossemed into something with much more substance. Lifting did not represent some mundane requirement that I had to slave over, but rather a new frontier that I had the oppurtunity to explore. The marvelous gift that was my body held so much potential for greatness. The discovery of what was possible for my own physique and the hope of what was to come kept me bumming rides of my mom to go to the gym almost religously.

Over the years, the gym developed into a place where I went, not to meet others, but to meet a part of myself. The gym became a sort of temple, where any sense of time or outside obligation was negated. I go to the gym, not to fire myself up, but to calm and quite my soul. For me the gym almost represents a holy space that cannot be disrespected or discredited. Everything must be done with perfect form. Any set or rep that is not done with the upmost effort compromises the integrity of the workout. These are all things that I have learned, not in a classroom or a church, but in the countless weight rooms I have lifted in.

The gym is loud, chaotic, and somewhat intimidating. It is stock full of different people, all of whom have a different story and a different background. You never quite know what will happen on any given day in the gym, but there will be one constant, me. I will always be there, not because I feel that I have to be, but because the gym is a place in which I have instilled value and meaning. The gym is place where I learned many of the things that make me who I am today. It has become a second home.

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Many feel that going to gym is the best way to stay fit. Others think there are more effective methods. Discuss both views and give your own opinion

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Sentence 1 - Background statement
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Sentence 3 - Thesis
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Physical well-being
prime option
structured exercise routines
professional equipment
fostering an environment
motivation and discipline
counter-argument
outdoor activities
home workouts
cost-effectiveness
social and emotional satisfaction
team sports
hybrid approach
holistic approach
comprehensive benefits
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Some people think young people are not suitable for important positions in the government，while other people think it is a good idea for young people to take on these positions. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

In the future all cars, buses, and trucks will be driverless. the only people travelling inside these vehicles will be passengers. do you think the advantages of driverless vehicles outweigh the disadvantages, millions of people move to english speaking countries such as australia, britain or america to study at school, college or university. why do so many people want to study in english why is english such an important international language give reasons for your answers, young people learn more about good behaviour from books or films/ movies than they learn from real-life experiences. to what extent do you agree or disagree, some people feel that the government should regulate the level of violence in films on television and at the cinema. others feel that violent films should not be regulated. discuss both views and give your opinion.

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Eur J Psychol
v.11(3); 2015 Aug

Training at the Gym, Training for Life: Creating Better Versions of the Self Through Exercise

Ceren doğan.

a Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck College, University of London, London, United Kingdom

The present study draws on Scott’s (2011) notion of the Re-Inventive Institution and explores how gym members make sense and give meaning to their exercise regime. Overall, it is argued that for many participants gym exercise is more than physical training; it is also training for life. Based on a thematic analysis of 32 semi-structured interviews it is argued that gym workout is a means to create better versions of the self on mainly three levels. First, gym participants perceive themselves to be efficient and productive in general. Second, gym training is believed to increase the control they have over their lives. Third, gym members associate their gym workout with amplified emotional resilience, believing that fitness workout makes them not only fitter in a physical sense but also fitter and better equipped in a psychological sense. Surprisingly, a small group of regular gym users displayed more critical sentiments and distanced themselves from the images and values the gym stands for. The results of this study can be linked to broader political discourses on health and fitness that make use of corporate managerial vocabularies and are based on ideals of rationalization and efficiency.

Introduction

Whether in the basement of a commercial complex, half-hidden between two corner stores, next to the tube station or on a wide green field in the suburbs, gyms have conquered urban space. Every European and North American city, and even small towns, seem to have a fitness gym. Gyms are one of the most pursued leisure places in Western societies and can be said to have established themselves as part of a white, middle-class culture ( Featherstone, 2010 ; Howson, 2013 ; Phillips, 2005 ; Sassatelli, 2010 ; Shilling, 2005 , 2008 , 2012 ; Stebbins, 2009 ). In the UK, for example, almost 13% of the UK population is registered as members of a private health and fitness gym or a publicly-owned fitness facility, with London having the most registered users ( European Health & Fitness Association, 2014 ).

Fitness gyms vary in location, membership fees and serve different social and economic milieus. Most urban gyms are located in the city centre and are at their busiest during lunch time and after work hours. In order to attract customers, most gyms offer more than a plain and functional working out environment but present themselves as lifestyle or family oriented places. Depending on the size and the target group, multi-purpose amenities encourage pre- or post-training activities, for example at their spas and beauty centres or they organize social activities at the weekend ( Stewart, Smith, & Moroney, 2013 ). As Bryman (2004) notes, “hybrid consumption”, that is, consumption of several goods and services within one single place, tends to extend the time spent by the customers there. Consequently, one may think that the more time gym users spend at their gym, the more they engage with its material and social environment, and the more they are affected by the same so that the gym becomes more than just a training site for them.

Literature Review

A substantive body of work on gyms deals with participants’ motivation to go to the gym ( Crossley, 2006 ; Dworkin, 2003 ; Dworkin & Wachs, 2009 ; Laverty & Wright, 2010 ; Stern, 2008 ; Stewart, Smith, & Moroney, 2013 ). It is argued that one of the main motives is the desire to achieve a certain physique that conforms to contemporary aesthetic ideals (e.g. Dworkin, 2003 ). Crossley (2006) asserts, that for some participants the gym is an escape from everyday life where people can ‘turn off consciousness and submerse themselves in exercise’ ( Crossley, 2006 , p. 43). Laverty and Wright (2010) assert that going to the gym may provide individuals with a heightened sense of morality as going to the gym is in itself ‘a demonstration of desire to be a good citizen, to achieve and practice individual health responsibilities’ ( Laverty & Wright, 2010 , p. 79).

Drawing on the premise that femininities and masculinities are historically and culturally produced, the impact of fitness performances upon gendered identities has been addressed by various scholars (e.g., Craig & Liberti, 2007 ; Dworkin 2003 ; Heyes, 2007 ; Johansson, 1996 ; Johnston, 1996 ; McCreary & Saucier, 2009 ; Salvatore & Marecek, 2010 ; Tiggemann & Williamson, 2000 ). Dworkin (2003) writes that for most of its existence the gym has been associated with masculinity. The body building gym especially promoted and celebrated characteristics associated with male-ness, such as strength, power, competition and aggression, so that one could argue that through cultivating a muscular physical exterior, men were able to re-emphasize their superiority and dominance. Whilst this still may be true for bodybuilding gyms, contemporary fitness gyms seem to work in more complex ways. Women’s participation in gyms has widely increased and women entering the weight training area have become more common. Nonetheless empirical studies show that men and women tend to have very different objectives and motives for attending the gym (e.g., Haravon Collins, 2002 ; Salvatore & Marecek, 2010 ). Whilst male gym goers seem to be disproportionally concerned with arm, back and chest strength in contrast to lower body strength female participants are primarily interested in weight loss, and thus engaging more in cardio-vascular exercises.

As Featherstone (2010) puts forward, in contemporary Western societies, the body is understood as a reflection of one’s inner self so that one may argue that body modification technologies and body enhancement regimes can be understood as attempts to construct not only a beautiful, strong and fit appearance but also a beautiful, strong and fit self. One may then ask if people work out at gyms for more than body-related reasons, that is to say, if gyms also function as places in which people seek to alter and “re-invent” themselves in a more general sense.

From Total to Re-Inventive Institutions

With her notion of Re-Inventive Institutions Scott (2011) draws on and expands Goffman’s (1961) concept of Total Institutions. In the following, I shall first outline Goffman’s conceptualization and then present Scott’s elaboration on it.

According to Goffman (1961) , institutions fulfil certain functions in society. They serve either the majority ˗ the general public comprising normal, healthy and well-functioning citizens ˗ or they are designed to contain malfunctioning, deprived, sick or threatening minority groups. Schools, army barracks, work camps, and ships are only a few examples of the first mode of functioning whereas prisons, psychiatric hospitals, orphanages, retirement homes and hospitals are illustrative of the second. These localities are in some cases established to protect the majority from a threatening minority or, in other cases, to support an underprivileged population.

Goffman’s analyses are mainly concerned with the latter category and most notable, in the theorization and empirical study of what he terms Total Institutions. A Total Institution is ‘a place of residence and work where a large number of like-situated individuals, cut off from the wider society for an appreciable period of time, together lead an enclosed, formally administered round of life’ ( Goffman, 1961 , p. 11). Goffman describes different types of Total Institutions in which each of them can be qualified according to their function, degree of totality and mode of entering. By function he refers to the societal rationale of the institution (e.g. to care for the underprivileged, to contain those with an infectious illness, to protect society from dangerous others etc.). By totality Goffman refers to four common principles of institutional life: (1) a daily round ‘in the same place and under the same authority’; (2) activities carried out in the company of similar others; (3) timetabled activities that follow clear rules in the presence of designated officials; (4) scheduled activities that are part of a plan, designed to realise the goals of the institution ( Goffman, 1961 , p. 6). The last category of which Goffman speaks is the mode of entering, or, what may also be called the mode of recruitment. Access to a Total Institution can either be performed involuntarily with the prison being the typical case, or voluntarily. However, even where entering is a voluntary act it can nevertheless be subject to a selection procedure (see for example application procedures to high-ranking universities or monasteries). In any case, a Total Institution ‘can be viewed as a place for generating assumptions about identity’ ( Goffman, 1961 , p. 170).

Scott argues that in late modernity Total Institutions have become rare. The twenty-first century, she argues, is characterized by ‘institutions without walls’ ( Scott, 2011 , p. 3) that participants seek out to re-invent themselves on a voluntary basis. Examples of Re-Inventive institutions range from therapeutic clinics to spiritual retreats, academic hothouses, secret societies and virtual communities. Those institutions are characterized by members’ active engagement, by self-regulation and a desire to undergo deep personal change. In contrast to Total Institutions, they are often permeable, have flattened hierarchies and a cohesive inmate culture. As they are voluntary, and often costly there tends to be lack of overt resistance. High degrees of interaction amongst participants enable mutual surveillance and conformity to institutional norms. Indeed, as Scott argues, members of Re-Inventive Institutions actively look for out for other people’s company because they consider it pivotal to their own success, ‘wherein members gaze at each other and monitor their relative progress towards a shared role. This mutual surveillance implies a network of connections between inmates, who exercise an equally penetrating, ubiquitous gaze’ ( Scott, 2011 , p. 49).

Given that participants of Re-Inventive Institutions actively and willingly reproduce institutional discourses, one may consider the power through which the sense of self is transformed as qualitatively different from the power operating in Total Institutions where changes of the self are somehow motivated from without, and not necessarily from within.

Whereas traditional TI [Total Institution, author’s note] inmates were committed against their will, and new identities imposed upon them, now we find people choosing voluntarily to enter institutions, believing that they need to change, and that it is their responsibility to do so. ( Scott, 2011 , p. 2)

Scott suggests here that people seek out those institutions because they feel a responsibility towards changing and shaping their identities. This moral imperative, she further argues, stems from the fact that we live in what Furedi (2004) calls a therapy culture , a culture that calls for constant introspection and self-engineering in order to obtain happiness and personal satisfaction. Discipline and goal-orientedness is a pivotal element in organisations when the idea of success or progress is being emphasized. Progress can refer here to any category such as the physical, mental or psychological.

Scott’s concept is fruitful because it invites us to think of seemingly neutral, or innocent, practices and places as psychologically meaningful. Indeed, Scott’s own examples of Re-Inventive institutional sites are often everyday spaces on the boundary between work and leisure and may be easily overlooked. They involve ostensibly relaxing, even self-indulgent activities, pursed on one’s spare time and hence are prone to be regarded as irrelevant for people’s sense of self. However, each Re-Inventive Institution:

offers a different way of rethinking and transforming an incomplete self, and discursively produces different subjectivities (…) Individuals are encouraged to regard their fate as lying in their own hands, accept responsibility for their mistakes and free themselves from their shackles of deviant or unhealthy behaviour…Taking control of one’s own correction is viewed not as a punishment but as a privilege, a positive opportunity to boost self-esteem. ( Scott, 2011 , p. 98)

As stated above, members undergo re-inventive regimes not only because they regard it as a positive opportunity to boost self-esteem but also partly because they believe they have a moral responsibility to be healthy or to feel better. In the context of the gym one may then ask what participants hope to gain through the correction of their bodies and the advancement of their fitness levels, and relatedly, in which ways they feel incomplete or insufficient if they fail to do so. In this vein, the present study addresses the questions of how and to what extent the gym functions as an active and reiterative attempt to create better versions of the self. In other words, it asks to what extent gym participants seek to re-invent themselves other than on a physical level.

Methodology

Participants.

The data for this study consisted of 32 semi-structured interviews with active gym members of whom 20 were women and 12 men, all students or working adults, ages 23 to 69. Respondents were recruited through a combination of personal contacts and snowball technique/referrals. The snowball technique itself has its limitations, self-selection being the most significant in the context of this project. The inclusion criteria for interviewees were minimal: 18 years old or over, English speaking, current gym membership and regular gym attendance with at least one gym workout session per week. Gym members who frequented the gym less often than once a week were excluded from this study. Members using the gym for other than exercise, such as the sauna or the Jacuzzi, were also not included to the data set.

This research project followed the recommended ethical guidelines of the Birkbeck School of Social Science, History and Philosophy Ethics Committee . All interviewees were afforded the right to anonymity and confidentiality. Whilst participants’ actual age and occupation are provided throughout the research report, every participant is given a pseudonym so that their responses cannot be matched to their personal details by anyone other than the researcher.

After establishing initial contact, by phone or email, and setting up a date, time, and location, interviews were conducted either in the cafeterias of their gyms or at a public place, at the respondents’ convenience. Each interviewee was provided with a form of consent that explained the rationale of the study, a confirmation of confidentiality and contact information. The interview schedule entailed questions about participants’ initial reasons to join a gym, the impact they considered their gym training had on their everyday lives and what they liked most about going to the gym.

Interviewing Process

Initially an interview schedule was constructed in accordance with the research questions, the literature on gyms and the theoretical concerns of this project. After conducting three pilot interviews, some questions and issues were narrowed or expanded while others were changed substantially or abandoned altogether. Each participant was interviewed once; the shortest interview lasted 24 minutes and the longest 110 minutes. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim. I employed Braun and Clarke’s (2006) steps of theoretical thematic analysis for all transcripts, which means that the analytic procedure was driven by my theoretical and analytic focus. The benefits of thematic analysis is not only that it helps to identify, organise, analyse and report patterns (themes) within a data set but also its theoretical flexibility which means that it can be applied across a range of theories and epistemologies. In the following, I shall present the three key themes that I have identified as a result of this analytic process.

The results of the analysis revealed three key themes related to participants’ expectations and motives for exercising at the gym. Participants believed that exercise at the gym grants: a) more efficiency and productivity, b) a higher sense of control over their lives and c) an increase of psychological well-being. In addition, there was also a group of respondents who displayed (self-) critical sentiments towards the gym.

Increasing Efficiency and Productivity

All participants agreed that the gym visit would positively affect the quality and “flow” of their day. Many talked about how they actually plan their gym visits in order to optimize this perceived effect. According to Rosie i (age 24, post-graduate student), the gym gives her day a point of reference, a place either to depart from or arrive at.

Interviewer: When do you usually go to the gym?

Rosie: I like going [to the gym] in the mornings - I use the gym to structure my day. I get up around seven, then go to the gym for an hour or one hour and fifteen minutes. And then I will have my breakfast and a shower and get some work done between nine-thirty and ten. And I find when I don’t go, I get up later and then things move a lot slower. Like the process of going to the gym speeds up the day. It sets like a precedent to the way you want your day to go. Like if you get up and you have to do something, like going to the gym and you do it very quickly, it’s quite a motivating thing, running or whatever. Maybe it’s because maybe you are physically moving so far and everything is so fast, that sets a precedent and you are like wanting things to get done.

What is striking about Rosie’s account is the richness of details, describing how she follows a clearly structured morning routine split into different units of time. It indicates how carefully she organizes her day, making sure the gym is an integral part of it. The reason why she likes exercising in the morning before work is because it enables her to start and continue her day in a fast, efficient manner. ii If she does not go to the gym, she feels that ‘things move a lot slower’. The gym, so it seems, accelerates other daily routines and sets ‘a precedent to the way you want your day to go’. Rosie reflects upon her own perception and hypothesizes that it might be related to the quick physical movements during the training that make her more driven over the course of the day. For Rosie, the gym regimen is strongly related to her work in-so-far as it creates a sense of efficiency. Indeed, the idea that the gym provides users with a sense of productivity, a sense of achievement that highly impacts the course of their daily lives in positive ways was a reoccurring theme in the interviews. A similar experience is captured in the following two quotations:

Rebecca: There is something kind of sluggish about the pace of your day unless you go. You kind of feel that things need to speed up at some point. Or you just sit around all day and sit on the tube, sit at work, sit at home, sit on the couch (…)

Boris: In life the urge to procrastinate is very strong and the gym helps me, becomes part of my program and for that, makes me more efficient (…) And since I’ve started exercising I am better at writing my thesis actually.

Whilst Rebecca (age 29, administrator) comments rather generally on how the gym responds to her ‘need to speed up’ things, Boris (age 27, full-time PhD student) refers to how the gym exercise increases his personal and professional efficacy. He has established the gym as part of his “program” by which he refers to his work schedule as a PhD student. Boris exercises at the gym not just to control and enhance his physical fitness but primarily to increase his work productivity. Such an approach to the gym was not exceptional in my sample. Many respondents, most notably young professionals, hold a similar view. One of the reasons why participants feel a higher sense of efficacy in their lives may be related to the ways in which gym reinforces ritualized self-discipline, something a large number of respondents referred to.

Being Disciplined and in Control

As my interviews revealed, being disciplined during training is considered to be helping gym participants to be more disciplined outside the gym, as well. Gym practice was often described as something that may require extra effort and time, but it was often regarded as an investment that will ultimately decrease the effort and time that is needed for other things in life. When I asked Alexander (age 28, sales manager) whether he reported that the gym has an effect on his life in a broad sense:

Alexander: I find that you've started going to the gym and it's become part of your routine it gives you more energy to do other things just because you’re used to being active after a while and so all of a sudden say it's like ten at night and I need to go to the shop to get something, all of a sudden, I'm like yah, I'll just go and get it whereas beforehand, I'd be like, forget it I'll do it tomorrow, or another day or another day or another day.

As this quote illustrates, discipline and efficiency in- and outside the gym are thought to reinforce each other. The discipline, and perhaps rigour, gained at the gym is thought to be “contagious”, spilling over to other areas of life, bringing about an ease of handling everyday tasks.

Shawn: Going to the gym even though you're like spending loads of energy makes you a lot more disciplined in general I find. And it makes you just a lot more up for doing things in general. I like going to the gym because it keeps me going a bit more even when I'm not at the gym. And then you're probably a lot happier with yourself when you've been going to the gym a lot really. Whereas when I start going to the gym everything becomes more do-able.

Shawn associates the gym workout with being disciplined, efficient and ‘up for things.’ Crucially, he believes that the gym makes him happier, too, something that will be elaborated upon below.

Alexander: I think there's a hell of a lot of self-control that you achieve from going to the gym. I always think it's almost like you know how in like eating disorders you know it's so much about control which people never talk about in the media for some reason it's always about the self, the image that magazines are giving off and stuff and it's not, it's about control (…) I think it's about a feeling that going to the gym makes you feel. I get really proud of myself when I've been to the gym a lot in the week and done and feel really good about myself. You know it is sort of, a bit of it's not a challenge, well it is a challenge but not you know a sort of type of challenge which you do feel good when you pass your challenge.

Alexander reflects here on what might motivate him and other people to go the gym. He argues that aesthetic reasons are only one side of the coin, however, self-control is just as important. Pride and feelings of accomplishment are actually the ‘real’ reasons why people go to the gym, he believes. Popular discourse fails to see gym regime and eating disorders as closely related, he says, for both are based on self-discipline. Given that gym exercise is typically highly structured containing goals and sub-goals, it is likely for participants to see the gym as a challenge. Indeed, as the interview excerpts throughout this chapter have illustrated, feelings of accomplishment generated in the gym are not restricted to the locale but transcend its boundaries, leaving traces in the everyday life of its users.

One may also argue that discipline is inscribed into the gym’s material practices. What is common in all exercise equipment is a minute and precise utilisation, and management of bodily forces. The numerous calibrations, calorie counts, heart rate measures, repetitions and so on reveal one of the gym’s most significant logics, namely the utilization of optimum forces to effect self-improvement – a process that requires disciplining of bodies and minds and calls for the micro-management of movements, self-evaluating practices and self-rectification. Each machine sets little ‘challenges’ (weights, repetitions, sets, etc.) that users can either master or fail to master. Training at the gym, in other words, encourages a form of discipline that is directed towards the self. Gym members are complicit in the process of the disciplining their bodies; they learn how to work upon themselves according to given calibrations. This form of discipline elicits and fosters participants’ sense of accomplishment and gratification. In other words, because gym exercise is underpinned by a range of disciplinary procedures that primarily target the body and enhance its qualities, it evokes affective response related to self-mastery such as self-contentment, pride and enjoyment.

When I asked Meredith (32, client executive) how often she trains at the gym, she describes how her working-out pattern depends on the workload at her job:

Meredith: I try to go three to four times a week. It helps me to perform better at work (…) I exercise more when I am stressed. I certainly do, because - I certainly exercise more when I am stressed, I can make that correlation. It makes me feel as if I had a bigger sense of control in my life.

It seems that for Meredith exercise at the gym helps her to control her life. Although it takes time and effort to incorporate the gym into her daily schedule, she is convinced that the gym will ultimately help her to accomplish more and perform better in the realm of professional life. My analysis indicates that some participants regard it as a form of what might be called ‘rehearsal’, or training, for life; if one succeeds at this type of training, so the thinking of many participants goes, one will also succeed in other areas of life, become more productive and efficient. Personal qualities demanded by a serious fitness regime such as diligence, devotedness, and discipline, are expected to be echoed in the world outside the gym.

Gaining Emotional Resilience

The majority of the interviewees mentioned a general quest for better health and fitness as their primary motivation to join a gym. However, there was a wide range of other issues participants expect to resolve, or tackle, with their gym regimen that go beyond fitness concerns. Matthew (age 31, part-time PhD student and IT manager), for example, described the gym’s benefits as follows:

Matthew: I sleep better, I eat better, yes, I look better, larger, bigger. I quite like it to be honest; it makes me more confident somehow. But this point is not as important as it was when I was twenty. It’s now more, I can feel that my testosterone level has increased constantly. And this makes me more confident, too. I’m more like ready to combat daily stress and I’m ready for situations where I need more power and stability. So the increased testosterone level is an important point for me in terms of the gym.

Being more confident, prepared, better equipped and resilient to external threats is regarded by him as a major gain of the gym. As he says, looking better, larger and bigger gives him the confidence and the ability to combat stress. Further, being ready for situations that require power and stability are, according to Matthew, achieved through the strong gym-shaped physique, and the increased level of testosterone. The firm, muscular body – so the thinking goes – not only projects but also causes psychological strength. The emphasis on the male sex hormone testosterone can be read at least as implying, if not openly stating, the supposed effects of exercise for the male sexual drive and potency. Matthew seems to imply that what one overcomes with exercise is ‘weakness’ and what one gains is power, stability and confidence, which can be translated into sexual energy and confidence, or, ‘manliness’. Indeed, the link between sexual potency and muscularity is continually being made in the world of fitness. One of the main strategies is to do so, is through the visual display of the muscly body. Shaved, smooth and tanned, the male body carries the aura of physical potency and yet goes further than that, implying sexual strength. Referring to the bodies of muscular public figures, Miles observes that “each [body] becomes a public phallus, huge, rock-hard, gleaming and veined with blood” ( Miles, 1991 , p. 111). In other words, the body’s ‘material’ qualities such as its contours, surfaces and textures become the locus of potency display. At the same time, it is implied that once one has all those physical qualities, one is also in possession of sexual power.

A further implication of the gym that was mentioned by interviewees is an expected increase in psychological well-being. Diane joined the gym to get fitter but also, as she explicitly states in the interview, to overcome a difficult time in her life.

Diane: Psychologically you feel better (…) I lost three of my closest relatives within four years. It was a difficult time - - And it’s good to do some exercise, to go out. It helps. Your brain – I don’t know much about it. The articles that I have read, it’s good for your body. Endorphins, isn’t it? (…).

At the time of the interview Diane (age 64, free-lance translator) has been a gym member for nine months. It was after the losses of some close family members that she decided to sign up. Following the advice in magazines, she hoped the gym would have therapeutic effects, helping her in this vulnerable life situation. Olivia (age 33, administrator) employed the gym also as a therapeutic strategy:

Olivia: Back then I had some serious problems with my job - and my relationship <laughing> Basically my contract had ended and with the recession and all that I had a really really tough time finding new employment. I don’t know how many applications I’ve sent out (…) I got seriously depressed. My GP wanted to prescribe some medication but I didn’t want that (…) That was when I gave the gym a thought, just to do something for myself and keep on going.

Instead of taking the antidepressants her General Practitioner advises her to take, Olivia decides to work out at a gym, hoping that the exercise will help her to “keep on going”. Given the recent break up with her boyfriend and the loss of her job she uses the gym as a ways to ‘pull herself together’. Both Diane and Olivia remain vague in their descriptions about how the gym workout exactly might have helped them to overcome a difficult time in their lives. Shawn (35, technical assistant) and Jessica (43, art historian) emphasize the gym’s positive effects on their psyche, too:

Shawn: It [the gym] blows off steam. You have a way of blowing off steam; you have a way of escaping. But not having that escape, I think allows frustration and depression and everything builds into you, it's not good.

Jessica: If I am not exercising at all, I am usually more stressed out and in worst moods. My stomach is more sensitive and upset to the foods I eat. I am like getting super bloated because all the stress goes to my stomach. … Physically I feel good because I take out my stress out in a workout; it doesn’t manifest itself in my stomach.

Stress, depression, bad moods and frustration are expected to be combatted by the gym regime. It is almost as if these negative states run the risk of manifesting themselves into the body (e.g. ‘the stress goes to my stomach’). Exercise, so the thinking goes, is purgative; it releases stress and frustration by relocating it to the exteriors of the body and soul.

Critical Voices

Although most respondents emphasized the positive effects of the gym, a small number of interviewees expressed more ambivalent and self-critical sentiments. Interestingly, many of these critical voices came from respondents who are members of up-market fitness clubs but nonetheless wish to distance themselves from what their gym stands for.

Meredith: It’s mostly society saying that in order to fit in, or put your life together you need to have a gym membership just as you have a house, the best car, the spouse, the best children. If you are part of the really nice gym, like the one here, that has a spa and things like that. The more I talk about the gym the more I realize how much I hate it <laughing>

However, some interviewees commented critically on how their gyms seek to establish a link between the gym membership and a distinctive sense of identity - and how they had personally refused to take it up. Shawn, for example, is a member of an up-market club and describes the place as follows:

Shawn: The club is very sleek and cool. Some of the exercise rooms are decorated with purple lights, like a night club. The place promotes this kind of yuppie lifestyle. You have got the job, the apartment, you have the cool gym, you have this and that. But it’s all bullshit really. Most of these people don’t have cool jobs and all that.

Kate: The one I go to, it’s mostly young, professional crowd. I would prefer a gym that is not about how it looks, having the latest machinery and all, like aesthetically looking very cool, urban and hip but just like people that are just there to work out and aren’t focussed on images.

Alex: I think some people go to maintain image and appearance and this gym specifically promotes this nouveau, sophisticated very hip and cool and – I mean you walk into the gym and everything is white, it’s not functional at all.

The quotes above prompt us to think that gyms can function as re-inventive spaces in a sense that they that invoke the sense in people that they have bettered themselves and moved ‘up’ as well as ‘out’ of their own social class and thus obtained a more desirable social standing ( Watt, 2007 ). By signing up to up-market gyms people may feel more urban, hip and, perhaps, as if they were wealthier and more sophisticated than they actually are. It might be worthwhile in future studies to explore why people continue go to the gym even though they ‘look through’ these strategies, that is to say, even though they experience a dissonance between what they do and what they think.

A few respondents also mentioned discomfort in relation to the ways in which trainers treat gym members.

Jennifer: Fitness trainers seem to want to arrive at where they are and the conversation seems to be ‘you must do this’, ‘you must push yourself’. I can push myself hard enough and I am not in this big competition in life. And this feeling I have always had with them was ‘work harder’, ‘work faster’, ‘push more’. I just want to get to this level. It might not be hugely ambitious but I’m ok with that. And I didn’t like the fact that they were always like. ‘C’mon I can do this, I can do this.’ And you are like, ‘ok but I’m not you’.

Kate: This whole motivational thing goes onto my nerves sometimes. ‘Run faster’, ‘Keep it up’, ‘Smile’. Really?!

Due to the limited scope of this study, the tensions between trainers and trainees could not be elaborated upon in more detail. However, the accounts above suggest that some participants may not follow the ambitions of their trainers, or the ethos of their gym. They may not want to “re-invent” themselves in the ways their trainers want them to, for example. To what extent people resist their trainers’ views or reject the idea of self-optimization that their gyms perpetuate must remain a topic for future research.

According to the results of this study, the gym can be said to be a Re-Inventive Institution first and foremost because of its, what might be called, “spill-over effects”. All respondents agreed that gym exercise has positive effects on other areas in life. Members expect the gym to optimize their work performance, their psychological well-being and ultimately their selves. As Scott (2011) writes, institutions that are concerned with physical appearance, beauty, fashion and ‘healthiness’ promote ideas and discourse that consume an actor’s consciousness throughout the day. Hence, one may argue that the impetus on self-discipline, self-optimization and on “becoming” becomes omnipresent for members’ also outside the gym.

Ritzer (1983) writes that a society characterized by rationality is one which values efficiency, predictability, calculability and control over uncertainty and puts a great deal of emphasis on finding the best or optimum means to any given end. This resonates with the results presented above. As interviewees state, fitness training at the gym can be considered a means by which transformation of and control over one’s life is achieved. One of the reasons why this may the case is that exercise in gyms itself requires disciple, self-surveillance and ambition. Indeed gym membership usually starts with the diagnostic procedure of a health check where weight, height, body fat, blood pressure, body mass index, etc., are measured and compared to what has been established as a scientific norm so that goals for further training can be identified and changes noticed. This may facilitate an experience of having control over one’s body and the power to alter. The gym, in this sense, can be said to be a path to perfection.

In his historical analysis of fitness gyms, Chaline (2015) writes that the gym has always been more than a place to train physicality. Ancient gymnasiums, as the author notes, were places for social interaction, recreation and leisure, but they were first and foremost educational institutions where the intellectual and athletic training of a military character was supposed to be accomplished. The Greek gymnasium, for example, was a popular recreational space for the members of the aristocratic class as it provided them with an opportunity to perform and enhance “one’s own outstanding persona and family” ( Kah & Scholz, 2004 , p. 14, translation of the author). The interconnectedness between physical training and personal development or self-optimization seems still to persist.

My results resonate with a particular stream in the literature on gyms that puts the idea of self-improvement, self-regulation and self-assessment at the center (e.g., Gill, Henwood, & McLean, 2005 ; Markula, 2003 ; Markula & Pringle, 2006 ). It has been noted that neoliberal understandings of health as a private matter increased people’s willingness to engage in ‘care of the self’ practices which lead to an increase of what may be referred to as the ‘body industry’ ( Straughan, 2010 ). It is argued that the health and fitness industry is at pains to show how ‘imperfect’ bodies can be sculpted and corrected by the right diet, exercise and cosmetic products. Advertisements suggest that individuals are personally responsible for monitoring and controlling their bodies so that a slim and fit-looking physique does not only signify attractiveness but also self-control and ambition (e.g. Becker, 1993 ). In this context, it is also argued that the logics of paid labour have infiltrated leisure time in general and the relationship to one’s body in particular (e.g., Miller & Rose, 2008 ; Smith-Maguire, 2008a, 2008b). Baudrillard (1998) is one of the best-known advocators of this approach, arguing that the way in which individuals’ relations to their bodies is organized in a society mirrors the ways in which social relations and the relation to things are organized. He argues that private property and the accumulation of capital as the key tenets of capitalism are applied to the physical sphere, too: individuals understand their bodies as “things” that can be invested in, worked-upon and optimized. Fitness, according to this line of thought, is far from being playful or disengaged but a strategy to enhance the body’s qualities and value on the social and economic market, where it is surveyed and consumed by the gaze of the other ( Frew & McGillivray, 2005 ; Sassatelli, 2010 ; Turner, 1999 ). The gaze of the other can be said to be crucial for people as it is linked to self-esteem. People strive towards other’s approval and recognition to enhance and regulate their self-worth ( Brown, 2014 ). If one of the gym users’ motives and hopes is to create better, stronger and more resilient versions of their selves, as it is argued in this study, one may assume that there is a relative perceived lack thereof. The gym might then work as a place in which people work upon themselves to generate others’ recognition through self-enhancement, and therefore to increase their self-esteem. One may further speculate whether the correlation between physical exercise and self-esteem, that is repeatedly demonstrated in empirical studies, is indeed related to the fact that one gains social approval though physical fitness (e.g. Bowman, Cole, Dodsworth, Fenzi, & Burns, 2014 ; Joseph, Royse, Benitez, & Pekmezi, 2014 ).

One can argue that the logics of the free-market exceed the economic sphere and are internalized by individuals who go to the gym in a two-fold way: First, individuals allocate their time to the gym, that is to say, they choose to train there partly because they hope to produce a state of being that harmonizes with desirably attributes of the free market such as efficiency, productivity and emotional resilience. Second, the very ways in which gym participants engage with their bodies can be characterized in analogy to the working principles of the market. The division of the gym into separate areas as well as the different machines that address a limited number of muscles and not others, for example, strongly remind of the division of labour. To give another example, most machines “translate” bodily effort and time into calories and other numbers. This invites a way of thinking about the body as something that can be quantified, invested in and produced.

One may speculate what other forms of relating to the body and the self may be invented in future, not just in terms of fitness but perhaps also in terms of mental capabilities or even interpersonal relationships. The “quantified self” movement is perhaps the beginning of such a trend ( Till, 2014 ). The use of digital self-tracking devices here takes the quantification of the body to its extreme: little detectors track what one eats, how one sleeps, how often one exercises, which friends one meets, how often one calls one’s parents, what books one reads and which emotions and physical reactions during these activities occur. These activities are then transformed into digital data, which are uploaded to servers that allow users to analyse their progress and share their information with other users ( Till, 2014 ). As Lupton (2013) argues, the quantified self movement might be said to be an expression of neoliberal entrepreneurialism, celebrating self-maximisation and promoting self-critique through the presentation of “objective” measures of performance. To produce data about one’s self, to know one’s self better and eventually to improve seems to be one of the core tenets of contemporary society.

This study has shown that the reasons for why people join the gym as an ‘institution without walls’ are manifold. To invoke Scott (2011) , when people join institutions to alter themselves, it is often that they feel a personal desire and responsibility to create an optimized self. What participants expect to achieve at the gym is a better version of their selves in several ways. Firstly, many of the interviewed gym participants hope, and indeed perceive themselves to be more productive and efficient. Second, they feel they have more control over their lives when they train at the gym regularly. Third, they associate their gym workout with increased psychological resilience. It can therefore be said that these people engage in regular gym training to create a better, fitter and stronger version of themselves, that enables them to “keep on going”, to master their everyday lives, to cope psychologically with their stresses and strains.

Important to note, the sample of this study was limited for it consisted of students and working adults only, that is to say, of people who either sell or prepare to sell their labour force at the market. It would be interesting to explore how people out of employment such as retirees and other non-workers make sense of their gym exercise. Tulle and Dorrer’s (2012) study, for example, reveals that gym participants over 65 years old tend to come to the gym not only for physical training but also to form social bonds that exceed the boundaries of the fitness locale. In general, people who have been referred to the gym as a result of a medical condition might experience the gym differently than participants who come there for leisure, perhaps more as a compulsory “homework”. In an interesting case study, Nash (2012) shows that pregnant women do not only use the gym to get fitter for birth but also, quite paradoxically, to manage anxieties about weight gain. The author shows how pregnant gym users, more than non-pregnant women, compare the size and shape of their bellies to those of other pregnant women in aerobics classes. As she writes, the fact that body related anxieties manifest themselves in the embodied experience of group exercise challenges research suggesting that prenatal exercise has largely positive effects on mood and body image. For some of her informants, Nash maintains, pregnancy fitness means a third shift of work on top of their continuing commitment at home and in paid employment.

For the recruited participants exercise in a gym was obviously an important enough part of their lives for they volunteered and were interested to talk about fitness in general and their own fitness practices and histories in particular. It would be worthwhile to look at the motives of gym members for whom the gym is not that important or who train only occasionally as this may yield different results. Relatedly, it might be interesting to interview people who have strong feelings towards the gym because of their negative experiences there.

In future studies, it would be fruitful to explore to what extent gym-related practices resonate with broader discourses on health and fitness in a given society. It has been noted that in the last three decades or so, corporate managerial vocabularies have infiltrated governmental understandings and handlings of health with ideals of rationalization and efficiency, customer satisfaction, producer/consumer relations and performance targets ( Numerato, Salvatore, & Fattore, 2012 ; Tonkens, Bröer, van Sambeek, & van Hassel, 2013 ). With the progressive abolishment of the social welfare state in many European countries, health is increasingly treated as a private responsibility and as something that one can purchase it might be worth discussing the gym as a social practice ˗ as an element of the commercialization of health services. Gyms can be said to speak directly to such neoliberal agendas, which try to increase the number of active and self-reliant citizens and to decrease the number of those who are dependent on the state and others. When gyms motivate their members to take responsibility for their own physical strength, they frame health as a feature of the self that individuals can and should responsibly manage. Taking on responsibility for one’s health has a normative and moral impetus, too, for lack of health ‘clashes too uncomfortably with the image of the “good citizen” as someone who actively participates in social and economic life, makes rational choices and is independent, self-reliant and responsible’ ( Galvin, 2002 , p. 107). Comparing and contrasting the results of this study with contemporary discourses and policies on health would help us to widen our understanding of not only participants’ motives to do gym exercise but also of the societal functions of gyms.

Acknowledgments

The author has no support to report.

Ceren Doğan is a clinical psychologist and a doctoral student at Birkbeck College, University of London. She is about to complete her training in psychoanalytic psychotherapy. Her research interests include the social, cultural and ideological construction of femininities and masculinities, the (female) body, and the intersection between space and subjectivities.

i To ensure confidentiality, all interviews were anonymized.

ii At the time of the interview Rosie was working on her application to get into a very competitive postgraduate programme at an Ivy League University.

The author has no funding to report.

The author has declared that no competing interests exist.

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Home — Essay Samples — Life — Gym — The Reasons Why Girls Should Go To The Gym

The Reasons Why Girls Should Go to The Gym

Categories: Girl Gym Training

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Published: Mar 18, 2021

Words: 691 | Pages: 2 | 4 min read

Works Cited

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5 reasons i love the gym, the benefits of the gym are too good to pass up..

Going to the gym is a mix of emotions, but overall the reigning emotion is confidence. The gym makes you feel good while helping your body. I love the gym and the following reasons are why I love it.

1. Makes you feel better about yourself.

After a good gym workout, I feel so much better about myself physically and mentally. When I leave the gym, a sense of happiness and overall well-being washes over me. Plus, the confidence afterwards is so rewarding. Nothing feels better than leaving the gym feeling like a million bucks or in my case a Victoria Secret model. While mentally, I feel better, my body is thanking me. My muscles are screaming with sores and aches, but they are thanking you for being put to use instead of binge watching Netflix. I love the jello legs after leg day or how my arms are tired from arm day. I love how I feel stronger even though the gains will not show for a couple of weeks, but hey feeling like I can karate chop a brick wall is pretty nice. Also, after a rough or stressful day, going to the gym makes me feel 100% better.

2. It pushes you.

Compared to working out at home, the gym pushes you. At home, you do not have the competiveness of trying to out do another person at the gym. You want to be better than the person next to you, and you want to impress everyone there at the gym. This pushes you in your workout at the gym. Also, the atmosphere of the gym pushes you. Once stepping in the gym, I feel more dedicated to doing my workout and pushing my limitations, whereas at home I would not be that dedicated since the atmosphere is different.

3. It relieves your stress.

After a stressful day, the gym takes away all the stress. The endorphins make feel happier and stress-free. Whenever I feel anxious and stressed to the max, I retreat to the gym. The gym is my safe haven during stressful times. It clears my mind and gets thoughts flowing. It is the perfect stress reliever. I know the week of presentations for GBP, I got to the gym if I could. It honestly made me feel so much better.

4. Stay in shape.

The gym is the perfect place to stay in shape. Whether you are looking to lose weight, tone up, look/feel good, etc. then the gym is place to be. To me, the gym is the best place to stay in shape. The gym here at Susquehanna basically has everything. I can do cardio upstairs, then go downstairs and lift weights, and I can also do other exercises on the mat. Plus, I can go down to the track and utilize it or play a pick-up game at the basketball courts. The gym is the best place to keep someone in shape.

5. Confidence booster.

Nothing compares to the confidence someone feels after a killer workout at the gym. When I go to the gym, I leave with full confidence in myself. It makes me feel like I could part the Red Sea. I feel good about my body and myself. I would not give up that feeling for anything else.

The gym is such a feel good that I would never pass it up.

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25 beatles lyrics: your go-to guide for every situation, the best lines from the fab four.

For as long as I can remember, I have been listening to The Beatles. Every year, my mom would appropriately blast “Birthday” on anyone’s birthday. I knew all of the words to “Back In The U.S.S.R” by the time I was 5 (Even though I had no idea what or where the U.S.S.R was). I grew up with John, Paul, George, and Ringo instead Justin, JC, Joey, Chris and Lance (I had to google N*SYNC to remember their names). The highlight of my short life was Paul McCartney in concert twice. I’m not someone to “fangirl” but those days I fangirled hard. The music of The Beatles has gotten me through everything. Their songs have brought me more joy, peace, and comfort. I can listen to them in any situation and find what I need. Here are the best lyrics from The Beatles for every and any occasion.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make

The End- Abbey Road, 1969

The sun is up, the sky is blue, it's beautiful and so are you

Dear Prudence- The White Album, 1968

Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

Because- Abbey Road, 1969

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

All You Need Is Love, 1967

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

We Can Work It Out- Rubber Soul, 1965

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Come Together- Abbey Road, 1969

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

I Wanna Hold Your Hand- Meet The Beatles!, 1964

It was twenty years ago today, Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play. They've been going in and out of style, but they're guaranteed to raise a smile

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band-1967

Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Strawberry Fields Forever- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Rain- Paperback Writer "B" side, 1966

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

Here Comes The Sun- Abbey Road, 1969

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

Saw Her Standing There- Please Please Me, 1963

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

Michelle- Rubber Soul, 1965

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

Revolution- The Beatles, 1968

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Eleanor Rigby- Revolver, 1966

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

With A Little Help From My Friends- Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band, 1967

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better

Hey Jude, 1968

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away. Now it looks as though they're here to stay. Oh, I believe in yesterday

Yesterday- Help!, 1965

And when the brokenhearted people, living in the world agree, there will be an answer, let it be.

Let It Be- Let It Be, 1970

And anytime you feel the pain, Hey Jude, refrain. Don't carry the world upon your shoulders

I'll give you all i got to give if you say you'll love me too. i may not have a lot to give but what i got i'll give to you. i don't care too much for money. money can't buy me love.

Can't Buy Me Love- A Hard Day's Night, 1964

All you need is love, love is all you need

All You Need Is Love- Magical Mystery Tour, 1967

Whisper words of wisdom, let it be

Blackbird singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly. all your life, you were only waiting for this moment to arise.

Blackbird- The White Album, 1968

Though I know I'll never lose affection, for people and things that went before. I know I'll often stop and think about them. In my life, I love you more

In My Life- Rubber Soul, 1965

While these are my 25 favorites, there are quite literally 1000s that could have been included. The Beatles' body of work is massive and there is something for everyone. If you have been living under a rock and haven't discovered the Fab Four, you have to get musically educated. Stream them on Spotify, find them on iTunes or even buy a CD or record (Yes, those still exist!). I would suggest starting with 1, which is a collection of most of their #1 songs, or the 1968 White Album. Give them chance and you'll never look back.

14 Invisible Activities: Unleash Your Inner Ghost!

Obviously the best superpower..

The best superpower ever? Being invisible of course. Imagine just being able to go from seen to unseen on a dime. Who wouldn't want to have the opportunity to be invisible? Superman and Batman have nothing on being invisible with their superhero abilities. Here are some things that you could do while being invisible, because being invisible can benefit your social life too.

1. "Haunt" your friends.

Follow them into their house and cause a ruckus.

2. Sneak into movie theaters.

Going to the cinema alone is good for your mental health , says science

Considering that the monthly cost of subscribing to a media-streaming service like Netflix is oft...

Free movies...what else to I have to say?

3. Sneak into the pantry and grab a snack without judgment.

Late night snacks all you want? Duh.

4. Reenact "Hollow Man" and play Kevin Bacon.

America's favorite son? And feel what it's like to be in a MTV Movie Award nominated film? Sign me up.

5. Wear a mask and pretend to be a floating head.

Just another way to spook your friends in case you wanted to.

6. Hold objects so they'll "float."

"Oh no! A floating jar of peanut butter."

7. Win every game of hide-and-seek.

Just stand out in the open and you'll win.

8. Eat some food as people will watch it disappear.

Even everyday activities can be funny.

9. Go around pantsing your friends.

Even pranks can be done; not everything can be good.

10. Not have perfect attendance.

You'll say here, but they won't see you...

11. Avoid anyone you don't want to see.

Whether it's an ex or someone you hate, just use your invisibility to slip out of the situation.

12. Avoid responsibilities.

Chores? Invisible. People asking about social life? Invisible. Family being rude? Boom, invisible.

13. Be an expert on ding-dong-ditch.

Never get caught and have the adrenaline rush? I'm down.

14. Brag about being invisible.

Be the envy of the town.

But don't, I repeat, don't go in a locker room. Don't be a pervert with your power. No one likes a Peeping Tom.

Good luck, folks.

19 Lessons I'll Never Forget from Growing Up In a Small Town

There have been many lessons learned..

Small towns certainly have their pros and cons. Many people who grow up in small towns find themselves counting the days until they get to escape their roots and plant new ones in bigger, "better" places. And that's fine. I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought those same thoughts before too. We all have, but they say it's important to remember where you came from. When I think about where I come from, I can't help having an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for my roots. Being from a small town has taught me so many important lessons that I will carry with me for the rest of my life.

1. The importance of traditions.

Sometimes traditions seem like a silly thing, but the fact of it is that it's part of who you are. You grew up this way and, more than likely, so did your parents. It is something that is part of your family history and that is more important than anything.

2. How to be thankful for family and friends.

No matter how many times they get on your nerves or make you mad, they are the ones who will always be there and you should never take that for granted.

3. How to give back.

When tragedy strikes in a small town, everyone feels obligated to help out because, whether directly or indirectly, it affects you too. It is easy in a bigger city to be able to disconnect from certain problems. But in a small town those problems affect everyone.

4. What the word "community" really means.

Along the same lines as #3, everyone is always ready and willing to lend a helping hand when you need one in a small town and to me that is the true meaning of community. It's working together to build a better atmosphere, being there to raise each other up, build each other up, and pick each other up when someone is in need. A small town community is full of endless support whether it be after a tragedy or at a hometown sports game. Everyone shows up to show their support.

5. That it isn't about the destination, but the journey.

People say this to others all the time, but it takes on a whole new meaning in a small town. It is true that life is about the journey, but when you're from a small town, you know it's about the journey because the journey probably takes longer than you spend at the destination. Everything is so far away that it is totally normal to spend a couple hours in the car on your way to some form of entertainment. And most of the time, you're gonna have as many, if not more, memories and laughs on the journey than at the destination.

6. The consequences of making bad choices.

Word travels fast in a small town, so don't think you're gonna get away with anything. In fact, your parents probably know what you did before you even have a chance to get home and tell them. And forget about being scared of what your teacher, principle, or other authority figure is going to do, you're more afraid of what your parents are gonna do when you get home.

7. To trust people, until you have a reason not to.

Everyone deserves a chance. Most people don't have ill-intentions and you can't live your life guarding against every one else just because a few people in your life have betrayed your trust.

8. To be welcoming and accepting of everyone.

While small towns are not always extremely diverse, they do contain people with a lot of different stories, struggle, and backgrounds. In a small town, it is pretty hard to exclude anyone because of who they are or what they come from because there aren't many people to choose from. A small town teaches you that just because someone isn't the same as you, doesn't mean you can't be great friends.

9. How to be my own, individual person.

In a small town, you learn that it's okay to be who you are and do your own thing. You learn that confidence isn't how beautiful you are or how much money you have, it's who you are on the inside.

10. How to work for what I want.

Nothing comes easy in life. They always say "gardens don't grow overnight" and if you're from a small town you know this both figuratively and literally. You certainly know gardens don't grow overnight because you've worked in a garden or two. But you also know that to get to the place you want to be in life it takes work and effort. It doesn't just happen because you want it to.

11. How to be great at giving directions.

If you're from a small town, you know that you will probably only meet a handful of people in your life who ACTUALLY know where your town is. And forget about the people who accidentally enter into your town because of google maps. You've gotten really good at giving them directions right back to the interstate.

12. How to be humble .

My small town has definitely taught me how to be humble. It isn't always about you, and anyone who grows up in a small town knows that. Everyone gets their moment in the spotlight, and since there's so few of us, we're probably best friends with everyone so we are as excited when they get their moment of fame as we are when we get ours.

13. To be well-rounded.

Going to a small town high school definitely made me well-rounded. There isn't enough kids in the school to fill up all the clubs and sports teams individually so be ready to be a part of them all.

14. How to be great at conflict resolution.

In a small town, good luck holding a grudge. In a bigger city you can just avoid a person you don't like or who you've had problems with. But not in a small town. You better resolve the issue fast because you're bound to see them at least 5 times a week.

15. The beauty of getting outside and exploring.

One of my favorite things about growing up in a rural area was being able to go outside and go exploring and not have to worry about being in danger. There is nothing more exciting then finding a new place somewhere in town or in the woods and just spending time there enjoying the natural beauty around you.

16. To be prepared for anything.

You never know what may happen. If you get a flat tire, you better know how to change it yourself because you never know if you will be able to get ahold of someone else to come fix it. Mechanics might be too busy , or more than likely you won't even have enough cell service to call one.

17. That you don't always have to do it alone.

It's okay to ask for help. One thing I realized when I moved away from my town for college, was how much my town has taught me that I could ask for help is I needed it. I got into a couple situations outside of my town where I couldn't find anyone to help me and found myself thinking, if I was in my town there would be tons of people ready to help me. And even though I couldn't find anyone to help, you better believe I wasn't afraid to ask.

18. How to be creative.

When you're at least an hour away from normal forms of entertainment such as movie theaters and malls, you learn to get real creative in entertaining yourself. Whether it be a night looking at the stars in the bed of a pickup truck or having a movie marathon in a blanket fort at home, you know how to make your own good time.

19. To brush off gossip.

It's all about knowing the person you are and not letting others influence your opinion of yourself. In small towns, there is plenty of gossip. But as long as you know who you really are, it will always blow over.

Grateful Beyond Words: A Letter to My Inspiration

I have never been so thankful to know you..

I can't say "thank you" enough to express how grateful I am for you coming into my life. You have made such a huge impact on my life. I would not be the person I am today without you and I know that you will keep inspiring me to become an even better version of myself.

You have taught me that you don't always have to strong. You are allowed to break down as long as you pick yourself back up and keep moving forward. When life had you at your worst moments, you allowed your friends to be there for you and to help you. You let them in and they helped pick you up. Even in your darkest hour you showed so much strength. I know that you don't believe in yourself as much as you should but you are unbelievably strong and capable of anything you set your mind to.

Your passion to make a difference in the world is unbelievable. You put your heart and soul into your endeavors and surpass any personal goal you could have set. Watching you do what you love and watching you make a difference in the lives of others is an incredible experience. The way your face lights up when you finally realize what you have accomplished is breathtaking and I hope that one day I can have just as much passion you have.

SEE MORE: A Letter To My Best Friend On Her Birthday

The love you have for your family is outstanding. Watching you interact with loved ones just makes me smile . You are so comfortable and you are yourself. I see the way you smile when you are around family and I wish I could see you smile like this everyday. You love with all your heart and this quality is something I wished I possessed.

You inspire me to be the best version of myself. I look up to you. I feel that more people should strive to have the strength and passion that you exemplify in everyday life.You may be stubborn at points but when you really need help you let others in, which shows strength in itself. I have never been more proud to know someone and to call someone my role model. You have taught me so many things and I want to thank you. Thank you for inspiring me in life. Thank you for making me want to be a better person.

Waitlisted for a College Class? Here's What to Do!

Dealing with the inevitable realities of college life..

Course registration at college can be a big hassle and is almost never talked about. Classes you want to take fill up before you get a chance to register. You might change your mind about a class you want to take and must struggle to find another class to fit in the same time period. You also have to make sure no classes clash by time. Like I said, it's a big hassle.

This semester, I was waitlisted for two classes. Most people in this situation, especially first years, freak out because they don't know what to do. Here is what you should do when this happens.

Don't freak out

This is a rule you should continue to follow no matter what you do in life, but is especially helpful in this situation.

Email the professor

Around this time, professors are getting flooded with requests from students wanting to get into full classes. This doesn't mean you shouldn't burden them with your email; it means they are expecting interested students to email them. Send a short, concise message telling them that you are interested in the class and ask if there would be any chance for you to get in.

Attend the first class

Often, the advice professors will give you when they reply to your email is to attend the first class. The first class isn't the most important class in terms of what will be taught. However, attending the first class means you are serious about taking the course and aren't going to give up on it.

Keep attending class

Every student is in the same position as you are. They registered for more classes than they want to take and are "shopping." For the first couple of weeks, you can drop or add classes as you please, which means that classes that were once full will have spaces. If you keep attending class and keep up with assignments, odds are that you will have priority. Professors give preference to people who need the class for a major and then from higher to lower class year (senior to freshman).

Have a backup plan

For two weeks, or until I find out whether I get into my waitlisted class, I will be attending more than the usual number of classes. This is so that if I don't get into my waitlisted class, I won't have a credit shortage and I won't have to fall back in my backup class. Chances are that enough people will drop the class, especially if it is very difficult like computer science, and you will have a chance. In popular classes like art and psychology, odds are you probably won't get in, so prepare for that.

Remember that everything works out at the end

Life is full of surprises. So what if you didn't get into the class you wanted? Your life obviously has something else in store for you. It's your job to make sure you make the best out of what you have.

Top Creators

1. Brittany Morgan, National Writer's Society 2. Radhi, SUNY Stony Brook 3. Kristen Haddox , Penn State University 4. Jennifer Kustanovich , SUNY Stony Brook 5. Clare Regelbrugge , University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Gym Essay Examples

Gym as a way of life.

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The Pros and Cons of Gym

Every individual in this world wants to stay fit. There’s no single human on this earth who would not want to have a Tonned body and an appealing personality. Staying fit also contributes in how you hold yourself in front of other human beings. For...

Analysis of People’s Motivation to Sign Up for Gym Membership

In my opinion, the most suitable trait that explains one’s motivation to sign up for gym membership is the influence of self-consciousness. It is a trait that explains people who are concerned with the way they appear to others are less likely to complain directly...

This is 16. This is Growing Up

16 is growing up. 16 is finally being able to drive but still being mad at myself for not taking the driver’s test when I was 15 and a half because I was lazy. If I did take it, I would have been able to...

A Research Paper on Body Builders Subculture in Contemporary South Korea

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Rethinking Your Relationship with Food & Gym

Out of all the fitness myths, one of the most destructive is that you need to live at the gym to sculpt a strong, healthy body. That’s because it has a polarizing effect: Some women reject working out altogether, either because they’re too daunted to...

Tips on How to Start Going to the Gym

All forms of exercise – be it cycling, jogging, swimming or dancing, have a positive impact on your overall wellbeing. Intense physical activity improves your immune system, fights depression and anxiety, and is also known for reducing the risk of chronic illnesses and heart complications....

Motivation is an Important Criterion to Sign Up for Gym Membership

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Many feel that going to gym is the best way to stay fit. Others think there are more effective methods. Discuss both views and give your own opinion

Fully explain your ideas

Some people think young people are not suitable for important positions in the government，while other people think it is a good idea for young people to take on these positions. Discuss both views and give your own opinion.

Training at the Gym, Training for Life: Creating Better Versions of the Self Through Exercise

Introduction

Literature Review

From Total to Re-Inventive Institutions

Methodology

Interviewing Process

Increasing Efficiency and Productivity

Being Disciplined and in Control

Gaining Emotional Resilience

Critical Voices

Acknowledgments

The Reasons Why Girls Should Go to The Gym

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1. Makes you feel better about yourself.

2. It pushes you.

3. It relieves your stress.

4. Stay in shape.

5. Confidence booster.

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Love is old, love is new, love is all, love is you

There's nowhere you can be that isn't where you're meant to be

Life is very short, and there's no time for fussing and fighting, my friend

He say, "I know you, you know me", One thing I can tell you is you got to be free

Oh please, say to me, You'll let me be your man. And please say to me, You'll let me hold your hand

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Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see

Can you hear me? When it rains and shine, it's just a state of mind

Little darling, it's been long cold lonely winter. Little darling, it feels like years since it' s been here. Here comes the sun, Here comes the sun, and I say it's alright

We danced through the night and we held each other tight, and before too long I fell in love with her. Now, I'll never dance with another when I saw her standing there

I love you, I love you, I love you, that's all I want to say

You say you want a revolution. Well you know, we all want to change the world

All the lonely people, where do they all come from. All the lonely people, where do they all belong

Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends

Hey Jude, don't make it bad. Take a sad song and make it better