As the year begins, many people are motivated to improve their well-being and promote change in their life. Beginning to go to the gym or aiming to be consistent with working out are common goals people strive for when looking to develop a healthier lifestyle. Although being consistent with the gym may be difficult, the mental and physical rewards gained from it make it worthwhile.
As well as feeling and looking fit, working out decreases mortality rates. According to the National Library of Medicine, the world’s largest biomedical library, physical activity helps keep the body free of disease including cancer and other cardiovascular problems. On top of this, mortality rates of people who work out are decreased by 30% to 35% as compared to people who are inactive.
Although working out has specific benefits like a decrease in mortality rates, which applies to everyone, people can also have more personal motivations for attending the gym. This could be working out to release mental stress or the popular goal of reaching a preferred physique.
Sophomore Fernanda Banuelos has been a member of Gold’s Gym for about two years and has worked out consistently for around seven months. She views the gym as a way to release stress from her personal problems, and as a result she feels more self-assured.
“I always go to the gym whenever I am stressed. I feel like it also helps me get more relieved, and I feel like physically I look at my body way more comfortably and I could eat more comfortably,” said Banuelos.
Similar to Banuelos, Gold’s Gym member Efren Pascasio has been going to the gym for three years. Although Maintaining a balance between work and his family is difficult, he prioritizes his health and believes the gym has given him confidence by making him feel fit despite being 42 years old.
“You got to invest in yourself, I’m 42 there’s lots of guys my age that can’t even run a mile, and it sucks. I want to see my kids and grandkids, I want to play with them too. Your health is everything, it’s most important,” said Pascasio.
Along with promoting good health, the gym creates physical strength and can boost confidence. Weight training, which is physical training involving lifting weights, helps build muscle and aid in other aspects, such as playing sports. Student athletes may want to get “bulkier” to improve their performance in their sport.
Football player and senior Isaiah Ruiz, who attends Gold’s Gym, finds that going to the gym has helped him build confidence and increased his physical strength.
“When I wasn’t working out, I was less confident in myself, just doing anything whether it was playing sports, I wasn’t strong enough. So when I started working out, I got strong enough and it just made me more confident in myself,” said Ruiz.
Similarly, Associated Student Body (ASB) student and junior Hannah Truong’s experience with the gym has helped her become more disciplined, which helped her while working out and with her other life aspirations.
Truong has been a member of Planet Fitness for two years and manages to work out while being involved in ASB and completing school work. Her gym routine starts with cardio then weight training, where she favors working out her legs.
“It really changed the type of person I was because at first I wasn’t as disciplined, but when I realized what it does for me, it’s just me against me. I kind of realized my dreams aren’t listening to my excuses, so it just pushed me to be the best person I could be,” said Truong.
The gym is not limited to benefiting one area such as physical attributes, but it includes physiological help and gives the opportunity to apply the discipline necessary for work or school life. It’s a place that requires time and effort invested, but brings rewarding results.
