A gymnasium, also known as a gym, is a covered location for athletics. The word is derived from the ancient Greek gymnasium. They are commonly found in athletic and fitness centers, and as activity and learning spaces in educational institutions.
"Gym" is also slang for "fitness center", which is often an area for indoor recreation. A gym may be open air as well. In a cleaner environment open air gyms are better as it rejuvenates our body and mind.’
History
The first recorded gymnasiums date back to over 3000 years ago in ancient Persia, where they were known as zurkhaneh, areas that encouraged physical fitness. The larger Roman Baths often had attached fitness facilities, the baths themselves sometimes being decorated with mosaics of local champions of sport. Gyms in Germany were an outgrowth of the Turnplatz, an outdoor space for gymnastics, which was promoted by German educator Friedrich Jahn and the Turners, a nineteenth-century political and gymnastic movement. The first indoor gymnasium in Germany was probably the one built in Hesse in 1852 by Adolph Spiess.
Exercise trends
Worldwide there has been a large shift towards less physically demanding work and a more sedentary lifestyle. This has been accompanied by increasing use of mechanized transportation, a greater prevalence of labour saving technology in the home, and less active recreational pursuits. At least 31% of the world's population does not get sufficient physical exercise. This is true in almost all developed and developing countries, and among children. Some experts refer to sitting as "the new smoking" because of its negative effects on overall health.
These exercise trends are contributing to the rising rates of chronic diseases including: obesity, heart disease, stroke and high cholesterol. Active transport (walking, bicycling, etc.) has been found to be inversely related to obesity in Europe, North America, and Australia. Thus exercise has been associated with a decrease in mortality
Bodybuilding (Power-lifting)
Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's musculature for aesthetic purposes. An individual who engages in this activity is referred to as a bodybuilder. In competitive bodybuilding, bodybuilders appear in line-ups and perform specified poses (and later individual posing routines) for a panel of judges who rank the competitors based on criteria such as symmetry, muscularity, size, conditioning, posing, and stage presentation. Bodybuilders prepare for competitions through the elimination of nonessential body fat, enhanced at the last stage by a combination of extracellular dehydration and carbohydrate loading, to achieve maximum muscular definition and vascularity, as well as tanning to accentuate the contrast of the skin under the spotlights.
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