Making Sense of Muscle

In Molly George's article she interviews soccer players from a division D1 university. She asks them questions about their muscles and body and how they feel about their images and being more muscular than the average woman. The players talk about having trouble wearing shorts, because they are hard to find sizes that fit, but also because they are self conscious about their legs in any other shorts than athletic ones. In my own opinion the girls should embrace being fit. There should not need to be a "trade off" for women athletes juggling the dilemma "Do I play sports and lift hard to get better, and sacrifice my body by turning it very muscular?" I do not think this should be an issue. If you are fortunate enough to have the skill of playing not only sports in general, but specifically D1 sports, I feel you should embrace the way your body is able to perform. Some people admire that talent and will therefore admire that body type. The athletes have accomplished something that several women cannot accomplish so maybe they should think more towards that aspect rather than thinking of the aesthetic side. Soccer players are very healthy athletes because of the cardio workouts they get in addition to the muscle building. These athletes should appreciate that! One athlete mentions that her boyfriend's friends ridicule her for having big muscles and tease her by saying she could probably beat up her boyfriend. Comments like these are what make female athletes feel self conscious. There are several males out there who like that body type, and they should surround themselves with ones who do and who boost their confidence. Everyone feels self-conscious about their bodies now and then.. However these elite women athletes  in exceptional shape who do very healthy work-outs and acquire muscle should not at all feel as if they look manly, or unattractive, they should embrace the talent they have been given.

Obesity Epidemic

As Baker Harrell mentioned in his guest lecture during class we live in a bubble here at UT when it comes to realizing the percentages of the obese across the country. I read in an article on Yahoo.com that college graduates are 14% less likely to be obese than high school grads. The article also mentions adults ages 25-34 with a college degree are nearly twice as likely to exercise regularly than those without a college degree. This explains a little why here on such an elite campus we are not quite exposed to such a serious problem the rest of the world faces. However, you do not have to go too far off of campus to witness overweight and obese people. Just yesterday when I was eating at Mr. Gatti's I noticed two families each with a child under the age of 9 who was apparently 30-40 pounds or more, overweight, eating at the "All-you-can-eat Buffet." It was a little upsetting, considering there are much healthier choices for overweight children than eating at the all you can eat, carbo-filled, Mr.Gatti's buffet. Both of these families were Hispanic, which is the ethnicity that Harrell claims has the highest percentage of obese and overweight youth. Baker Harrell seems to think the obesity problem is detrimental to the progress of our society and country and I completely agree. People who are overweight and obese have a greater number of health problems, and if these people are uneducated, and unable to get insured, they are using and borrowing tremendous amounts of money to fix a problem that can most times in the first place be avoided. We must demand a change claims Harrell. Several families do nothing about this, such as the families I saw at Mr. Gatti's. However it is a complicated problem to solve when considering today's families are working longer hours and are unable to cook meals every night and are often times resorting to sugary, extremely unhealthy fast foods. Along with the change of schedules, budgets also lead families to resort to fast food. At McDonald's a salad is around $5 or $6 whereas a burger and fries can each be ordered off of the dollar menu.
Harrell brings up a depressing fact in his article that this generation of youth is the first in 100 years to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. Today's society contributes greatly to that statistic. Children play video games and play with technology much more as opposed to running around and playing outside until dinner time like their parents and grandparents did. Crime level's rising since "the good ole days" could also be to blame for the lack of children playing outdoor activities. I strongly feel technologies such as elevators, and other machines that have turned previous manual tasks into tasks that can be done with a simple push of the button are also small things that add up to not getting the exercise and movement our previous generations did. Harrell also mentions that other environmental changes such as schools offering more sodas, lower participation rates in Physical Education classes, and also a lower percentage of schools offering recess contribute to the rise in overweight children. Not only the school environment, but the home environment, as I had mentioned earlier, is partly to blame for the obesity problem. A significant increase in the "single parent home" is a statistic which in turn leads to producing overweight children. These children are much more likely to be obese than children who grow up in a two parent home. Mainly because of the amount of meals eaten away from the home, and the busy schedules of a single parent leading to not as much education and precaution to their children about their health. Lastly Harrell mentions the "Built Environment" which are the neighborhoods, roads, buildings, food sources, and recreational facilities in which people live, work, are educated, eat and play. He says in these built environments there have been changes such as, children no longer walking or biking to school. He also mentions that in these built environments there are less supermarkets, and more fast food options in minority and low-income neighborhoods. As I said earlier, Harrell says this health problem could be detrimental to the progress of our country, and that "as a society we must all commit to end the cancer of obesity if we are to save generations of young people from a life that will be less active, less socially satisfying, and significantly shorter."

Kinesiology in Historical Perspective

This lecture along with the "Modern Marvels; The Quest for Health" Video we watched in lab on Sept. 29, were one of my favorite days so far! Dr. Dio Lewis was one of the first men we talked about. Basically, he can be considered as creating one of the earliest forms of our Kinesiology programs today. He started the first school for the training of physical education instructors in 1861. Dr. Dio Lewis swore by the method of exercising because when his wife got tuberculosis, instead of laying around in bed, he had her exercising and doing work around the house and yard. She was cured of her tuberculosis. Although Dio's intentions were good and he really did have some intelligent ideas; such as pointing out that exercise truly did make you healthier, his title of Dr. Dio Lewis, was actually a fraudulent one. He never actually received his M.D., making his practice of medicine illegal. Fraud or not, he was extremely intelligent, and came up with one of my personal favorite beliefs that exercise truly does do the body very well. It was very interesting to hear of the invention of basketball and volleyball in the 1890's. Dr. James Naismith and William G. Morgan, both faculty of Springfield College, came up with the two sports. Springfield College has huge origins in the kinesiology department and became the most important PE school in the US. If you wanted to get involved with Physical Education, that is where you went!
The "Quest for Health" video also had some very neat history. Through that video we learned yoga was invented in India. Also, that the Ancient Greeks had the earliest connection between health and exercise. They used the earliest form of dumbells. John Harvey Kellogg was, as you can tell by the name, the first man to invent cereal. He worked at an elaborate fitness center, nicknamed "The San." It was very fancy, had 1400 guests and 1800 staff and was today's equivalent of an elite fitness gym. Kellogg wrote an entire book on the importance of breakfast. He wanted to invent something to take the place of fattening bacon, sausage, and biscuit breakfasts, so he came up with Kellogg's Shredded Crumbles, (Cornflakes).
Switching back to the lecture, and mentioning a few people whose names we may recognize, is when this really starts to hit home and get interesting. L Theo Bellmont (whom Bellmont Hall is named after!!) was hired by UT in 1913 as our first director of Athletics. He was in charge of the Department of Men's Physical Training and Intercollegiate sports for men. At this time there were no intercollegiate sports for women. Anna Hiss was not the first woman to oversee women's physical training, however, she is the first to make a huge impact. She served from 1921-1956. Gregory Gym and Anna Hiss gym were gender specific places, men to Gregory, and women to Anna Hiss. Around the 1970's physical activity classes were no longer required for all UT students. As old school of a view as this may be, it would not hurt to still require PE classes for every student at UT. Maybe not as strict as not allowing students to graduate, but they should at least be a requirement for each student to take one or two credits of PE for the health aspect.
Learning some of the country's earliest sports programs, and then venturing into UT's kinesiology history, and how it has evolved throughout the past and will most likely continue to change over time was neat and very important to learn.