There is a gym in every community now. I was curious on how many where in my community. So I did some research to see how many gyms were in a 10 mile radius of where I lived.
Twenty-One gyms in a 10 mile radius from my home. Wow!
Why are there so many fitness facilities?
I can't speak for all fitness facilities. I can only hope that they have a clear vision in how they will play their part in guiding their clientele to a healthier lifestyle.
The gyms that are around my community all have different reasons for why they preach certain principles. Some are CrossFit Boxes, yoga studios, corporate ran facilities, old school mom and pop gyms, and community facilities like YMCA's.
I have my own personal opinion on why gyms exist and I think more gyms would be successful in helping the public improve their lifestyles if they adopted this train of thought too.
All facilities are open for one simple purpose when you break it down to the core. To practice and improve movement.
Yes, we live different lives than we did from our ancestors. We don't move as much. There were no gyms back in the day when we walked more, and had more labor intensive jobs. There was no need for them because people were lifting heavy objects, squatting down, and put things up over our heads numerous times in a day. They also stood for most of the day.
In today's age we have to practice movement more. We are missing it in our professional lives. Which is not a bad thing. But time needs to be set aside to make the gym a priority so we can improve our ability to move. I believe that many of us take movement for granted. We wait until something hurts, or put up with pain until a healthcare professional shines a light on it.
How many times do you squat down to pick something up off the ground vs how many hours you are sedentary?
We sit down to put our socks on. We prop our feet up to put our shoes on. We get the closest parking spots we can find and we opt to take an elevator over stairs.
Gyms exist so we can work on our movement patterns and improve our bodies so our quality of life stays high. These places that are filled with equipment are open so we can correct movement patterns, improve our strength, and increase our performance. When you feel the ache in your lower back, or the pain in your feet from long walks; it happens because of weak muscular systems and faulty movement patterns. How else are we supposed to manage the way we were designed to move? Most jobs certainly aren't conducive to helping you age gracefully. Something has to give.