ETHNOGRAPHY

ETHNOGRAPHY

 Ethnography of LA fitness
Introduction
LA fitness is an established cultural scene. This is reference to the term cultural scene referring to any place or location where individuals get together to perform specified actions. A cultural scene is a collateral consequence of a sub – culture.
A sub – culture on the other hand typically refers to a group of people who have their own varied set of beliefs independent of their larger cultural groups. Fitness in the United States today has become a major concern for many individuals. This is because of the prevalence of chronic illnesses that are perpetuated by unhealthy living. More people are increasingly becoming aware of the benefits of exercise and fitness in relation to their health and these individuals therefore engage in a cultural practice of attending fitness centers to exercise.
Fitness centers are now becoming increasingly diversified as a larger population continues to join the healthy program and top fitness centers offer a variety of equipment that facilitate work outs in all different areas of the body. Different age groups are collectively attending the fitness centers not only for the health benefits but also as part of their lifestyle; essentially as part of their sub – culture. The fitness centers have therefore been identified as cultural scenes as individuals attending fitness centers have the common primary purpose of exercising their bodies. Fitness has become a ritual as it has also been identified that discipline and continued exercise are the key to maintain excellent body health at all times within the course of an individual’s life. It is not surprising to find an old man performing the same workout exercises as a young man in the same fitness center.
Guided questions
In order to fully grasp the concept of exercise and fitness and how it relates to the establishment of fitness centers, they are a few basic questions that might offer insight into the prevalence of the sub – culture in today’s world in relation to previous eras. These questions are inclusive of but not limited to:
Why do people visit the fitness centers?
This question tends to find out the main reasons or the major incentives that drive people into the fitness center. It targets the primary purpose of individuals within this sub – culture.
How often do individuals visit the fitness centers?
The time frames under which individuals visit the fitness center is crucial to understanding the priority given to the fitness center over other priorities of an individual.
What are the advantages of participating in a fitness center?
This question seeks to explore the benefits that are associated with attending fitness centers regardless of the primary purpose for attending the fitness center in the first place.
What are the challenges associated with attending fitness centers?
As there are certainly challenges in every walk of life, finding out the challenges associated with attending fitness centers will give us a better understanding of the cultural scene.
How do individuals work through these challenges?
Further, the navigation of the challenges associated with the cultural scenes are a key part in understanding the magnitude in the belief in fitness centers.
What is the relation between members in a fitness center?
Finally, cultural scenes incorporate myriad of individuals who have the same goals thereby creating an interaction among those people. Understanding the relations between different fitness members could also help establish the role of fitness centers as cultural scenes.
Methodology
In order to obtain information regarding the guideline questions, there was a variety of data collection techniques used to validate the information regarding the survey of the cultural scene. These data collection techniques are inclusive of participant observations, interviews and informant data as well as data from statistics and previous reports on fitness centers. First off, observation of the participants was the most reliable data source as the different practices and cultures in the fitness centers were directly observed as the participants were engaging in their routines. This information offered data regarding the relation between fitness members as well as a few of the challenges encountered by the selected practice group.
Interviews and informant data also proved to quite reliable in identifying non – observable ideals such as the reasons why the members engaged in fitness activities, the advantages of attending the fitness centers as well how individuals handle the challenges faced while at the fitness center. Most of the interviewed individuals were the participants while the informants were the trainers and instructors, who had intricate knowledge on the dynamics of the fitness center. Finally, data collected from the participant observations, interviews and informant data were compared to already existing reports and statistics on the prevalence of fitness and fitness centers in the modern age. The existing reports and statistics were used to validate the information from the other data sources so as to have a credible basis for the establishment of the role of fitness centers as a cultural scene in the twenty first century.
Background information
LA fitness in Philadelphia is one of the many branches that the LA fitness club represents. LA fitness was founded in 1984 as a basic fitness center offering basic fitness services in Southern California. However, as more people continued to become increasingly interested in work outs and exercises in the ninety’s, LA fitness expanded its business exponentially through creating branding landmarks that distinguished the fitness center from other fitness centers. LA fitness expanded by building a multipurpose fitness and sports club that incorporated such things as swimming pools in addition to their free weight and group exercise rooms. The fitness center also included strength and cardio enhancing equipment’s that attracted a variety of individuals on account of the increasingly disturbing rate of heart failures in the country.
LA fitness is a privately owned American Health Club Chains that adopted the principles of buying already existing fitness centers and incorporating them into their structure by remodeling and enhancing the services and equipment’s in these centers. Through this acquisition of other fitness centers, LA fitness has been able to expand to a wide area both in the local and international market. Evidently, fitness centers are a popular cultural scene around the globe thus allowing for the easy penetration of the fitness center into foreign markets. Moreover, LA fitness has been offering different service memberships to different classes of individuals based on their needs and schedules, as part of their multipurpose set up thus differentiating them from majority of the business competitors in the same area. Even so, the company has maintained its headquarters at Irvine, California as a symbol of stability in their general principles.
Observations
There were a variety of reasons as to why individuals attended the fitness center. These reasons have been diversified from wanting to stay in shape or targeting specific fat reduction levels to simply enjoying the company of other fitness members on a social standing. However, this is not to say that the individuals in the fitness center are not committed to their work out routines. Most of the individuals mostly pointed out that the initial reasons for joining the fitness centers eventually seemed trivial as compared to the pleasure of simply exercising your muscles. What started out as a painful endeavor while trying to be healthy, turned out to be a key component of their lifestyles after being a member for a while.
It was also observed that the LA fitness in Philadelphia offered extensive and flexible work periods ranging from five days in a week for most fitness members while offering workout privileges until as late as 12:00 AM. In a general sense, even the membership offers ideal exercising times that allow the different classes of individuals attending the fitness center to be flexible with their workout times such that they can visit the fitness center frequently. For most individuals, work out is an integral part of their lifestyle such that they would visit the fitness center on a regular basis.
The LA fitness center offers extensive work out programs that incorporate health benefits to aesthetic looks. Despite the individual reasons for joining the fitness center, LA fitness has proven to have various benefits in regards to the progress of the health of their participants. This can be attributed to the incorporation of specified workout techniques that target the elimination of specific predisposing factors to other illnesses. In addition, the LA fitness center in Philadelphia also provides the recommended diet with different workout routines such that the members completely gain from participating in the exercise.
However, there were also some challenges identified with participating in the fitness center as it relates to inability to keep up with work out discipline. Data from the informants identified that fitness is a sequential process of maintaining one’s body and that a proper discipline towards training the muscles is required in order to benefit the most. Other individuals completely disregard this routine on account of the routine being tiring especially for the beginners. Furthermore, LA fitness recommends a healthy diet that would effectively reinforce the point of engaging in the fitness program. However, most individuals disregard the dietary precautions on account of eating fatty foods that are hazardous to their health.
It was also observed that individuals at the fitness center were focused on their workout routines so as to achieve their set targets. LA fitness has continued to emphasize on the value of continuous improvement among individuals such that the individuals are forced to strictly follow the routines in order to keep up with other individuals within the same group. The members are grouped into various sections depending on their workout capabilities and their targets set for them. This creates a forum of healthy competition where the members would feel responsible for watching their eating habits as well as the fitness practices in order to challenge the partners in the respective groups that have been established towards achieving a common goal.
This also exposes the question of the relationships between individuals in the fitness center. The LA fitness center at Philadelphia has two basic interactions at the cultural scene; Member – member interactions as well as instructor – member interactions. Members of the fitness center interact with each other while trying to establish social establishments outside of the fitness center. However, these interactions are healthy as the members keep challenging one another to aspire to achieve more than they already have. The interactions between the instructors and the members is on a basic level where the instructor typically evaluates the workout routines of the member in regards to the main purpose of doing the workout so as to direct their actions towards achieving their set goals.
Conclusion
As established, cultural scenes are ideally places that individuals meet for a specified purpose while incorporating elements of interaction and practices that form the culture of the specified target group. LA fitness incorporates a large multitude of individuals who believe in working out as a principle lifestyle choice regardless of the main reasons that drove the individuals into joining the fitness centers initially. This sub – culture of individuals have specific ideals and mannerisms of doing things such that it identifies them as a unique subset among other cultures. As these practices are mostly practiced within the LA fitness center as the principle ground, then the fitness center has successfully managed to establish itself as a cultural scene with the ideal principle of making people seek to be better than they already are in most aspects, both socially and health wise.