Multipurpose Room The Fitness Center example essay topic

Abstract The concept of public fitness center, as a part of America living, has had a long history and has been very well accepted in Americans! daily life. The fitness centers are almost everywhere in the United States, especially in major urban and suburban areas. There are a lot of similarities among numerous fitness centers, but there are also some differences in their facilities in terms of the way they are managed, their organization!'s financial conditions or their facility sizes, and so on. Although there is long history of fitness in their own traditional ways, the American style fitness centers have also started emerging in some Asian countries. In China and Taiwan, because of the emergence of the Western style fitness, more and more people, especially young people have tried and begin to like the idea of this! ^0 all weather! +/- and scientific fitness.

Introduction Americans love exercise, well, most of them. They like living healthy life. The concept of public fitness center, as a part of America living, has had a long history and has been very well accepted in Americans! daily life. There are many fitness centers that are distributed all over urban and some of suburban areas in the United States.

Although there are a lot of similarities among numerous fitness centers, there are also some differences in their facilities in terms of the way they are managed, their organization!'s financial conditions or their facility sizes, and so on. In general they have good systems and the centers are usually well managed. Here we briefly summarize what we have perceived about some facilities and services of fitness center in the United States as well as in Taiwan and Mainland China. Most facilities and equipments are common in fitness center. Of course, some fitness centers have part of them, not all facilities. Equipment and Services in US fitness centers Equipment Check-out Area and Pro-Shop The Equipment Room has equipment needed to participate in most of the activities in the center.

To check out equipment, the Fitness Center ID must be presented by the members. Children under 16 are not permitted to check out equipment. If the equipment is damaged, lost, or stolen, payment must be made for the replacement cost. Equipment must be returned to the Equipment Room immediately after use. The Equipment Room is also where should be paid for daily lock and towel rental. The Pro-Shop sells several hard-to-find athletic items for the convenience.

The Equipment Room also strings racquetball racquets. Locker Rooms Each locker room is full service for members / guest convenience. Some fitness center, the lockers are available to rent on a daily, one month, 12-month, basis depending on members need. But in some centers, the lockers are free. Usually the fitness centers strongly urge that all articles be locked in a locker. There are men's and women's locker rooms conveniently located at the Fitness Center.

Child Care Child-care is provided for children ages 3 through 12, usually there is no charge for this service. There are some books and toy to entertain members! kids while members are enjoying their activities. Basketball Gyms There are some gyms in the Fitness Center. (Maybe one or two or more.) Each gym has some goals, divided courts, and a full-function scoreboard.

Proper shoes are required on these floors. Cardiovascular Areas The cardiovascular areas are equipped with a variety of equipment including: treadmills, rowing machines, stair climbers, stationary bicycles, recumbent bicycles, Reebok Sky-walker, Elliptical Edge Trainers and Nordic Tracks. Some TVs are located in the main cardiovascular area. Some of them offer free orientations on how to use the equipment.

Appointments can be made in the Health Promotion Office. Heart rate monitors for the Ross bikes are available for check-out in the Equipment Room. For their protection, children under 14 are not permitted in this area. Combative Room The Combative Room is equipped with a peg board, heavy bag, speed bag and a wall kick pad.

Speed bag gloves and jump ropes are available for check-out in the Equipment Room to use in this area. Multipurpose Room The Fitness Center has some rooms available for reservations. A room divider can be installed to create two smaller rooms. Tables and chairs are also available.

These rooms are great for a birthday party or a group meeting. Rooms must be reserved and approved before use. Pool The pool usually 25-meter lap and 3 to 5 feet deep, some fitness center has standard pool. The temperature is maintained at approximately 85 degrees year round.

The locker rooms located in the pool area with a machine to spin dry the wet clothes. Some are saunas located in both the men's and women's locker rooms. Generally some certified lifeguard is on duty at all times. Towels are available at the Equipment Room for rent, or purchase a towel card. Racquetball Racquetball courts are available by reservation during all Fitness Center operating hours.

To make a reservation, they need to come by and / or call the Front Desk on the day of play. Racquets and racquetballs are available for check-out at the Equipment Room. The Fitness Center holds periodic tournaments and pyramid challenges. Track The track is one-sixth mile in length. The inside lane is for walkers, middle lane for passing and outside lane for jogging. There are two clocks, each located halfway around the track so you can calculate your speed.

Lap counters are available at the Equipment Room. Strollers are not allowed on the track and proper shoes are required. Fitness Classes A variety of fitness classes are offered during the year to challenge your cardiovascular and muscular systems. The classes schedule is usually flexible and they can select one or two classes to enroll. Some of classes are free, some of them needed be paid separately. Senior Fitness: This program is specially designed for retired faculty, staff and senior alumni.

The class meets couple times per week and consists of warm-up / stretching, floor, and chair exercise, or water aerobics. It is a complete program designed to improve flexibility, muscular tone and strength, and cardiovascular endurance. Saunas Two saunas are available for the user in the pool locker rooms. A sauna cleanses your body through perspiration. It opens the pores of the skin and flushes out impurities in the body through the process of sweating. The hard-training athlete, the dedicated workout enthusiast, the weekend athlete, and even non-athletes acclaim the sauna's recuperative effects.

In American, there are a lot of chain-type of fitness centers spread over the country, like YMCA, Bally, Life Time Fitness Company and so on. They provide the different service for almost all kinds of people. Being the America largest no-profit community service organizations, Ymca are working to meet the health and social service needs of 17.9 million men, women and children in 10,000 communities in USA (web). YMCA!'s are for people of all faiths, races, abilities, ages and incomes. Across the United States, 17.9 million members are part of more than 2,400 local YMCA associations.

Each association is different, reflecting the needs of the local community. Some YMCA in their community may have a facility with a gymnasium, pool, child-care center and fitness center with a wide variety of programs for everyone to enjoy. It may be a storefront operation delivering community-based programs such as job training. It may be a camp, or it may be a satellite program in a local school.

It may be all of those things. They stretch beyond the Unite States and are at working in more then 120 countries around the world, serving more than 30 million people. They really does build strong kids, strong families and strong communities, worldwide. In the meanwhile, some new model fitness centers are developed as well. Life Time Fitness Company, one of American fastest growing health and fitness company (web), they designed their facilities, service, products and program to fit not only people!'s health and fitness needs, but every day needs as well. They open 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, provide 30-day money-back guarantee, free education, full-service spa and caf"|.

They also offers all of Athletic Club members some business-class section service, such as: 4-star dining, business service (private offices, personal computers, laptop ports, conference rooms, audio / video equipment, Tele-video conferencing), laundry / dry cleaning, and social events / holiday galas and so on. Fitness center in Taiwan The fitness centers walk into Taiwan not very long. But in these couple of years, going to fitness center and doing exercise has became a fashion activity in big city. We can take Taipei for a sample. There are many kinds of fitness center in Taipei. Some of them own themselves building, some of them share with other office.

Bur they all very easy to be found. The different fitness center have very different participate fee. They range very wide, from NT: 1000 to NT: 20000 per month. The member fee all depends on their equipments.

Whatever, fitness centers almost have same basic facilities in Taiwan. Comparing Taiwan and America, we find out some different between them. U.S.A. / Taiwan Equipment Check-out Area and Pro-Shop YES / YES Locker Rooms YES / YES Child Care YES / NO Basketball Gyms YES / NO Cardiovascular Areas YES / YES Weight Room YES / YES Combative Room YES / NO Multipurpose Room YES / YES Pool YES / NO Racquetball YES / NO Track YES / NO Fitness classes YES / YES Senior Fitness YES / NO Saunas YES / YES Spa NO / YES Above the list, we can find that fitness center in Taiwan has parts of facilities, not all of them. In our opinion, Taiwan located at an island, the land is limit. The price of land is very high. The fitness center can't afford too much money for space.

They had to give up some facilities, like pool or track Gym and so on. In the other hand, we found that SPA is not a necessary facility in America. But it is very popular in Taiwan. Fitness In China Five years ago in China it would be very hard to find fitness centers. Young people took advantage of their school playground or various athletic courts to do their physical exercises, whereas elderly people could enjoy their physical exercises in the public park areas. Some of them chose traditional forms, like!

^0 Qi Gong! +/-, ! ^0 Tai Chi! +/-! ^0 Yang-ge! +/-, a kind of group dancing or! ^0 Jian-zi! +/-, similar to the American!

^0 Hacky Sac! +/-, . Others might just select jogging, hiking or just slow leisure walking as their preferred form of exercise. Now China is opening up and playing catching ups. Their lives are getting better.

Every one wants to look better and to feel great. People live longer but they also realize that they would get more chronic illness if they stop exercise. To keep themselves on track of healthy life, they keep their feet on the exercise ground. While those! ^0 traditional! +/- forms of exercises are still everywhere that can be seen, the concept of fitness center similar to the American!'s has been introduced into many major cities in China. In some fitness centers some fitness classes for senior citizens have been opened, such as Beijing Yue tan Sports Hall (web).

Most members there are highly educated and already understand the importance of systematic physical activity. More and more young and middle age people prefer joining the fitness clubs. They like scientific workout guided by personal trainers. Working out with others also creates a good atmosphere. There are few chain-type of fitness centers operating in China, bodybuilders and fitness enthusiasts mainly work out at gyms inside the hotel or independent fitness center (web). Some of gym and fitness center are similar to America.

But some of them provide the Chinese herb medicines and massage techniques to their members. Currently, 60 percent of fitness fanatic are woman (web). Woman in China these days are really focused on keeping their bodies nice and fit. They have become not very big but become energetic, that is the modern ladies trend. In the fitness center, they meet friends and have fun while keeping in shape. They realized that fitness center like the school that they teach the people about healthy activities, the key that unlock the door to good health and the bank that save the money on medicine.

Summary. The fitness centers are almost everywhere in the United States, and almost all kinds and all ages American have been involved in it. Some model fitness centers are trying to fit not only people!'s health and fitness needs, but every day needs as well. ^0 all weather! +/- fitness. The growing Chinese interest in working out goes deeper than just following a Western fad. They already realized that prevention disease and development health are much better than just the cure of disease pervaded the medical world.

Reference Richard Mang i, MD; Peter Jo kal, MD and O. William Dayton, A.T.C. Sports Fitness and Training, New York: Pantheon Books 1987 Kevin Cobb. Men!'s Fitness Magazine!'s. New York: The Philip Lief Group, Inc. 1996 Ellington Darden, PH.D. Living Longer Stronger. New York: The Berkley Publishing Group 1995 Richard Be nyo; and Rhonda Provost. Feeling Fit In Your 40's.

New York: Athene wn 1987 web web web web web web web web web.