Mickenzi Schank Journal 6

1.      I know that there are many places around campus, which offer a large variety of ways to participate in a physical activity.  I also know that people in our age group hold appearance and physique in high regard.  I participate in various physical activities on campus and I see many other doing the same.

2.      I feel like this is an important topic because exercise is important for people to stay healthy.  The sedentary lifestyle associated with sitting in class and doing work at a desk combined with readily available food located at the various dining halls opens the opportunity for an unhealthy lifestyle unless it can be balanced with exercise.

3.      I want to get an idea of how many people actually exercise regularly or at all.  This will give us an idea of how people value exercise and appearance on average.

4.      I go to McComas to use the weight room and I play intramural soccer and pickup 

5.      I think that we will see some correlation between higher grades and some form of moderate exercise regularly, personal motivation is required for both doing well in school and staying physically fit.  I doubt that we will be able to say anything about correlation though; there are just too many factors.

6.      There are quite a few groups, communities, clubs, etc. associated with physical fitness intramural sports is a big one, any kind sport you can think of has a club, both organized and unorganized pickup games for many sports, exercising with friends, etc. 

7.      Students, athletes, males, females, faculty, people who care about their “image,” etc.  Physical fitness applies to a broad spectrum of people.

8.      I am a male, student, athlete who wants to try to maintain a high level of health and exercising is a necessity.

9.       It’s hard to speak for the group as whole because we have different interests but I know that I fall into at least one dominant and one marginalized group.  The dominant one is to play a sport for exercise and enjoyment, many people do this and it is encouraged from a young age by many parents.  The marginalized one is that I go to the weight room not to build muscle mass but to tone and build muscle endurance.  Many males around my age spend lots of time in the gym because they are concerned with having bigger muscles and a better image, similar to what we read about in Drive for Muscularity.

10.  It is important to keep an open mind and equally important to put thought and analysis into what you are asking and why.  If no consideration is given to the questions being asked, it is easy to unintentionally favor a certain response.  Also who you ask and where you ask them is an important consideration when trying to stay neutral.