Gym
- For the type of school providing secondary education, see gymnasium (school).
Gym, a shortened form of gymnasium, refers to facilities intended for indoor sports or exercise. Gyms are sometimes referred to as health clubs.
Etymology
The word Gymnasium is derived from the Greek word γυμνάσιον (gymnasion) from gymnos which means naked. Thus the word means "place to be naked" and was used in ancient Greece to designate a locality for the education of young men, including physical education (gymnastics, or exercise) which was customarily performed naked[1], as well as bathing, and studies.
The later meaning of intellectual education persisted in German and other languages to denote a certain type of school providing secondary education, the Gymnasium, whereas in English the meaning of physical education was pertained in the word gym.[2]
Current usage
Today the term gymnasium (plural: gymnasiums or gymnasia) is used in the sense of a sports facility. Gyms today are multi-use facilities, offering a range of sporting and physical activities, alongside such things as massages, and other things usually attributed to a health spa.
Gym also can refer informally to a physical education course in American students' parlance, and to a metal frame support used in outdoor play equipment, as in "jungle gym".[3]
History
Ancient Greece
To the right (partially obscured by a tree trunk) is a line of carbonized tree stumps, remains of trees (each hundreds of years old) that were part of the palaistra and were burned in the volcanic eruption of 79. Between these and the colonnade is a line of saplings recently planted as a replacement."Perhaps the most spectacular of all entertainments were the naumachiae, or sea battles. The first was given in 46 B.C.E. by Julius Caesar on a lake dug for the occasion; it featured a battle involving 2,000 marines and 6,00 oarsmen. Later the amphitheatres were sometimes flooded for such events. By far the most ambitious of all the naumachiae was given in 52 C.E. on the Fucine Lake east of Rome to celebrate the completion of a water conduit. On that occasion, 19,000 participants fought and many perished.
The gymnasium in ancient Greece functioned as a training facility for competitors in public games. It was also a place for socializing and engaging in intellectual pursuits. The name comes from the Greek term gymnos meaning naked. Athletes competed in the nude, a practice said to encourage aesthetic appreciation of the male body and a tribute to the Gods. Some early tyrants feared gymnasia facilitated politically subversive erotic attachments between competitors. [4] Gymnasia and palestrae were under the protection and patronage of Heracles, Hermes and, in Athens, Theseus.[5]
The gymnasium was formed as a public institution (a private school) where boys received training in physical exercises. Its organisation and construction were designed to suit that purpose, though the gymnasium was used for other functions as well.
Gymnasia were typically large structures containing spaces for each type of exercise as well as a stadium, palaistra, baths, outer porticos for practice in bad weather, and covered porticos where philosophers and other "men of letters" gave public lectures and held disputations [citation needed]. All Athenian gymnasia were located outside the city walls due to the large amount of space required for construction [citation needed].
The ancient Greek gymnasium soon became a place for more than exercise. This development arose through recognition by the Greeks of the strong relation between athletics, education and health. Accordingly, the gymnasium became connected with education on the one hand and medicine on the other. Physical training and maintenance of health and strength were the chief parts of children's earlier education [citation needed]. Except for time devoted to letters and music, the education of boys was solely conducted in the gymnasium, where provisions were made not only for physical pedagogy but for instruction in morals and ethics. As pupils grew older, informal conversation and other forms of social took the place of institutional, systematic discipline [citation needed]. Philosophers and sophists frequently assembled to hold talks and lectures in the gymnasium; thus the institution became a resort for those interested in less structured intellectual pursuits in addition to those using the place for training in physical exercises.
In Athens there were three great public gymnasia: the Academy, the Lyceum and the Cynosarges,[6] each of which was dedicated to a deity whose statue adorned the structure and each of which was rendered famous by association with a celebrated school of philosophy [citation needed]. Plato's teaching in the Academy gave great recognition to that gymnasium, Aristotle conferred much fame on the Lyceum, and the Cynosarges was the resort of the Cynics [citation needed].
Plato considered gymnastics to be an important part of education (see Republic iii. and parts of Laws) and according to him it was the sophist Prodicus who first pointed out the connection between gymnastics and health. Having found gymnastic exercises beneficial to his own weak constitution, Prodicus formulated a method that became generally accepted and was subsequently improved by Hippocrates [citation needed]. Galen also put great stress on the proper and frequent use of gymnastics. Throughout other ancient Greek medical writings special exercises are prescribed as cures for specific diseases, showing the extent to which the Greeks considered health and fitness connected [citation needed]. The same connection is commonly suggested by experts today [citation needed].
In Sparta there were no gymnasia since all male citizens from the age of 7 were engaged exclusively in military training. At Athens, on the other hand, three gymnasia, the Lyceum, the Academy, and the Cynosargēs, became famous schools of philosophy. By the Hellenistic age the gymnasium had become an essential element of Greek life, and a hallmark of Hellenism.
Germany
Gymnasiums in Germany were an outgrowth of the Turnplatz, an outdoor area for gymnastics, promoted by German educator Friedrich Jahn and the Turners, a nineteenth-century political and gymnastic movement. The first indoor gymnasium in Germany was probably the one built in Hesse in 1852 by Adolph Spiess, an enthusiast for boys' and girls' gymnastics in the schools. In the United States, the Turner movement thrived in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The first Turners group was formed in Cincinnati in 1848. The Turners built gymnasiums in several cities like Cincinnati and St. Louis which had large German American populations. These gyms were utilized by adults and youth. For example, a young Lou Gehrig would frequent the Turner gym in New York City with his father.
Friedrich Ludwig Jahn (August 11 1778 – October 15 1852) was a German Prussian gymnastics educator and nationalist. He is commonly known as Turnvater Jahn, roughly meaning "father of gymnastics."
Jahn was born in Lanz in Brandenburg. He studied theology and philology from 1796 to 1802 at Halle, Göttingen at the University of Greifswald. After the Battle of Jena-Auerstedt in 1806 he joined the Prussian army. In 1809 he went to Berlin, where he became a teacher at the Gymnasium zum Grauen Kloster and at the Plamann School.
Brooding upon what he saw as the humiliation of his native land by Napoleon, Jahn conceived the idea of restoring the spirits of his countrymen by the development of their physical and moral powers through the practice of gymnastics. The first Turnplatz, or open-air gymnasium, was opened by Jahn in Berlin in 1811, and the Turnverein (gymnastics association) movement spread rapidly. Young gymnasts were taught to regard themselves as members of a kind of guild for the emancipation of their fatherland. This nationalistic spirit was nourished in no small degree by the writings of Jahn.
A man of populistic nature, rugged, eccentric and outspoken, Jahn often came into collision with the authorities, and this conflict resulted in the closing of the Turnplatz in 1819 and Jahn's arrest. Kept in semi-confinement at the fortress of Kolberg until 1824, he was sentenced to imprisonment for two years. The sentence was reversed in 1825, but he was forbidden to live within ten miles of Berlin. He therefore took up residence at Freyburg on the Unstrut, where he remained until his death, with the exception of a short period in 1828, when he was exiled to Kölleda on a charge of sedition.
Turners (German: Turner, gymnasts in English) are German Americans who have organised themselves in "gymnastic unions". Together with Carl Schurz they were supportive in getting Abraham Lincoln elected as President of the United States of America.
A German gymnastic movement was started by Turnvater (turners' father) Friedrich Ludwig Jahn in the early 19th century when Germany was occupied by Napoleon. The Turnvereine ("gymnastic unions") were not only athletic, but also political, reflecting their origin in similar "nationalistic gymnastic" organizations in Europe.
United States
Gymnasiums in the United States predate the Turner movement. A public gymnasium movement sprung up in the 1820s and 1830s but was eclipsed by the growth of school, college, and the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) gymnasiums. The first college gymnasium probably was the one built at Harvard University in 1820. Although privately owned, it was maintained for the use of the students. Like most of the gymnasiums of the period, it was equipped with gymnastic apparatus. The United States Military Academy at West Point built a gym during the same era. A few other American colleges built gyms by the 1850s. Harvard opened a new brick gymnasium in 1860 with two bowling alleys and dressing rooms in addition to the gymnastic facility.
YMCA first organized in Boston 1851. Ten years later there were some two hundred YMCAs across the country, most of which provided gymnasiums for exercise and games.
The 1920s was a decade of prosperity that witnessed the building of large numbers of public high schools with gymnasiums. Over the course of the twentieth century, gymnasiums have been re conceptualized to accommodate the popular team and individual games and sports that have supplanted gymnastics in the school curriculum.
Today, having a gymnasium is the norm for virtually all American colleges and high schools, as well almost all middle and many elementary schools. These facilities are utilized for physical education, intramural sports and for interscholastic athletics.
Outdoor gyms
The outdoor gym concept originates from China where it has been used as a national fitness campaign prior to the 2008 Summer Olympics. In China the concept has been so effective in raising fitness and health levels that they have rolled out over 37 million square feet of outdoor gymnasiums across China since 1998. Currently a third of the sports lottery is dedicated to funding this concept. In China they have a similar survey to the Active People Survey. The participation levels in physical activity have been steadily on the increase since the outdoor gym concept has been introduced to China. The participation rates in Shanghai are currently 45% and according to a Chinese National Report the intervention of outdoor gyms has been a significant contributor.
Outdoor gym in Britain
In November 2006 Newham council in partnership with the University of East London successfully piloted Britain’s first free outdoor gym. Now students and members of the community can use for free a high quality robust, safe and accessible outdoor gym facility.
Outdoor gym in the United States
In the United States, James Sargen introduced the outdoor gym several years ago and created TriActive America. Today, TriActive America's fitness zones and fitness trails can be found across the nation, from hotels to YMCAs to community areas to military bases and more. For more information, visit www.triactiveamerica.com
Notes
- ↑ Gymnasium. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved May 08, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Gymnasium
- ↑ Gymnasium. (n.d.). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved May 08, 2008, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/Gymnasium
- ↑ Spiritus-Temporis.com Gym Retrieved May 8, 2008.
- ↑ Polycrates of Samos is given as an example. Athenaeus, Deipnosophistae 602c
- ↑ Pausanias (geographer), Guide to Greece, 4.32.1
- ↑ J. Burnet, Plato's Euthyphro, Apology of Socrates, and Crito, p. 7.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Kennell, Nigel M. The Gymnasium of Virtue: Education and Culture in Ancient Sparta. The University of North Carolina Press, 1995. ISBN 978-0807822197
- Lumpkin, Angela. Introduction to Physical Education, Exercise Science, and Sport Studies. McGraw-Hill, 2007. ISBN 978-0073523606
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
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