Assignment – Read and analyze the following article. Your analysis should do the

Question

Assignment –

Read and analyze the following article. Your analysis should do the following:

Briefly summarize the article and the author's main points.

Analyze the article.

Describe why you do or do not agree with the author's main points.

Describe why this article is or is not important.

Article – Getting Fitness: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America

This comprehensive approach to the history of fitness culture in the United States takes a much needed look at the history of the movement and its present day iterations. McKenzie addresses not only the change over the past century in the type of physical activity but also the changing attitude towards fitness and health in modern America.

In a time where individuals are increasingly blamed for their poor health, McKenzie gives context to the decrease in physical activity as a nation. Though many historians have attributed the phenomenon to the rise of suburban life post World War II, very few have examined the effect of suburbanization on bodies – particularly around physical fitness. While it is clear that modern conveniences decreased physical activity, what McKenzie illuminates is a shift in perception about physical activity. It moves from the realm of being part of who we are as humans to being a completely separate activity that people began to engage in. While subtle, it may be the key to figuring out how Americans adopted such a sedentary lifestyle despite the increased emphasis on physical activity.

As an historian, McKenzie uses primary sources to gather evidence about the increase in American’s preoccupation with fitness culture over the past century. Her analysis of celebrity fitness instructors is worth reading just for its picture into American culture during that time. In addition, she documents trends within the fitness industry, whether the emphasis on weight reduction which began in the 1950s or the growth of health clubs in the 1980s. A chapter on running and jogging chronicles both the rise of the movement and the rise of anti-running sentiment in the United States.

Throughout, McKenzie provides examples of government and private sector campaigns with specific messages about health. Often, this documentation serves as a barometer for the most popular ideas of that time. For example, in the 1960s, physicians discouraged exercise for women wanting to lose weight, focusing instead on dieting and reducing caloric intake. By the 1980s, however, fitness was considered essential to weight maintenance. The drastic changes throughout the decades, particularly the attitudes of the medical community towards fitness demonstrate that it was not necessarily a given that fitness would catch on.

Though not the emphasis, the book does cover the consumer culture aspect of fitness. The book mainly sheds light on the complex business of gyms and fitness centers along with celebrity fitness programs and leaves the door open for a more thorough examination of how fitness is marketed and sold and continues to shape and be shaped by consumer culture. The conclusion leaves us with some troubling thoughts about how separating fitness from our daily routines may have actually decreased the amount of physical activity Americans engage in and certainly the pleasure of physical activity. Moreover, it often excludes the working class, both for concerns of time and money.

This book is a much-needed look at the rise of a phenomenon that seems so integral to American culture but that is, at times, easy to overlook. Overall, it is a great addition to the literature on fitness culture and should be read by those who are interested in public health or consumer culture.

Explanation / Answer

Briefly summarize the article and the author's main points.Analyze the article.Describe why you do or do not agree with the author's main points. Describe why this article is or is not important.

Article – Getting Fitness: The Rise of Fitness Culture in America

The article gives a comprehensive study on how the importance of fitness has changed . Though, this is one of the book reviews, in which a book written by McKenzie has been reviewed. In the article it had been emphasised how the mind set of people has changed with the decrease in the fitness. Also, it has been said how the decrease in fitness is not only due to people becoming more busy and living in the suburbs more often, it is more because people do not want to be indulged in more physical activities, but rather they only want to hit gyms and not concentrate on diet or calorie intake.

The article is very poorly organised and flow of ideas is not very clear.

The main points of the author is that people have forgotten concentrating on diet and intake and rather only focus on investing in gyms. I don't agree with this because even the gym people give a huge list of diet chart which has to be followed. People have grown concours of what they eat, though they didn't care of the same earlier.

This article is not very important, as it has provided a book review that had only emphasised one or two main points and has not even elaborated on those points. Rather, this can be called as a praising article. Generally in a book review, authors also mention why or which points is not liked by the author, and none so in this case.

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