Non sporters often say that one of the factors why they don’t sport is that they cannot do it (like for example they are too busy with other activities such as school) instead of that they don’t want to.
What have I seen
In February 2016 I went to Los Angeles (USA) and I noticed that people in this city are very conscious about there way of life. A healthy lifestyle is more than just eat healthy and do yoga. On many corners in Santa Monica, a small kind of village inside of Los Angeles, I noticed a lot of gyms. I was curious how much it would cost me to workout for just a day in a gym in Santa Monica so I asked a few gyms about their prices which were pretty high in my opinion, comparison to the biggest gyms in The Netherlands. Ofcourse you also pay for the great location and the facilities, but I decided to let it rest and to keep my money in my pocket.
The next day I went to Venice beach and my mouth was wide open when I saw an outside gym, surrounded by palm trees and covered by the sun. There also was a blue cage in the middle of one of the busiest parts of Venice, just near the beach and the souvenir shops. I walked straight to it and I saw a big white sign with blue letters ‘Muscle Beach’. People were working out and the best part comes next. It was free for everyone! This ‘heaven’ for fitness people was surrounded by basketball courts, yoga shops and juice bars. You could really feel the energy of everybody and I was getting very motivated by seeing this new kind of living.
I was very enthusiastic and I directly wanted to know everything about this great place. I found out that Muscle Beach started in 1934 with predominantly gymnastics activities on the south side of the Santa Monica Pier. Los Angeles is known for thé place where the fitness culture began. One of the things that I noticed when I was at Muscle Beach, was that there were no machines. Only bars and benches to work with your body, instead of working with machines.
THIS IS COOL
Muscle Beach exists for quit a time now but it’s still very cool and highly appreciated by many people from all over the world. It is the place where fitness began and it was one of the first outside-gyms. It is an inspirational place which recently other cities copied this idea and also build an outside gym in their own city. Muscle Beach brings people from all kind of races together. People forget where others come from and they all workout together. I noticed all kind of different races at Muscle Beach; Asians, (afro) Americans, Mexicans and Europeans, it all doesn’t matter.
For my study I had to interview international youngsters if they practise sports and what they want and need to actually work out or practise a sport that they like. Most people came with the conclusion that they had little time to do sports and it will cost them money. When you think about the solution to solve this, the answer is Muscle Beach. By creating more places like Muscle Beach in the world, it safes people money and people can come together, workout and have a better lifestyle. It also has no opening hours because it is in the open air so everyone can practise whenever they want.
Future City
Due the megatrend Urbanisation it is important to live in a sustainable city. 75% of the people are going to live in the city in 2025 (Bruinewoud, 2016). It would be nice for the people that the gyms will not be full of people but that there will also be a possibility to workout outside, in the open air. Basic terms for a city is that people can find their own way and that things work for themselves. For example, think about the fitness attributes which can work on solar cells.
Conclusion
Muscle Beach is a very special place on earth where people give each other so much energy and good vibes that this is a great solution for bringing people together in other cities in the world and to develop a new kind of way of getting fit.
Sources:
Weblecture Ingeborg Bruinewoud.
Venicebeach. (z.d.). Muscle beach gym. Geraadpleegd op 4 maart 2016 van, http://www.venicebeach.com/muscle-beach-gym/
Futursvoyage 