With television, computers, BlackBerrys, video games, fast food, and junk food, one has to wonder are teenagers getting enough exercise? About 33% of children and young adolescents in America struggling with obesity, lack of exercise could play a large role in this epidemic. Obesity is hard to fight off and the two main factors are poor diets and lack of exercise. A main problem with obesity is that it can lead to 300,000 deaths a year. Improving eating habits and exercising are the only healthy things that can put an end to obesity, which is why exercising is so important. Schools play a major role in the amount of exercise a student receives and the kind of foods offered to them.
A local High School in Nassau County, Long Island, has a way to get in the daily amount of exercise necessary to live a healthy life and that is with the gym provided. The gym has almost everything a student could want with treadmills, ellipticals, stair masters, weights and weight lifting tables, crunching machines, pull up machines, exercise balls, and different muscular machines. Even though this has most of the components of a gym that you have to pay a membership for, students still choose to either not exercise or opt to pay for a private gym membership. The school gym is almost always empty.
Students were surveyed on why they would rather pay for a membership to a gym and not just use the one provided in school. “Yes, I would still get a membership to a gym even though there is one provided to you at school because you can go to a gym whenever you want” said Melissa K., a freshman at this school. Gabrielle L., another freshman said “Yes, I would still get a membership to a gym because exercising in school is social suicide” What Gabrielle probably meant is that nobody really wants a whole school of people watching them when they exercise. They could be embarrassed or uncomfortable, which will either cause them not to try their best or work too hard. Parents interviewed said they would pay for their children to go to a private gym as long as they are committed to the exercise. “If my children are committed to going to an exercise class or a trainer, I would be happy to pay for them.”