Friday, March 5, 2010

Ideals Carried On

The Greeks had a lot of ideals about the human body. Many of which, are still the ideal of American and world culture today. Look at modern day Olympians for a clear example. Most (save maybe the athletes in sports such as curling) have the body style close to that portrayed in the Greek sculptures. Some less than others of course, but the point being, none are overly "body builder" buff, but none are as scrawny as an average citizen. In my opinion, the Greeks had a pretty good idea of what the human body should ideally look like in its healthiest form. If a person has little to no muscle mass, they aren't able to preform a lot of tasks that would help them be independent. If they are overly obese, they could run into the same problems. I believe that fitness was very important in the time of the Greeks due to the lifestyle that had to have. They didn't have much of the modern day technology we have, such as cars. They needed to be fit enough to either walk everywhere in their city, or fit enough to not be sore every time they got off of their horse. Today, we have many luxuries that prevent us from having to be that fit. I don't have a problem with that, because I do enjoy them. Nevertheless, I think I would have to say that the desired form for males today is still that of the Greeks centuries ago--whether you compete in the Olympics or not.

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