A person’s teenage years are crucial for establishing long-lasting habits and a healthy lifestyle. These days, more and more teens are turning to the gym for a way to stay fit and maintain their long term physical health as well as improving their mental health.
Students at Thomas Edison High School get into the gym to stay active and lead healthier lives. Due to the global pandemic, COVID-19, students have suffered with mental health problems until they have joined the gym and resorted to weight lifting.
Teenagers may be drawn to weight lifting for a variety of reasons. Some of the most common reasons include:
Improving physical appearance: Many teens are self-conscious about their appearance and may turn to weight lifting as a way to improve their muscles and physical appearance.
Increasing strength and athleticism: Weight lifting can help teens increase their strength and improve their athletic performance in sports.
Lifting weights can change the way a person looks at themself. “I lift weights because I want to better myself. As time went on I felt more confident in the strength I was gaining. I was also looking in the mirror and seeing the progress I made which made me feel more confident in myself and gave me the motivation to consistently go to the gym,” said Khush Parmar.
Khush Parmar who is a senior at Thomas Edison High School was always insecure about how he looked. This insecurity has ruined his mental health as he was constantly over thinking about what others would say about him. It wasn’t until lifting weights changed his view on himself.
“Lifting weights made me feel confident and gave me the mindset that I am above average just by going to the gym and lifting heavy every single day,” said Ujwal Gothra, a senior at Thomas Edison High School. He feels more confident in himself since he is getting stronger and feels above average since he is going to the gym everyday.
Lifting weights can help people deal with past struggles in life. “Bullying and hardships faced in the past pushed me to go to the gym and lift weights. The pain that I felt makes me want to do better and push harder,” said Jaskaran Bhogal. The mental effects that bullying has on people can help them deal with it in a healthy way, in Jaskaran’s case he decided to go to the gym and push himself every single day.
Lifting weights has helped people achieve better mental health. From the 3 students that I have interviewed we have gotten a glimpse as to what it is that made them achieve this. It gave them the confidence that they needed to gain a better image of themselves, which helped with their mental health.
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