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Bodybuilding should always be optional for students - if it is to be a curriculum option at all! Unless you are living the lifestyle of a lumberjack or a gladiator (which has been passe since ancient Rome), there are no justifiable health benefits to body building. At best, it is a vanity sport.

Bodybuilding creates a great deal of muscle mass which is not suitable to all body types and lifestyles. It certainly doesn't confer superior strength or agility ... some of the strongest people on the planet are relatively slight of build, such as many martial arts experts in the Orient. Their superior strength and agility is not attributed to bloated muscle mass (which incidentally, can put a strain on the heart).

All that bloated muscle mass, once attained, must be sustained or it can lead to sagging flesh and a seriously unfit appearance. Bodybuilding also effects one's hormone levels ... unless you are in a lifestyle where generous bursts of testosterone are desirable or even practical, think twice before building the massive biceps!

Also, not everyone is athletic by nature. As a youngster, I found gym class to be purely torturous ... my most dreaded class period! Pure misery! In fact, I failed gym one year and had to take it over in summer school, which wreaked havoc with my family's vacation plans. Instead, we were stuck in the hot, polluted inner city for the season - rather than swimming at a Cape Cod beach which would have been far, far healthier! Little good did that do me in the long-run scheme of life. Somehow, I stayed fit despite being terrifically unathletic. In fact, I had a perfect figure and was much more inclined to gentle exercise like yoga than lifting barbells! Had bodybuilding been a mandatory part of my curriculum, I may have been turned off to exercise of any sort!

In my opinion, all sports and typical physical fitness curriculum should be optional for students. More free playtime in the fresh air and sunshine and less obsession with body image would be far more beneficial to many students than forced hours in any gym. Bodybuilding, if anything, should not be actually "encouraged." Yoga and Tai Chi, on the other hand, should be encouraged, though not mandatory! If any youngsters wish to pursue body building, let them do so on their own time, as a personal choice, and not at taxpayers' expense! Most importantly, students should not be deceived into thinking that bodybuilding is a superior way to achieve fitness.

Learn more about this author, Violet Fortune.
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