Some gym activities can be done by 6 to 8-year-olds while age 16 has been considered mature enough for boxing and horseback riding. In Ancient Greece, the gymnasion (γυμνάσιον) was a locality for both physical and intellectual education of young men. The latter meaning of intellectual education persisted in Greek, German and other languages to denote a certain type of school providing secondary education, the gymnasium, whereas in English the meaning of physical education pertained in the word 'gym'. The Greek word gymnasium, which means "school for naked exercise," was used to designate a locality for the education of young men, including physical education (gymnastics, for example, exercise) which was customarily performed naked, as well as bathing, and studies. For the Greeks, physical education was considered as important as cognitive learning. Most Greek gymnasia had libraries for use after relaxing in the baths. Nowadays, it represents a common area where people, from all ranges of experience, exercise and work out their muscles. You can also usually find people doing cardio exercises or pilates. History The first recorded gymnasiums date back to over 3000 years ago in ancient Persia, where they were known as zurkhaneh, areas that encouraged physical fitness. The larger Roman Baths often had attached fitness facilities, the baths themselves sometimes being decorated with mosaics of local champions of sport. Gyms in Germany were an outgrowth of the Turnplatz, an outdoor space for gymnastics founded by German educator Friedrich Jahn in 1811 and later promoted by the Turners, a nineteenth-century political and gymnastic movement. The first American to open a public gym in the United States using Jahn's model was John Neal of Portland, Maine in 1827. The first indoor gymnasium in Germany was probably the one built in Hesse in 1852 by Adolph Spiess. Through worldwide colonization, Great Britain expanded its national interest in sports and games to many countries. In the 1800s, programs were added to schools and college curricula that emphasized health, strength, and bodily measure. Sports drawn from European and British cultures thrived as college students and upper-class clubs financed competition. As a result, towns began building playgrounds that furthered interest in sports and physical activity. Early efforts to establish gyms in the United States in the 1820s were documented and promoted by John Neal in the American Journal of Education and The Yankee, helping to establish the American branch of the movement. Later in