Over the summer, the weight room received a bold new look. On the outside, the doors were plastered with a green wrap to draw attention from passersby, and the name “WILDCAT FITNESS CENTER” was made easily identifiable in a loud font, with images of weights appropriately pictured above. The new, vivid look from the outside aims to ensure that students will enter with energy. However, both positive and negative opinions have come up about the new redesign.
“I think it’s cleaner and interesting, and all the postings are more motivational,” senior Luka Jevtic said.
On the inside, the new postings feature positive phrases such as “Wildcat Power” in hopes of boosting the energy of student lifters and motivating them for a successful lift.
Senior Oliver Vendt had similar opinions about the design to Jevtic, while also giving credit to other aspects of the new gym aside from the design, such as the new fans.
“I think it’s really cool because it shows Wildcat spirit,” Vendt said. “Before, it was probably a six out of 10, but now I think it’s an eight or eight-point-five, especially because they added those fans, which can cool [the weight room] off a lot better.”
Sophomore Ethan Taylor, like Vendt, considered the past weight room when forming his opinion on the new redesign.
“It needed to be redone, and I think it’s a lot better for students to lift,” Taylor said. “For what we have, it’s pretty good. Compared to private schools, not as good, but I think for public schools, we’ve seen, it’s on the better side.”
Nevertheless, students still note areas for improvement in the weight room, such as old equipment that needs to be replaced. Some lifters expressed certain wants, and some even found disadvantages in the new design.
“It’s a pretty good starter weight room, not the best, but it’s pretty big. [The barbells are] a little bit rusty.” Jevtic said.
While much of the weight room’s equipment continues to work fine, new equipment could greatly improve the weight training sessions of students.
“When I try to do pullups with the [TXR bands] on the far left corner of the room, the wall is slippery, so I can’t just go against the wall, which makes reps harder,” Vendt said.
The wall of a room can be an important tool for certain beneficial exercises, such as wall sits or a wall plank. Despite the new design looking nice and being “cleaner”, this cleanliness also changes the texture of the wall, making some exercises harder to do.
Strength training isn’t the only beneficial exercise that can be done; there are various others, such as aerobic and balance exercises. New equipment could be beneficial for these types of exercises.
“I think we have enough to have a good gym,” Taylor said, “Maybe some people would like more mobility stuff, like a treadmill or Stairmaster, but I think it’s good for what we have.”
