COLUMN: Work out but pay the price

From Nathan Smith's, "Just Skip to the Crossword," Fall '97 From Nathan Smith's, "Just Skip to the Crossword," Fall '97God, I really need to get into exercising," she sighed. "I don't know." She contemplatively trained her eyes on the table. "I don't have the money." "C'mon Val. Hutch is just around the corner. It's free too." "Eeew. No thanks. Not only is it just plain nasty; it's way too much testosterone for me." I envisioned pools of the hormone collecting on the weight benches -- drops of it hanging from the bars. It was a daydream not far removed from reality. The weight room is very male; probably more than 90 percent. And there can be no doubt that T.O. (testosterone overload) is par for the course. But Hutch's problems are far more serious than Val's observation. In terms of equipment and atmosphere, Hutch leaves a great deal to be desired. For one, Hutch weight room has no equipment for cardiovascular exercise (excepting the pool): no bikes, no treadmills, no stairmasters, no rowing machines and no climbing machines. You have to pay for access to any of that machinery. I know the University of Tennessee doesn't measure up to Penn in terms of academic rigor, but when I went there for undergraduate school I did have free access to all the latest state-of-the-art exercise equipment. They had a fitness center that put Bally's to shame. I took it for granted that Penn, which charges more than four times the tuition of my undergraduate university, would provide adequately for the health interests of its students. I was sadly mistaken. The lack of quality equipment is only the beginning. Hutch also has inadequate air conditioning. As the city warms up to summer, Hutch quickly approaches 100 degrees in the free weight room. The humidity also approaches 100 percent, but it does not seep in from outside. Hutch humidity seems to come entirely from evaporating sweat. This seems the only explanation for the accompanying odor. To make things more odious, Hutch doesn't require lifters to carry a towel for wiping down the equipment when they're done. Sweat therefore accumulates in layers on every piece of equipment in the room. Obviously, this atmosphere is not the healthiest for working out -- between heat exhaustion and communicable diseases one may wonder if health can be cultivated in this environment. Sounds bad, doesn't it? Well, it gets worse. The final problem with the facility happens to be the worst of all. As far as I can tell, from the weight room itself there is no fire exit. I've looked, and I don't think there's one to be found. Perhaps there is some secret way out the employees will open for you in an emergency situation, but barring that possibility, the place is a death trap. Let us then consider how the environment at Hutch plays into student fitness. Imagine you have only just begun to get interested in improving your life through regular exercise. You decide to hit the campus gym. Already there are certain obstacles which you must overcome --obstacles to be found in any gym atmosphere. First, you will stick out like a sore thumb because you don't know the lingo. Lifters use a specialized vocabulary; traps, delts, abs, c-v, supersets, bis and tris -- if you raise an eyebrow at any of these terms, or request any clarification, alarms go off in the heads of most lifters. "This kid's an amateur," we instantly realize. In fairness, I must also point out many lifters (at least the ones that I get along with) don't use people's ignorance against them for the sake of asserting superiority. Many take the opportunity to encourage, advise and support newcomers. After all, it should be about promoting health, not competition. Advising and training someone can unfortunately become as condescending as simply scoffing at them. After all, the teacher always has the vantage point of one who's better informed (i.e., they get the ego of the expert). In either case, any newcomer may find themselves repelled by their reception. The newcomer must also deal with the outright competitive aspects of lifting. Most lifters will deny this, but many of them are trying to outdo one another in appearance and power. It's sometimes overt, but if you watch carefully, you can see the more pervasive and subtle competition. Guys look at one another, and then themselves in the mirror. "Are his biceps bigger than mine? Does he have more tone? Who has the better abs here?" Now if you are John Q. Twigbody, and you're just getting started, you will no doubt feel quite unable to measure up to the hardcore gym goers. Now add to these obstacles the many shortcomings of our specific facility. If you are trying to lose weight or train for endurance, you have to pay to get to the equipment you need. If you don't have money leftover following the gouge of tuition, tough. If you decide to try the free gym, you have the disagreeable physical conditions to contend with. If you are a woman, you have the added displeasure of being outnumbered by men. To go where you don't feel totally out of place, you must again pay a fee. True, the charge is less than most gyms, but isn't it funny that your tuition doesn't cover it? I believe it's the University's responsibility to make exercising more appealing and available to students. If more of us are to learn the value of balancing and sharpening mind and body, changes must be made. It seems to me the cultural conventions of weightlifting are quite beyond our ability to change. Thus, improving the facility presents the only feasible approach to making Hutch more attractive to all students, regardless of stature or gender. For one, considering the amount of tuition we pay, all of the exercise equipment should be free. For another, the free weight room should be properly ventilated and the lifters should practice the common courtesy of carrying a towel (a practice which could easily be regulated). Lastly, the cardiovascular and free weight facilities should be combined so that fitness enthusiasts aren't separated by gender and no one feels "outnumbered" in either of the exercise rooms. It should go without mentioning there should be a fire exit. Until these changes are affected, people like my friend Val will have plenty of valid excuses to avoid exercising.