I just got back from visiting a friend at the University of Vermont - its gym was awesome. I like to spend a lot of time at the gym working out, but after seeing UVM's facilities, I just don't get the same kick that I used to out of using our gym. I was wondering how you felt about Tufts' athletic facilities.
I like it here. The food isn't terrible, I have some lady friends, and I have never before had a professor who swears more than I do. But by far, the best part of this school is something that often gets criticized, a place where, due to my lack of a bustling social life, I spend a little bit too much of my time - the gym.
People complain about the dilapidated quality of the dumbbells. I say that there is a certain amount of satisfaction in wiping the rust off your hands after a heavy dumbbell workout - if you don't have rust on your hands after a workout, get your ass back in the gym. People lament the limited availability of treadmills. I say there is nothing better than watching hungover students running an extra hour on the treadmills in desperate attempts to burn excess alcoholic calories. People don't like the fact that there is only one set of cables. I say there is no better way to bond with your fellow students than chatting while you wait to work in with him (or her) on a set.
The gym here at Tufts is not state-of-the-art. In fact, it is nowhere near it. But instead of being upset about it, I choose to say it has character. I like the gritty feel of the benches. I don't mind when our Div. III athletic teams feel they are important enough to restrict half of the gym for three hours each day so they can chat with each other and stare at themselves in the mirrors with less distraction. It doesn't even bother me when that guy who looks like the missing link comes over to me and, through an elaborate series of gesticulations and grunts, impresses upon me the fact that he is "supersetting" and was in the middle of using the machine I have been on for the past fifteen minutes. All of these things just add to the atmosphere that I love.
Also deserving of some credit are the athletic trainers here. Just a few weeks ago I approached a guy who I assumed was the head trainer with a question about an injury. He took a full five minutes out of his circuit to listen to me and answer my question in depth even though I wasn't an "athlete." Trainers like that are hard to find.
At my gym at home, the trainers are all college drop-outs who like nothing better than to sit around and BS about their own routines. Ask them about something, and you get a 15-minute oration on stuff that even a Tufts English major couldn't interpret as pertinent to your original question.
Yes, the gym might not meet up to Div. I standards, but the gym here at Tufts is definitely one of the school's most endearing attributes. The trainers are great, the equipment is hardy, and the people are some of the most... well, dedicated, anyway... that I have ever met.
Oh, and one more thing - address your fitness related questions to dailysports@hotmail.com
