New workout machines to be added to Fitness Center

An anonymous donor may have made it a little bit easier for students to keep their New Year's resolutions to stay in shape. Thanks to a $50,000 donation towards the University's exercise facilities, five new treadmills and five new elliptical trainers were added to the Lunder Fitness Center over winter break.

"This person is very committed to Tufts University and the Personalized Performance Program," said Mike Pimentel, the Coordinator for Strength, Conditioning, and Fitness. The Tufts Community Union (TCU) and Athletic Department designated the donation towards the purchase of the specific ten new machines.

TCU Senators sophomore Chloe Snider and freshman Jessica Feinberg met with Pimentel and athletic director Bill Gehling to discuss ways to improve the waits at the Fitness Center, especially long in the colder winter months.

"It was always really frustrating to go to the gym and not be able to get a treadmill," Snider said, citing the concerns of many students.

Program Manager of Tufts Personalized Performance Program Franci Otting worked with Pimentel and Gehling to decide what to purchase and to design a new layout for the workout areas.

"This is just the department responding to the needs of the students," Pimentel said. "We read the Daily too, and after meeting with the members of the Senate, we knew we had to just move and get it done."

"I'm psyched. It is a first rate gym and I would contend that we definitely have one of the better facilities in the area," Pimentel said.

One issue the planners had to contend with was the layout of the room with additional machines.

"We actually spent several hours observing the fitness center," Pimentel said. It was determined which machines were most used to best suit the layout of the room.

The new arrangement includes a larger stretching area, and the circuit of weight machines is set up to give a full-body workout as students move from one end to the other. "Everything needs to get a lot of use as a single station or to have multiple functions." Pimentel said.

The plan was to have everything in before the beginning of the spring semester, so that it would "meet the heaviest demands," according to Pimentel.

Sophomore and gym supervisor Stephen Leichman said that "the machines themselves are nice, easy to use, and it's nice to have the variety of options. People complain about the wait still, but no matter how many machines are in the gym, there is going to be a wait."

"I have heard tons of positive feedback from people who are very in favor of how we re-appropriated things," Pimentel said.

There are still more plans in the works for the Fitness Center. Pimentel wants the gym's video screens to be tied into JumboCast "so people could watch games while working out," he said. "It would be a good way to modernize the fitness center."

And Otting said that fitness education is another priority. "Our challenge now is to educate the gym patrons on proper gym etiquette and care of the equipment," he explained.

According to Otting, the life-span of the machines could be lengthened through education. "It is a community responsibility to respect the equipment and to share space and machines with the other people who want to work out."