By LilyBelle Cogliano
The Sally Blair Ames Sports Complex (SpoCo) has fifteen-plus treadmills, ten-plus bikes, and five-plus ellipticals, but only two Stairmasters.
Stairmasters are a popularly growing piece of workout equipment, especially among young women who want to work out their legs, glutes, and core all at once—a Stairmaster is the complete package and a great workout tool for those who need to exercise in a time crunch.
There are many workout routines online that promote consistency on the Stairmaster for the equipment’s ability to produce promising results; whether true or not, these claims have influenced many.
An example is the 45 for 45, where you climb for 45 minutes for 45 days. While this is an ambitious and exciting challenge, it is difficult in Stonehill’s SpoCo as its completion would require an ability to reserve the only two Stairmasters in the building for a long stretch of time day after day.
The one suggestion I have for Stonehill: acquire more Stairmasters.
When asking local gym-goer Silvia Montillo about this, she said, “I was using a Stairmaster the other day for a really long time, and I looked behind me and saw two guys were waiting for me to get off so that they could go on them together. It rushed me to get off sooner than I wanted.”
Stonehill’s lack of an adequate number of Stairmasters causes students to lose time while waiting for the equipment to become available and feel peer-pressured into reluctantly giving up time during their own workout.
Personally, I find that nine out of ten times I go to the gym with the intention of using the Stairmaster, both are occupied.
College students frequently go to the gym between classes and have only a brief period to work out—this is made all the more challenging when one’s preferred workout routine is corrupted if the Stairmasters are both in use the entirety of their allotted exercise time.
When asking Stonehill athlete Katie Santamaria about this, she said, “Sometimes I have to rush between class and work-study. I’ll run to the gym to try and climb for twenty minutes and, oh look, both the Stairmasters are taken.”
This issue is especially prominent during the spring as students become increasingly motivated to get in shape for spring break and the summer months.
Being a non-athletic student, I cannot speak for the athlete side of the gym, however, as someone who doesn’t have regular practices and games, it is important I find ways to stay active.
As Stonehill grows into its D1 conference and athletes are recognized as important members of the community, the school needs to keep in mind the considerations of the non-athletic students as well.
With the growing size of Stonehill’s student body, the gym will only be getting more packed with students—the more students attending the gym, the more machines will be in use.
The sooner Stonehill can match the equipment to these numbers, the better.
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