New program to ease recreation center intimidation
Training program offers help with machines, techniques
The program, which is catered to those who are new to weight training, shows proper techniques and gives specialized training.
By Mary Sorrick (Contact)
Thursday, April 10th, 2008
A free weight training program for students and faculty will launch this month at the Student Recreation Fitness Center.
The program, scheduled to begin April 21, will teach the proper ways to use the recreation center’s various weight lifting machines. Each 45-minute training session will include instruction on 12 selectorized weight machines, such as the chest press and leg press, which have weight stacks that affect larger muscle groups.
Free weight machine training
Where: The Student Recreation Fitness Center
When: Beginning April 21
Sign up for a time slot at the recreation center’s cardiovascular resistance training desk
Amber Long, fitness coordinator at the recreation center, said the program would be catered to students who were new to exercise and were not quite sure how to use the selectorized machines.
“We want to make sure new people are comfortable using the equipment and learning how to set the machine up to their body,” Long said.
Improper use of the weight machines could lead to injury, Long said, so one of the program’s primary goals was to help explain each aspect of the equipment and make it seem less intimidating.
“There are so many pieces of equipment and so many people here,” Long said. “This is an opportunity to help people become familiar and ease their misconceptions or anxieties.”
The recreation center offers students the opportunity to meet with a trainer for personalized instruction on exercise equipment, but Long said this new program would provide a much more basic orientation to the weight room.
Becky Kudrna, trainer at the recreation center, said the times available for in-depth personal training had tended to be inconvenient for student schedules.
“You usually had to get here at 5:30 in the morning,” she said. “I’m absolutely certain that kept people from doing it.”
Kudrna said the new program would offer a variety of time slots for students to choose from.
Long said students who already used the selectorized machines could also benefit from personal training because trainers could point out any bad exercise habits a student may have developed.
Kimberly Westphall, Wichita junior and marketing program manager for the recreation center, said fixing those habits would help students get more out of each workout.
The program will run through the end of the semester and, depending on its success, could become a permanent feature at the recreation center, Westphall said.
The new training sessions are free for students and faculty. Time slots can be reserved by visiting the cardiovascular resistance training desk at the recreation center.
—Edited by Madeline Hyden
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