With anticipation growing for the new Scot Center, it is clear that maintaining an active lifestyle is important amongst our student body, whether one is training as an athlete or on a casual trip to the gym. It is also certain that the yet-to-be-installed solar panels, which will be the largest in the country on such a structure, reflect the progressive nature that this college strives to emanate.
Even though I will have graduated, I truly hope the new Scot Center will embrace this innovative sentiment in accordance to the students’ desires for a physically fit culture and successful athletic programs here at Wooster. To accomplish this goal, the College must incorporate into the fitness center new and progressive ways to train that are becoming ever more popular across the country.
The College of Wooster’s website says that the Scot Center will have “a fitness center with a full array of circuit training stations, traditional as well as elliptical running machines, rowing machines and free weights.” Before getting to my point, I commend the College for incorporating rowing machines into the fitness center’s cardio ensemble. Free weights also have their place in any weight room, as long as they are used in the correct manner and not taken to excess.
Yes, power-lifting (i.e. squats, bench) help build explosiveness and fast twitch muscle. However ,when taken to the point of competition with extreme weights, your joints simply won’t hold up. I am a personal testament to this fact after having three shoulder surgeries, being in need of two more and having a constant reminder of these effects from the irritating ëclick’ every time I extend† both my left and right my knee.
With this said, what scares me the most in seeing the description of the new fitness center are the fitness circuit training stations. The bodybuilding techniques that made Arnold famous are outdated and, frankly, not beneficial for athletes or the casual gym user. In fact, they are actually quite dangerous, as they cause muscle imbalances. When performing any activity, do you ever isolate one single muscle while doing it? Isolating your biceps on a preacher curl bench in hope of making them bigger does nothing to improve your performance or actually make you stronger while doing activities.
Contrary to the methods I have described above, more and more athletes and casual Joes are turning to progressive styles of working out and training. The most popular of these programs that you may have heard of is Crossfit; however, they all have the same basic principles. These new methods do not isolate muscles but incorporate the entire body, during which it is essential to engage your core and back, the actual location from where you derive your power.
By combining cardiovascular endurance, strength, flexibility, speed, agility, balance and coordination all within one workout, this way of training actually increases your efficiency in the gym. These progressive styles also help reduce the risk of injury. By using your own bodyweight in suspension from the ceiling, the TRX suspension trainer forces all your little stabilizing muscles to work in ways they would not while doing standard lifting techniques.
However, training in this progressive manner requires the correct equipment and designated space; our current weight room situation simply does not permit it. As of now, it is absolutely absurd that one cannot take a BOSU ball out of the training room and use it in the weight room. The new fitness center needs to incorporate new exercise technology such as kettle bells, gymnastic rings, BOSU balls, jumps ropes and TRX trainers so that the student body can train in more efficient and progressive ways. If they do, the inside of the new fitness center may very well resemble the intended exterior projection of the new and progressive Scot Center.