Many students who didn’t work out regularly before have filled the Student Recreation and Wellness Center to work on their New Year’s resolutions.
For sophomore accounting and finance major Ashlee Feltis, being a new face at SRWC was a personal triumph.
In October, Feltis dove for a disc while playing for Ball State’s ultimate Frisbee team and landed on her neck.
After months of spinal problems, Feltis said she decided the new year meant a new start.
“Its scary, but I feel like it’s my way of releasing all of the bad energy within myself,” she said. “It just felt like the right time to go and get back in it, so I guess the new year could have a lot to do with that.”
According to Christine Rody and Alyssa Slabaugh, who work the SRWC front desk checking people in, on a busy day the gym can see anywhere from 160 to 200 or more people in an hour.
The trend at SRWC isn’t unusual according to a University of Scranton, Pa., study. About a third of New Year’s resolutions are to lose weight, and 15 percent are to begin an exercise program.
“I give everyone a month,” Rody said.
Feltis and her workout partner, sophomore fashion design major Christine Baker, said they don’t mind the large crowd because they are just happy to be back.
“It kind of gave me more ideas because you can watch people and see what they are doing,” Feltis said.
“We got inspired to do these little ab workouts,” Baker said.
Since junior physical education majors Steven Boomershine and Bryan Swift have to take fitness tests for their majors, they have become regulars at SRWC. They said the extra people cause a change in their workout.
“I didn’t know it was going to be that busy to be honest, [and] that’s kind of ridiculous,” Swift said. “I usually workout at night when it’s not as busy. It will probably take us longer, that’s for sure.”
Swift says the best time to avoid working out is around 3 to 4 p.m., before dinner and after classes.
Jason Adamowicz, associate director of special facility management and recreation services, also recommends avoiding peak workout times, even though the staff does everything they can to prepare for the extra traffic.
“We do quite a bit of maintenance during the winter break of our equipment and our facility to prepare for the high volume,” Adamowicz said. “For example, for all of our treadmills and weight equipment, we have a maintenance crew come in and basically clean out those pieces and do minor repairs.”
For Feltis and Baker, the next challenge after getting back into the gym is staying with it.
“We’re pretty good about exercising. We both had obstacles. I think we’ll handle it better now that we’ve been through it,” Baker said. “We were sounding pretty determined when we were talking about it earlier, so I don’t think we’ll [give up].”
