Socializing & Sweating
Students use school fitness center for more than just working out
Tosya Khodarkovsky
STAYING IN SHAPE. One of many in the U-High workout facility, junior Zain Jansen does a lat pull down Dec. 4. The room is usually packed with students breaking a sweat on different machines and laughing while trying out new workouts with their friends. Zain goes almost everyday after school to both stay fit, and have fun with his friends.
December 11, 2018
Warm, beige fluorescence hums in stark contrast from the cool clouds outside iron-barred windows. After a long day at school, friends pile their bags at the door and greet each other excitedly, rushing to work out on adjacent machines. Between sharp exhalations over the whirr of bicycles and the hum of treadmills, they shout encouragement. Some switch exercises once they are red-faced. Some stay fixed, headphones in their ears, until sweat drips onto the foam-padded floor. Weights clank on metal shelves, permeating the heat-heavy air.
It’s another day in the Kovler Gymnasium fitness center — but athletes aren’t the only ones working out, and some are finding a community of their own.
Zain Jansen, a junior, has frequented the school’s gym since he was a freshman even though he’s not on any of the school’s sports teams. Unlike some of his peers looking to stay in shape for their off season, Zain said he has always had an interest in staying fit, and usually exercises here five days a week.
While Zain said he appreciates the convenience and familiarity of the gym, he said he finds himself unmotivated from time to time.
“For a lot of people, getting exercise for the purpose of getting exercise, it’s hard to stay motivated for that,” he said, adding that the feeling of fitness helps drive him. “Part of it for me, too, is eating healthy. Combine that with getting daily exercise, and it just feels good.”
Olivia Jarard, a senior who met Zain through working out, said she also values the feeling of being in shape. Olivia, who was involved in rowing but quit because of tendinitis, knew she had to keep fit.
“I’ve never really clicked with sports in my life,” she said, “but I’ve always loved working out in general.”
Olivia said her main motivation is that working out is a great way to release stress.
“I don’t think about school work and friends and family, I’m just focusing on that. If I’m doing some intense workout, the last thing I want to think about is what homework I’m going to have to do,” she said.
Zain, who was introduced to the facility by a friend, said that the social aspect of exercise also makes it easier.
“You’re trying to be better than each other, or at least match each other, and that can really motivate you to do well. It doesn’t seem so intense of a workout when you’re doing it with a bunch of people,” Zain said over the echo of eager voices in the stairwell. “When you say, ‘I like going to the gym because it’s a social thing and it’s with my friends,’ it’s really fun. It doesn’t weigh on you as much.”
Though they have their own reasons for exercising, Zain and Olivia both said it can be great for anyone.
“As a piece of advice to kids who don’t find the motivation to work out, I would say that it’s open every day, it’s free, and there’s a lot of cool people that go,” Olivia said. “If you have nothing else to do, then you might as well.”
