The Ping Center's free weight room underwent a major renovation over spring break. Many key pieces of equipment were replaced by new machines that take up more space and are less adjustable, more difficult to use and, in some cases, completely unnecessary.
At a time when Ohio University has budget problems, I would like to understand why Ping chose to renovate the free weight room and how it decided on which pieces of equipment it would replace. Did Ping survey patrons to find out which pieces of equipment they wanted to see added or removed? Did Ping look at the usage patterns of the old equipment? Did Ping look at free weight rooms at other comparably-sized universities? The only reason I can see for replacing the old equipment is that many of the old machines had cables that frequently required repair.
Two new pieces of equipment are completely unnecessary and take up a lot of valuable space -the shrug machine and the dip machine. These exercises could easily be performed using existing equipment. Some pieces of highly used equipment were removed but were not replaced.
I am most disappointed with the choice to keep the tall bench press station. If you have short arms, you know which one I'm referring to. This leaves people with short arms only two usable bench press stations, and this is arguably the most popular exercise in the weight room. Also gone are a preacher curl station and a shoulder press station. Most of the new equipment requires plates for resistance. Ping did not order enough new plates, so now everyone spends time scavenging plates from other machines.
On the positive side, the Bobcat green colored pads on the new equipment look really sharp, and the new leg curl machine is great. But, otherwise I give Ping's renovation of the free weight room a big thumbs down.
-David Alexander works for Communication Network Services. Send him an e-mail at alexandd@ohiou.edu.
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Letter to the Editor
