Some Ohio University students are using new equipment this quarter at Ping Center as a result of a $30,000 upgrade of a free-weight room that had seen minimal changes since the building opened in January 1996.
Fifteen pieces of new weight equipment were installed during spring break.
Some of the old equipment was based on an outdated cable pulley system, which would often fray or get untracked, said Ohio University senior Paul Paolella, a student fitness manager at Ping and member of the committee responsible for choosing the equipment. New rowing and pressing machines are not on that system, making the facility's inventory more durable, he said.
The effective life of any weight equipment is about 10 years, and it was time for a change, said Hafedh Benhadj, Ping Center director.
This is the first major change we have made in our free-weight room since we purchased mats to save the floor because it was getting hammered
said Benhadj, who selected the committee.
The next major change might not be far off.
Several pieces of cardio equipment on the building's second floor have been there since 1996 and are approaching the end of their useful lives, which Paolella roughly estimated at 22,000 miles.
Benhadj said having cardio equipment that old in a recreation center is almost unheard of and maintenance is difficult.
We can't even find some of those parts anymore Benhadj said. It's like trying to find a motherboard for your 1995 computer.
Ping has not been too far behind the curve in exercise technology, such as in adding Swiss exercise balls. The balls allow a lifter to put pressure on core muscles such as abdominals while working another body part and were one of the biggest trends in weight rooms in the last decade, said Shigeru Sonny Sano, director of the strength and conditioning program for OU athletics.
The new weight equipment, made by Life Fitness Hammer Strength and selected from about 10 brands, reflects the trend in strength technology toward unilateral training -working opposite sides of the body separately, often with varying weights. It gives patrons a middle ground between free weights and machines, Paolella said.
The new equipment leaves somebody's body a little more responsible for moving the actual weight versus the other stuff where it was just on a track and you just pushed forward as hard as you could
he said.
Space is also a concern for Ping, and the versatile new equipment takes up less room, Paollela said. The new cable machines allow lifters to perform a larger variety of exercises on one machine.
Sano said the same philosophy is being increasingly applied to free weights.
It used to be you had the bench press bench
where the only thing you could do was bench press. Then you had the squat rack. Maybe in high school you had a platform for Olympic lifting
Sano said. Now it's more efficient.
The new cable machines are only about one shoulder width apart, enabling lifters to use the machines for squats and lunges, exercises they could not perform on the old cable machines. Those exercises simulate dumbbell workouts while being considerably less risky.
Life Fitness Hammer Strength is equipment that you're going to find in NFL locker rooms. I was even told they put it in submarines because of how compact it is
Benhadj said.
Paolella said the renovation, which eliminated many duplicate machines that were needlessly occupying space, fits with the facility's philosophy of offering a diverse array of equipment rather than a few popular machines.
We tried to diversify things and put pieces of equipment that we didn't have that maybe put people at a different angle or helped people feel the exercise a little bit differently
he said.
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