By Dylan Conway-Hartwick
Algonquin students living in residence will now have free, unlimited access to the new fitness room that officially opened its doors on fourth-floor Rosser house Jan. 19.
The room gives students access to a variety of weights, mats, exercise balls, dumbbells and kettle bells. It also promises to host many activities aimed at getting students moving.
Located on the residence building’s health and wellness recreation floor, it offers a convenient place for those who live on-campus to take part in any kind of workout they want, no matter what that may be.
“It just gives students a free space to let them do their own workouts. Anything from lifting weights, to doing yoga or even the insanity workout DVDs. It is meant as a supplement to going to the school gym, a place where you don’t have to stick to the traditional forms of working out,” said residence life advisor Anna ten Brinke.
Students who access the room have already started to make their own workouts, some have even posted their personal training schedules up on a Bristol board for others to see.
“It brings new ideas to other students,” said ten Brinke. “We had a fitness room on residence last year, but it was more machine-based, so over the summer we decided to revamp it. We wanted to step away from rigid workouts and create a space where students can explore what fitness really means to them, because not everyone views fitness as ‘working out.’”
Two fourth-floor residence advisors, Sara Charbonneau and Steven Gutknecht, oversee the room and hope to organize a variety of fun fitness activities to keep students active and encourage others to go.
“We want to set up some times that other people will be there to help students out, just to give everyone the initiative to use the room, meet new people and work together. It helps to build community,” said Charbonneau.
Charbonneau also helped to build a fitness curriculum for newcomers, along with the help of a fitness and health promotions student. She likes to encourage students from every floor to bring their own ideas up to the room and do their own thing.
“I saw some students in there the other day dancing and it made me happy,” she said. “It’s good to know that they can go there and feel comfortable to do whatever they want.”