On any given summer day one canwalk by the weight room and hear weights dropping and loud music storming out the door as the athletes train. The weight rooms serves an important purpose at Paly, allowing its athletes to train during their offseason so they can be ready once they start playing again.
Paly recently updated the weight room by ordering brand new equipment to modernize in some areas. This improvement was much needed because a lot of the old equipment had started to fall apart or was already broken. The new weights and dumbells are a lot safer now because of they are made out of this plastic material instead of iron.
This improvement of the weight room will allow athletes to train more efficiently and reduce the risk of injury, which has been a problem in the past.
Many Paly athletes are excited about this change and are eager to get into the weight room to try out the new equipment. There are now more weights because Paly kept some of the old weights that were in good condition
“The new weights are good addition because we needed more weights because many of our old ones were falling apart,” Junior Andrew Frick said.
Having more weights does create some problems though because as a result more people are using the small facility, which was already packed, according to Frick.
There are some people out there that believe Paly didn’t do enough to improve its weight room and that there are more important areas that need to be addressed. Because of the sub par condition of the weight room, many athletes have turned to membership gyms such as the JCC or the YMCA to workout. Varsity basketball player, Aldis Petriceks still prefers working out at other locations instead of Paly, despite the improvement that were made.
“No not at all, I wouldn’t discourage anyone from using the weight room, but despite the changes that they’ve made, you can get much better equipment, better environment, more room at a YMCA or some other gym,” senior Aldis Petriceks said when asked if the improvements have influenced him to workout more at Paly.
P.E teacher/ Track and Field coach, Jason Fung believes Paly will never be up to standard with any of the private gyms because they simply do not have the money to fund it. However he also thinks that one can do any workout in the Paly weight room that one could do at the YMCA or any other gym.
“Paly will never be able to compete with those private gyms, we simply do not have the money to buy what they have. It’s like apples and oranges, you cannot compare a high school weight room with a 24 hour fitness. However we have a very high functioning weight room for a high school. We can do everything in that weight room that they can do at a YMCA,” Fung said.
One of the other problems with the weight room is the space athletes have to work out in there. It gets very crowded when there are a lot of people working out at the same time. Varsity football player, Justin Rittman finds this really disturbing when he is trying to lift.
“When there are more than 20 people in there, one can barely move, it can really disrupt my workout routine when I have to waste time trying to move around in there,” junior Justin Rittman said.
This problem will soon be addressed according to Fung as a new weight room is part of the plan for improvements around the school.
“The new weight room is in the plans and will be more state of the art. There will be more space but a new weight room does not have an effect on what one is able to get out of a workout,” Fung said.
Overall, the new weights are a step in the right direction in terms of improving the quality of our weight room. People should be able to accomplish what they need in the weight room despite its current status. Underclassmen can hopefully be here when the new weight room is built and benefit from what it has to offer.
