At Mashouf Wellness Center, students have voiced frustrations over aging and missing gym equipment, and a poor layout of the gym.
In response, campus officials and student leaders said they are taking steps, such as replacing equipment and managing the fitness area, to address these concerns and improve the gym experience.
“In terms of utilization, the Campus Recreation staff monitor and manage both the space and equipment usage on a regular basis,” said Miguel Hernández, associate vice president for student life. “The team works to assess what areas of the gym are most popular and address issues that may arise from time to time. We are most excited that students benefit from what Mashouf has to offer and look forward to installing the new equipment.”
Kinesiology student major Davey Hoffman noted the impact of the missing equipment on their workouts throughout the semester. Hoffman said he loves doing progressive overload workouts, a workout designed to overload the muscles with heavy weights to promote muscle growth, so missing a certain dumbbell affects his workout.
“Sometimes like, you know, dumbbells… I just can’t find it. Sometimes I’ll do 15 and then sometimes I want to do 17.5s, but I can’t find the 2.5s to put on the ends,” Hoffman said.
Other gym-goers, like first-year student Esteban Jimenez, echoed similar statements about how missing equipment has affected their workouts throughout the semester.
“I can’t get enough dumbbells to do what I need to do, so I have to do more sets,” Jimenez said.
Demont Oliver, interim director of Campus Recreation at Mashouf, acknowledged the issue of missing equipment
“Industry standard puts a five-to-seven year life cycle on most equipment,” Oliver said. “We are aware of dumbbells needing to be replaced. As they get worn or damaged, we remove them from the floor for safety.”
Associated Students President Brandon Foley is the chair of the Mashouf Wellness Center advisory committee. He said the gym has “a lot of maintenance issues.”
“The air filter is getting changed out on the regular. Some of the weights are a bit wobbly like the easy bars,” Foley said. “Some of the machines are old and beyond the point of repair.”
Foley added that while funding for upgrades is available, Mashouf is missing a core staff member, which is disrupting the process of equipment inspection.
“The assistant executive director of facilities has been vacant for a while, which has made some of this stuff, which should be pretty routine, not go over as smoothly,” Foley said.
Hernández confirmed that due to declining enrollment, some vacant full-time staff positions have been eliminated. He added that they are planning to “reset the space” during the summer when there are fewer students going to Mashouf.
Students have also found the layout of the gym to be problematic. Though Mashouf spans 118,560 square feet, the layout of the weight room on the second floor can make it feel like a cramped space. Cardio machines, including 20 treadmills and 18 ellipticals, occupy much of the floor.
The machines meant for training particular muscles do not compare in numbers. There are only three machines: a leg press, a pectoral fly/rear deltoid fly machine for the back and a bicep curl machine for the arms. Trainees who are there for weight training are often backed up at the machines in a crowded corner.
Golden Gate Xpress observed that even on a crowded weekday evening, not a single elliptical machine was in use on the second floor, whereas the two Smith machines, which are used for bench pressing and squatting, had a crowd of five people waiting their turn.
“We do need more machines in general because it’s like one machine per movement,” Jimenez said. “There’s always a ton of people here.”
Fourth-year student Anai Underdue said it is disappointing that the campus has decided to wait so long to address the concerns on the floor.
“It’s a part of my lifestyle and a lot of other people who go to the gym,” Underdue said. “I do think that is a big problem that they wait pretty long to address, or fix or even listen to some of the students sometimes about issues they have.”
