The gym: A place where meatheads can drink their fill, a place where the stench of protein powder is overpowered by the stench of sweat, and a place where gains are made and calories expended. Between the SRC and Rams, UNC's gyms are almost always filled with students ready to get their exercise on. But there's a tiny problem: The gyms need to be updated ASAP. Why? I could give you seven reasons:
1. More room
All of the machines are way too dang close to each other. It feels like everyone is on top of each other. There is very little room to perform variations of exercises or even have a friend be able to stand by to work in. Also, the proximity of weight apparatuses grants prime booty-staring ability—the less of that, the better. Not to mention how much more encouraged I would be to foam-roll and stretch if there was actually room to do it.
2. More bars
I don't know about you, but I'm pretty tired of stealing bars from bench presses or the incline for deadlifting because all the squat racks are already full. It makes me feel bad for all the lifters on their chest day.
3. Add weighted barbells, please!
I know Rams has weighted barbells, but who has the time to walk all the way to Rams for one or two exercises? Weighted barbells are pretty standard for gym equipment—you'd think a D1 college would keep up.
4. Cardio machines that actually tell you how many calories you burned
Seriously, if you were on the Stairmaster for 45 minutes on level 10, there's no way you only burned 200 calories. I call baloney. Let's get some machines in here that are accurate!
5. More cable machines
The cable machines provide such a versatile range of exercises to preform that adding more cable machines would definitely increase the utility of the average gym-goer. The two that we have have absolutely worn out the yellow "out of order" signs.
6. More dumbbells
Since we're in college and all around the same age range, a good majority of us have similar strength capacities. Almost every time the next exercise to cross off my list involves dumbbells, every dumbbell between 20 and 45 pounds is already in use. The SRC needs more of the mid-weight dumbbells to keep everyone's workout on the right schedule.
7. Better Wifi
If you want to watch Netflix while doing your cardio or listen to Pandora when during your work out routine, you'll probably spend most of your time watching your favorite song or show buffer. The SRC could definitely use a better wifi connection for those of us who don't want to stare at the wall or work out to the sound of everyone else breathing.
