Red faces and sweaty bodies fill every elliptical, treadmill, and stationary bike. People are standing around waiting for equipment to be free. Yoga mats on the ground are uncomfortably close together that people are nearly missing each other as they stretch. The time? 4:30 p.m. The place? Smith’s Olin gymnasium.
Every day at 4:30 p.m. Olin gym fills up with people eager to work out, but any excitement is short lived as people struggle to share the equipment with everyone who comes at this busy time. The lack of proper space and equipment at this time is a big problem for the patrons and students at Olin.
Smith classes end at 4:00 p.m. and dinner starts for students at 5:30 p.m. so the time in between is the busiest time at the gym.
“It has become a problem because everyone gets out of class at the same time,” Talia Seshaiah ’21 said. “After class, I dash to get to a machine.”
“I try to come in the morning,” Sally Robson ’22 said, “But I come now [at 4:30 p.m.] because it works with my schedule.”
During busy times attendants have trouble keeping up with supplying the gym with clean towels. Attendants have to monitor the machines.
“We have to kick people off after 30 minutes and make sure people are keeping to the queue on the whiteboard.” Cheyenne Mason ’22, an Olin monitor, said.
The queue is often unfollowed by the gym patrons. “If a treadmill opens up I always scramble to get it.” Naomi Giancola ’23 said.
The gym will not be able to expand in the future, so this problem does not have an obvious solution.
“There is not much we could do about it, it is more of a square footage issue” Jake Turner, director of Olin Fitness Center, said.
The Olin team has tried to implement new policies to improve this problem. Olin has created a replacement cycle for gym equipment since Turner has become the director. Older equipment is more susceptible to being broken, so with the replacement program more equipment will be ready to use during busy times. Ellipticals, treadmills, stationary bikes, and stair steppers have all been replaced recently to be kept up to date and to avoid malfunctions.
Despite attempts to solve this problem, this rush has caused many problems for people at the gym.
“I get way more self-conscious when it’s crowded, I only do things I feel confident in or things that take up less space,” Robson ’22 said.
“When I do weights the business interrupts my reps, but the machines are the worst,” Seshaiah ’21 said.
Having all the equipment busy has not only caused hardships, but there are also some good sides to these crowded times.
When machines are all being used have allowed students to explore other parts of the gym. “When it’s busy sometimes I’ll do suicides in the basketball court, do stairs, or run in the ITT,” Robson ’22 said.
Some people find lift partners from having a crowded environment. “Sometimes there are three of us alternating [lifting], everyone is understanding and helps each other out,” Seshaiah ’21 said.
Luckily, this problem subsides after the New Years’ resolution rush dies down. “January is always crazy, the first semester I worked was last spring and you can see the drop off…when people get stressed out, they stop coming,” Mason ’22 said.
“The first two weeks of class I go then that’s usually it, my hope is I keep going.” Fathima Salahudeen ’20 said. But the odds are against her in tandem with many of the patrons at the gym.
Some students have requested that there be later hours, more floor space by building on top of the open part of the gym, instructions on how to use the equipment, and more treadmills and ellipticals.
Turner explained Get Fit Smith is attempting to subside this problem by creating weight lifting classes twice a week to keep students out of the gym at its busiest hours.
