At a campus with over 10,000 students, around six different colleges, and many different buildings on campus, I tend to spend a lot of my time at the Recreation, Wellness, and Fitness Center, or what the students call it, the rec. I try and make my way there at least once a day to work out and stay in shape. I have played some type of sport for as long as I can remember, and I do my best to stay in shape, therefore the rec is my second home compared to the dorm.
From the outside, the rec looks like another concrete building. It does not look very big and if you have never been in it, you may not think that there are a lot of things that you can do in there and you may not see why it is a big deal. But, what is in there is seen after you walk up six concrete steps and entire the rec.
Stepping in the foyer of the rec and looking to the left and you see that there are different table games, such as Ping-Pong, foosball, and billiards. To the right, there are tables and chairs for people to relax after a workout. The last thing is the counter where you swipe your card and are to enter the rest of the rec.
Downstairs you here the bounce of the basketball, guys screaming and running around, to your left where all of guys are playing basketball. To your right are the locker rooms and people are coming and going in and out of the locker room. If you keep going to the left you see the rock wall and smell the odor of all of the equipment and all of the sweaty people in the glass room with the rock wall. Past the rock wall you hear the slamming of the free weights on the ground or against the metal of the stands. If you look to your left you will find various rooms, where if you go at a certain time you will hear pop music and feet scraping the floor trying to Zumba or Cardio Kick. If there are a lot of people you also get the lovely smell of sweat and other body odor. Sometimes the odors combine from the rooms with the people doing the free weights. When actually going into one of the rooms for group exercise, you see all of the mirrors lining the wall and hear the heavy breathing of the workout going on.
Back on the main floor, past the foyer, are all of the equipment and machine weights. You can hear the belt of the treadmill as people run on it, you can hear the music blaring from various ipods, and see different shows on multiple flat screens that you can also listen to. There are always people in there working out shaping their bodies. If you lean over the rail you can see the courts below and still hear the basketball players running around, but now it is easier to see their game.
The final level of the rec is just a flight of stairs from the equipment. The four lane track finishes off the rec. You hear the stomping of people running and their ipods cranked up to get them fired up to run their best. Sometimes you even see people walking at a brisk pace to just get their heart rate up. If you stop and listen a little harder you can hear the runners and walkers breathing harder and their lungs gasping for oxygen. Leaning over the rail again, you can now see just about everything. You can still hear the belts of the treadmills, the sounds of the basketball games, and ipods in the ears of the students. You see people pushing themselves on the equipment and the sweaty guys pushing each other around on the basketball court. The smell is still that of sweat and other body odors, not terribly refreshing, but the smell of the good workout.
From the outside, the rec may not seem like a good place to get a good workout. It looks so small and unforgiving with all of the concrete. But, once inside, you see the multiple places to go and workout and some places to even relax and hangout with your friends and roommates. Once leaving you feel good about yourself and you are ready to take on the world with your new body and confidence.
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