The Quinn

I want to tell you all about the facility that I'm training at right now. I'm currently at school at Appalachian State University. There isn't a CF affiliate in Boone, and even if there was I probably wouldn't pay a membership fee when I have access to the university facilities included in my tuition. Up until about 2 months ago I had been training at the Student Recreation Center, which was opened my freshman year here. It's a really nice, big facility with an indoor 200 m track, lifting platforms, rock wall, etc. They even got a rower last year.

However, for some reason when they were designing the building they put the weight room, including the platforms, up on the second floor right above the offices and locker rooms. As pretty much anybody should be able to imagine, this was a bad idea. I mean, if you buy platforms and bumper plates isn't the assumption that people are going to be dropping weights onto the ground? How could such a huge oversight have occurred? If I had to venture a guess, it's probably because the people responsible for operating the facilities haven't lifted a weight in the past decade, if ever. So, this led to weight room staff asking me not to drop bumper plates on to a platform. Offensive, to say the least.

So, as of Summer 2011 they finally removed the platforms and bumper plates from the Student Rec. Center and put brand new platforms in the older recreation center, The Quinn. This is where I'm currently training. The Quinn was built in 1987 and even though it's the new home of the best training equipment on campus it certainly has its downfalls. First, the building layout is incredibly sexist. When you walk in, to your left is the weight room and to your right is an open space with hardwood floors and mirrored walls where aerobics classes are taught. These two rooms are divided by a "cardio" area with treadmills, ellipticals and the like, pictured below. They decided to put the Men's locker room to the left, by the weight room and the women's to the right, near the aerobics floor because circa 1987 AppState believed in cultivating a student body comprised of men that never do aerobics and women that never lift weights. As a result my girlfriend, who lifts heavy barbells on a regular basis, has to walk all the way to the other side of the building and go up and down two small flights of stairs if she needs to use the bathroom mid-workout.

Front Desk and "Cardio" area at The Quinn

Most of the people who lift in the Quinn are young males with an extreme distaste for training their lower body. So, common fashion is a tank top to showcase the guns, coupled with sweatpants to hide the marathon-winner legs. But, perhaps my favorite thing to hate about the Quinn are the posters they have on the wall with suggestions for lifts to work certain muscle groups. Among these posters is this gem:

Yea, you read that correctly. "Stomach workout".  Not "Abdominal workout" or "Midsection workout". Shit, I'd be happier if it said "Tummy Tightening Routine". But, this insults my intelligence on a more advanced level than just goofy semantics because the stomach is an actual piece of human anatomy in the digestive system. In order for this poster to be made accurate "torso twists" and "incline situps" would have to be replaced with pictures of McDonald's menu items.

Having to train at this sub-par gym is made all the more torturous by the fact that I have to watch from a distance as Crossfit Durham, my home gym when I'm in Raleigh, is being transformed into a Strength and Conditioning paradise. Luckily, there's only another month before my return.