Fitness resolutions sometimes go wrong
Gyms are packed with New Year’s resolutioners who made the commitment to get in shape. However, overpacked gyms can lead to accidents and embarrassing moments.
“Any time after five during the first part of January, the gym is hectic,” said Matt Roderick, a sophomore majoring in exercise science and a certified personal trainer. “I pretty much live at the gym, so I have a lot of unforgettable gym stories.”
Roderick said it is almost always a good thing to ask others for help in the gym, but sometimes it can put people in embarrassing situations. About a year and a half ago, Roderick started training with Corey Wilkinson, former Mr. Utah, he said.
“I saw him at the gym and wanted really big legs like him, so I asked him to teach me how to squat,” Roderick said. “He agreed to help me out and we started doing twenty sets of squats a week.”
Roderick said prior to this, he hadn’t done very much squatting.
“I always felt ridiculous next to him because he always squatted at a much higher weight,” he said. “It was very humbling. Because of this, I decided to try a rep at a higher weight. When I started to finish my higher weight rep he said do seven more. I yelled, ‘No, no!’ Then he started pushing me down while I yelled no. Everybody at the gym went silent and looked at me while I yelled. He made me do eight extra squats. I collapsed to the ground, not moving, just moaning.”
“I like to think I can do more than I can do,” Roderick said. “Squatting with Mr. Utah was a painful lesson.”
Students may find the gym a crowded place to learn lessons at the beginning of the year.
“The gym is definitely more crowded at the beginning of the year,” said Don Corbell, a junior majoring in human movement science. “People feel fat, get a gym membership for Jan. 1, workout for three weeks and realize they hate it and stop going.”
When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, some people don’t even make it to the three week mark.
“My friend and I walked into the gym, looked around, noticed it was crowded and walked out,” said Ryan Allen, a senior majoring in business. “That was the end of me ever working out.”
Although Allen has never had his own embarrassing gym experience, he said he has friends who have been mortified.
“I don’t work out, but my one friend had a really embarrassing experience once at the gym,” Allen said. “She wanted to impress some guys so she turned the treadmill on really fast. It flung her off the back into the wall, and when she tried to stand up the belt kept burning her. The guys she was trying to impress came to help her get up, but they never talked to her again after that.”
Braxton Harris, an undeclared sophomore, said when lifting a lot of weight to make sure to keep all bodily functions in check.
“One time in high school me and my friend were doing some lifting for football,” Harris said. “The whole team was in the weight room doing their workout. My friend was doing military press where you jump and press the bar above your head and he was doing it with a lot of weight, and when he jumped and pressed it above his head, he shit his pants. He dropped the weight and walked funny to the locker room. No one saw him the rest of the day.”
Roderick said the gym can feel so crowded that it can be hard to find the right equipment to work out with, but the rush of resolutioners die out around February.
“Don’t expect to find a bench at the gym during January,” Roderick said. “The resolutioners keep the gym packed from 5 o’clock to any time after 5. The gym is hectic, but 90 percent of the resolutioners you won’t see by February. For most, once it gets to Valentine’s Day, they will be done.”
Roderick has his own personal theory on why resolutioners quit their goals.
“The problem that people have is they lack three things: knowlege, discipline and patience,” he said. “Resolutioners may want to be healthy, but if they lack those three things they will fail their fitness goals.”
He said most of all, people move too fast.
“People try to take their bodies from walking speed to race car speed in five seconds,” Roderick said. “It doesn’t work. You’re going to burn out your engine.”
– haileehousley@gmail.com
STUDENTS EXERCISE at the Fieldhouse. Getting fit is part of many people’s New Year’s resolutions, but sometimes it can have uninteded consequences. SAMANTHA BEHL photo