Ursinus held the official unveiling ceremony for their outdoor gym on Friday, October 2nd. Around 100 students, faculty, and representatives from the gym’s sponsor Independence Blue Cross gathered to celebrate the new facility.
President Gundolf Graml cited the gym as an important resource, both for the school and the Collegeville community.
“This is meant to bring students together and establish community, while also giving us an opportunity to connect with the community around us,” he said.
The gym officially arrived on campus at the start of the semester, after initially being announced this spring. The Grizzly reported at the time the project was financed by Blue Cross and the National Fitness Association. An additional $200,000 was also donated by various Ursinus alums.
The investment by the supporters is a part of their campaign to increase fitness awareness across Pennsylvania. Donor David Rosveld ‘70 expressed hopes that the gym will be a hotspot for exercise in the area, given its location.
“Given its location right near the Perkiomen trail, I hope the fitness court makes Ursinus a go-to spot,” he said. “I’m proud to support a project that champions healthy living and brings people together on our campus.”
What is there to do at the outdoor gym?
Ursinus’s fitness court is made to fit with programming by the “National Fitness Campaign,” sponsored by Blue Cross. This program involves seven movements: “push, lunge, pull, agility, bend, core and squat,” the requisite elements of a full-body workout.
The gym is made up of multiple “pulling rings” for rows and push-ups, pull-up bars, and “bend cushions” made for various core and upper-back exercises. There is also turf-like space and various structures in the middle of the “gym” made for squats and lunges. Various ways to use the facility can also be tracked through the Blue Cross “fitness court” app, which provides demonstrations of exercises for students.
Graml expressed hopes that the gym will become a resource not just for the athletes on campus, but for those who simply are looking to become more fit. In comparison to the weight and machine-focused gym, the “fitness court” is based around body weight movements that may be easier to learn.
“This just adds to our campus-wide representation in athletics, and allows us to get some of our non-athletes involved in fitness, “ he said.
Will the gym be a success?
While there are many ways to see how the gym can be used on campus, the fitness court has struggled to generate interest over the past few months, according to the campus’s students. Students across campus expressed confusion over how exactly to utilize the gym, and what it provided in comparison to the indoor gym, leading to an overall disregard for the facility.
“The idea of having a calisthenic gym was a great concept,” Quinn Grovesnor ‘28 said. “The actual equipment that’s out there just seems like a waste of money.”
It seemed that a lack of understanding of where the funding for the gym came from also factored into the negative attitudes towards it. Many expressed frustration over the school’s funding of the gym, without realizing that it was entirely funded through donations and grants. All were adamant that they had rarely seen the facility used by any student.
With opinions of the fitness court largely unfavorable, it’s unclear what impact it’ll have on campus. Regardless, the plan per the administration is to continue to emphasize physical fitness as a component of their “APEX” initiatives.
“It’s meant to engage students in physical activity, bring them together, and establish a community,” Graml said. “There’s an aspect of APEX about being active, and developing healthy habits to achieve [goals].”
Whether the outdoor gym can reach those goals remains to be seen. The space, located just outside the Floy Lewis Bakes Center’s campus entrance, is open 24 hours for all.
