UPDATE: Weight room leaps for new custom equipment

The weight room here at Westside High School is said to be one of the best in the state.

If you’ve never been inside the weight room, the room is decked out in the theme of red and black and it includes state of the art weight equipment that can accommodate a wide variety of athletes and their needs. About 5 years ago, the weight room purchased more equipment including 12 more squat racks which in turn helped to benefit the students of Westside.

“It increased the amount of athletes that are able to work out in the weight room, we used to only have a maximum of 16 people using the squat racks at one time.” Physical Education instructor Craig Secora said.

It’s no surprise that equipment in a weight room is not cheap. Buying a treadmill from the store can cost you hundreds of dollars and while buying them in bulk can save you money, it will still cost you a pretty penny. The majority of the money that the weight room spends goes into repairs for equipment.

“While the equipment can be expensive, once you make that purchase, they’re good for many years.” Secora said.

Many people come in the weight room after school on their own time to improve their overall body health and fitness.

Some adults in the Westside Community buy fitness memberships and use the weight room between the hours of 6-8 am and 5-9 pm, or on Saturday 9-12. The money collected from these memberships goes directly into the maintenance and upkeep of the weight room. The Westside weight room is unique from other conventional fitness centers because it allows Olympic Style lifting such as dead lifts and has no other limitations.

“They [weight room] users have developed fabulous exercise habits to maintain a healthy lifestyle for the rest of their existence.” Secora said.

UPDATE: This week Westside’s weight room bought an entirely new set of dumbbells for the purpose of benefitting the students of Westside.

All together, the racks, design of the dumbbells and shipping and handling cost a little under 12 thousand dollars. The money for the dumbbells was donated by the Warrior Athletic Club and Jim Sides from the ABC Building, the remainder was paid for by Tom Kirkman.

“We bought them [dumbbells] with the mindset that they would last a long time,” Secora said.

Dumbbells in the weight room on average last about 15 years, and with the new, better quality dumbbells that were just bought, they are expected to last a lot longer.