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JP Espinosa

Weighing Up the Weight Room at the RAC

Reminiscing of the Weights of My Past

Champions are formed where the dull sounds of rubber hitting the floor and the clanking

noise of metal hitting metal create music to my listening ears, the weight room. Since starting the

art of weightlifting early on in my high school career, I have always imagined any weight room

in this sort of regard and have held the perspective that the weight room is to be used solely in an

intense fashion.

Being a young man and growing up with cartoons that displayed and valued strength, I

was immediately enamored with the concept of being the strongest around. This deep interest

gave me an advantage in my experience of the research of the weight room of the RAC, as I was

motivated to use it as a tool for becoming the strongest. As I transitioned into high school, I was

able to join the football team which became the link to help me become attached to the weight

room.

As a football player at McIntosh High School, I was introduced to the weight room with

rigid workout schedules and structures. When we were told to bench we benched and when we

were told to squat, we squatted. This experience allowed me to become an insider to the world of

weight lifting by granting me the experience of different basic techniques of major workouts,

such as bench pressing, deadlifting, and squatting, and by allowing me to experience of a

structured system with a defined goal at the end. As I experienced the culture of the RAC at

Georgia Southern University, I developed a higher respect for all types of workout types.

History of Weightlifting in America

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The start of weight lifting began with “man’s fascination with physical prowess” in

ancient civilizations, such as the Chinese and Greek civilizations (Dreschler). Weight lifting

entered the Olympics in 1896 and has been removed and added on multiple times, until the

1920’s Olympics, where it featured as a regular event. American weightlifting did not gain much

influence until the rise of US dominance of the sport from the 1930’s to the 1950’s.Through the

effort of great men, such as George Jowett, Alan Calvert, and Ottley Coulter, weightlifting

gained significance through the influence of the York Barbell team, the Strength and Health

magazine, and the victories of several strongmen, such as John Davis and Frank Spellman,

leading the United States to victory (Dreschler). This popularity of weight lifting in America is

supplemented by the health benefits.

Why Do People Lift Weights?

While there are several personal reasons for people to lift weights, there are some proven

benefits of strength training in general. According to the Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention, a regular strength training routine can decrease the signs and symptoms of: arthritis,

diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, back pain, and depression (“Why Strength Training?”). Overall,

weight lifting can help reduce the effects of time on the body if it is done regularly. The reasons

that I choose to weight lift are more along a moral line of thinking. I choose to weight lift to

become strong enough to protect the ones that I care about; the benefits of reducing arthritis,

back pain, and other conditions are side benefits. Other reasons that people may choose to weight

lift, may fall in a more aesthetic category; some weight lifters may want to lift to look their best.

Weight lifting can make a body become more lean and muscular, depending on the type of

workouts being done. Working with lighter weights, but with high amounts of repetitions creates

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a leaner look. Working with heavy weights, but with few repetitions creates a larger, bulkier

look.

Outlining the Weight Room

The right section, named the Weight Machine section, is filled with weight

machines from wall to wall; it also contains a set of stairs and an elevator that leads to the second

floor of the RAC. This section of the weight room has approximately thirty-seven weight

machines that are generally sectioned off by the area of the body that they work. Working from

the far right to the left end of the Weight Machine section, a row of weight machines dealing

with the lower body region starts against the wall. Next are two rows of weight machines that

focus mainly on the upper body and abdominal regions of the body. In the bottom left corner,

under the three aforementioned rows, a long black yoga mat lies on the floor. In the middle of the

Weight Machine section, the desk where the staff stay and towels can be picked up sits in the

front, opposite from the stairs and elevator to the second floor. In the left area of the Weight

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Machine section, there are machines that are varied in the area of the body they work, but most

deal with a pulling motion. At the top of the left area, a row of six benches with a mix of incline

and decline orientation lie across from various equipment, such as medicine balls and light kettle

bells.

The left section of the weight room, named the Free Weight section, is a kingdom of

cages, plates, and dumbbells. Working from the far left side of the Free Weight section, the

stations for the two major workouts and Olympic exercises lie. In the top left corner, there are

four racks made for primarily squatting. In the middle area, under the squat rack, two

powerlifting boards sit with three total sets of Olympic standard plates. Under the powerlifting

boards, two rows of benches sit. The top row contains only flat benches while the bottom row

contains two incline benches and three decline benches. In the middle, a solitary tree holds the

center of the Free Weight section. Surrounding the tree, a rack of set barbells, a leg press station,

a rack of small plates and an incline squat station sit at the front, right, bottom, and left of the

tree, respectively. In the right half of the Free Weight section, in the front is a row of twelve

moveable benches with two racks of dumbbells against the wall, separated by a water fountain in

the middle. Below these benches, different stations varying from leg extensions to shoulder press

lay in three separate rows.

Talking Weights

As with any culture, there is a distinct lingo that exists in all weight rooms and it is

usually identifiable through both the hardcore and casual groups. Much of the lingo deals with

the types of exercises that a lifter may participate in and many of these exercises are usually

named by the action, though it is not always the case. Some of the common terms heard within

weight rooms include bench press, back squats, pull ups, curls, and push-ups. Names, such as

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skull crushers and planks, are not named with the literal action, but are named after what the

action looks like from the outside; for example, skull crushers are performed by lying flat on a

bench while holding a barbell perpendicular to the bench and the barbell is lowered to the

forehead in a controlled manner while bending only at the elbows, which gives the appearance of

crushing one’s skull with the barbell. The amounts of terms that describe exercises are plentiful

as there are so many different types of exercises and types of ways to describe them, though

despite the vast amount of terms, many weight lifters can get the general gist of the definitions

through experience. Other lingo that is very common in the weight room includes maxing out,

reps, sets, and super setting. Maxing out refers to lifting the maximum amount of weight possible

for one repetition. Reps, sets, and super setting refer to the workouts, where reps is short for

repetitions, sets are series of repetitions, and super setting is the addition of an extra auxiliary

exercise immediately after a main exercise.

Getting a Grip for the Culture

As I make my way towards my section of choice, the Free Weight section, a rush of

adrenaline hits me as I mentally ready myself into my upcoming workout. I walk over to the

second to last flat bench and I keep my attention on any peculiar activities or behaviors. The

afternoon sunlight hits me as I am invested more in my workout than the environment around me

since there was nothing obvious that was unusual to me. As I reach the end of my main workout,

I begin noticing a certain type of atmosphere. Although some of the lifters are going at an intense

pace, the atmosphere generally has a casual overtone that was interrupted only when I began my

lifts. Many of the groups around me were not drenched with sweat and lifted with large periods

of rest in between each set. Many were chatting casually about school and outside events that are

not related to weight training. The type of atmosphere that I have grown accustomed to from my

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experiences in other gyms was more of hardcore type of environment; the only words that were

spoken were brief encouraging statements, such as “Get up!” or “You got this!” Once I notice

this particular trend of the room, I realize that although I am working in this casual sort of

environment, I was still able to stay in my intense mentality with comfort. Why did I feel

comfortable in an environment that was opposite to how I was working? To get a better

understanding of the culture of the weight room, I separate the culture into two categories of

people: hardcore and casual workers.

Hardcore to Get a Hard Core

The first types of people, the hardcore workers, are the type of people that I have

surrounded myself with in my past experiences in other weight rooms. I define hardcore workers

as dedicated lifters with a concrete goal in mind. Hardcore workers tend to create and follow a

workout plan based around their goal; for example, a lifter who is aiming to completing one

hundred consecutive pushups may design their workout plan to have varying endurance exercises

that focus on the chest, the triceps, the shoulders, and the back in a consistent manner through a

period of around four to six weeks. A hardcore worker is also defined by the amount of sweat

lost and effort exerted. By the end of a workout session, a lifter with a hardcore mentality will be

drenched in sweat and be very fatigued; some hardcore lifters may also work until it is a struggle

to travel any distance.

A Casual Glimpse of the Casual Worker

The casual type of lifters are people that I have not had much experience with because

my entire experience in weight rooms in the past have revolved only with the hardcore workers.

My definition of a casual worker is based on the same characteristics that I use to define a

hardcore worker; casual workers are those who have a sporadic attendance in the weight room

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and do not usually have a defined concrete goal. A casual lifter’s goal may be described in vague

descriptions, such as getting stronger or getting into better shape. Casual workers usually do not

follow any defined workout structure, which allows more variety and flexibility in their

workouts. Being drenched in sweat and leaving with excess fatigue is not a usual characteristic

of a casual worker, though there are exceptions to the characteristic. For example, a relatively

new weight lifter working out after a long break of very little activity would probably experience

fatigue and water loss in almost the same magnitude as a hardcore worker.

Types of Lifters in the RAC

In my interview with Mallory Roy, a staff member who works the front desk of the RAC

in both the mornings and the evenings, I asked her about the mixture of the type of people who

work out in the RAC’s weight room in terms of hardcore and casual people.

She responded, “I think that there is a mixture of hardcore and casual people who

come here. If I had to say a time when hardcore people come, I would say they are mostly here in

the early morning and sometimes late at night.”

Her answer was almost as I had expected, though I thought there would be other times

that the hardcore and casual people would be easy to spot out. I was certain that many hardcore

people would be at the gym in the mornings as that is usually how many serious weightlifters

start their day; even I have gone to the gym in the mornings at 5:00 AM consistently to start out

my day with a rigorous lifting cycle. Mallory’s answer that there are enough distinguishable

hardcore lifters late at night surprised me a little, though it was not totally unexpected. The next

best time to get to the right stations and weights would be at night, when there would not be as

much of a crowd.

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My visits to the weight room occurred in the afternoon and at night, so I got a larger view

on the types of people who attended the gym and the times they came. In my visits in the

afternoon, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM, I experienced the company of both hardcore and casual

lifters in about the same magnitude. The weight rooms were generally moderately empty because

it was around lunchtime, so there was room for hardcore lifters to move through their routines

and for the casual lifters to stroll from the stations that they felt like participating in. In the

evening times of my visits, from 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM, the weight rooms were much more

crowded with a larger casual presence. Hardcore lifters generally could not get through their

routines smoothly since the traffic of people was very thick. Casual workers could travel from

station to station without any restrictions by a plan.

Getting Better With the RAC

The reoccurring theme that I noticed throughout my experiences was that the whole

environment of the RAC was a welcoming and friendly place where anyone can join in the work

at their own pace. The general attitude of the weight room conveyed a casual pace, though

people who have a hardcore mindset are able to get the work they need to get in without

difficulty. In comparison to my high school gym, the large local gym in my hometown, and the

military gym that I frequented in Louisiana when I visited, the RAC has a more casual,

welcoming appeal to it.

The bigger picture, however, was still a layer deeper; despite the large differences from

the two main groups of lifters that I categorized, the hardcore and casual groups, they had a

single uniting factor that connected them to each other. Whether a lifter has a defined goal or not,

all people who choose to spend their time in the weight room have the common goal of bettering

themselves. Specific goals may vary in magnitude, but everyone in the weight room works to

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become stronger, faster, bigger, leaner, and fitter than they were previously. The weight room at

the RAC acts as a tool for anyone who steps onto the rubber-like flooring to become better

people physically and mentally. The same can be said for any weight room as the intended

effects of weight lifting in general are solely positive; people who weight lift regularly in a safe

manner can expect better physical and mental health.

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Works Cited

“CRI Online Tour”. Photograph. Google Drive. n.p. Web. 14 April 2014.

Dreschler, Arthur. “The Rise of the U.S. to World Weightlifting Dominance.” USA Weightlifting.

Web. 11 March 2014.

Roy, Mallory. Personal interview. 27 March 2014.

“Why Strength Training?” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease

Control and Prevention. Web. 12 March 2014.