Classes aren’t enough amongst Dal’s decaying gym facilities
It was 6:45 p.m, and I had an assignment due at 7:05. Having missed the bus, I grabbed my bicycle from the back porch, threw on my dorky helmet and began peddling furiously toward the school. About halfway up the hill on South Park Street, I could feel the stress actually pulsing through my body. My muscles were so wound from weeks of sitting in a tense hunch over books that biking to school felt like the end of a triathlon. And when life begins to feel like a race, you know it’s time to go to yoga.
As pretty much anyone will tell you, physical activity is an important outlet for relieving stress and anxiety – two phenomena with which students are well acquainted. In my experience, Dalhousie does a really good job of promoting this aspect of health awareness. Programs such as “Live Well @ Dal” are regularly visible around campus, and there is a legion of different intramural sports that always seem to be occupying Wickwire field. (Ultimate Frisbee, anyone?)
Search “DalPlex class schedule” on the school’s website and you’ll find a ton of great class options for a range of interests and abilities that are included in your tuition. Unless you totally despise physical activity in any medium, Dal leaves you no excuse for not being healthy.
A couple days later, I was seething in downward dog as “T.G.I.F.” played for *the second time* over the Dalplex’s sound system. Katy Perry was disturbing my inner peace and making it incredibly hard to enjoy what was supposed to be a centering exercise. In response, the yoga instructor turned up our own soothing wind music, which must have made for a strange juxtaposition for the runners as they circled around the track. However, it worked beautifully for the class, and I was able to reclaim my fortress of harmony, following the clear, precise directions of the yoga instructor through to the final Namaste.
So, don’t get me wrong. The people and the programs surrounding physical activity at Dal are awesome. Unfortunately, the facilities suck.
Dark, fortress-like structures seem to be the preferred architectural trend on campus. (Exhibit A: the DalPlex. Exhibit B: the Killam.) Personally, I find it difficult to feel inspired or motivated to swim my laps when surrounded by grey concrete; but that could just be me. To be fair, sometimes the grey concrete has a spongy look to it, or the direction of the lines in the concrete changes, so it’s not entirely devoid of interest.
The weight room is by far the worst. The space is tiny, the weights have no numbers on them, there are never enough machines and the big windows facing the hall make me feel like a mouse in a lab experiment. Most of the time I end up going into the change room to do my exercises on the mats. At least there I’m not accidentally locking elbows with the guy doing sit ups next to me.
The Sexton campus gym isn’t that much better. Sure, they have quality squash courts and a basketball court (complete with echoing backboards and 1970s-inspired hardwood), but their weight room needs some improvement. There aren’t enough cardio machines, and the ones they do have are known to be pretty noisy for such a small gym. And for a massive campus with a large student body, having a weight and cardio room half the size of the T-Room makes it impossible to get a full workout in during peak gym hours and just doesn’t cut it for a campus of that size.
Dal has a lot of good things happening on the physical health front. Their buildings and equipment just don’t match up.
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