BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

Alonzo Duarte
1536 Hewitt Ave,
St. Paul, MN 55104
President Hanson
1536 Hewitt Ave,
St. Paul, MN 55104
President Linda N. Hanson:
Thank you for giving me the opportunity to conduct research on the feasibility of constructing a
new weight room. My research went into a weight room design and possible benefits the students
can receive from this new weight room. I researched some studies on the effect of sedentary life
style on college students and how it can affect their performance in school. In my research I
found that healthy lifestyles and school work are highly influenced by positive experiences like
being able to use the weight room in order to reduce stress resulting in the students academic
success and a new outlet for stress relief. Research on the benefits have been focused on stress
relief, the correlation between academic success through exercise and the reduction of sedentary
lifestyles.
I conducted a survey of thirty-seven Hamline University Students with questions pertaining to
the possibility of a new weight room so that the demand for the weight room is established.

Sincerely,
Alonzo Duarte

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

Building a New Weight Room in Sorin Hall: A Feasibility Report

Alonzo Duarte
ENG 1800
Introduction to Professional Writing and Rhetoric
Dr.Soria
4/12/2015

Table of Contents
Abstract...................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction................................................................................................................ 4

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

Methods...................................................................................................................... 6
Results........................................................................................................................ 7
STUDENT SURVEYS............................................................................................... 7
Conclusions.............................................................................................................. 10
Recommendations.................................................................................................... 10
References................................................................................................................ 11

Abstract
The purpose of this feasibility project is to conduct research for building a second weight room
focused on students who are not in athletics and leaving the current weight room for the athletic
department so that there can be a focus on these students who are not a part of athletics. This
also gives the athletic department more freedom to use the weight room as a focused facility for

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

the athletic department without having to worry about the multipurpose aspect that the weight
room currently provides. A survey was conducted in order to see the demand for a second weight
room, how often students use the weight room, and the demographic that represented this survey.
The participants of the study were students in the Introduction to Professional Writing and
Rhetoric class under Dr.Soria. Conducting the survey showed interest from the students that they
would want a new weight room, the demographic consisted of twenty students who do not
participate in athletics and seventeen student athletes, and how often the weight room is used
varied but twenty seven students used the weight room at least once a week. Articles were found
in the Hamline online library through Summon. This part of research was used to find the effect
of stress on students, how exercise can effect stress levels, the design of a weight room, the cost
of a weight room, positive experiences gained through exercise and academics, health benefits of
activity, and the current state of health of college students nationwide. The criteria questions for
this feasibility research would be to answer if it would be beneficial to the students if a second
weight room was built.

Introduction
Hamline University currently has one weight room on the campus which is primarily used by the
schools athletic department. Student-athletes take up about twenty percent of the undergraduate
students. With the total undergraduates being two thousand one hundred students and over four
hundred students participating in athletics according to Forbes. Students are able to use the
weight room but can find it difficult when student athletes are using it for team lifting. This
requires students to work around the team lifts so there is room for them to conduct their
exercises. This concern over space was addresses in the survey by students who believed that the

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

weight room can be over crowded. The twenty percent of affiliated with varsity athletic are most
likely required to use the weight room as a source for strength and conditioning for their sports
they participate in. Students who do not participate in varsity athletics are not required to go to
the weight room in contrast to the student athletes. Instead they go to the weight room for the
benefit of their health which is the kind of attitude that needs to be instilled into students in order
to reduce sedentary lifestyles. Giving the students a place they can feel more accepted in could
help with reducing these unhealthy lifestyle choices. In a survey conducted it was found that a
high percentage of students were either overweight or obese and engaged in below the
recommended amount of physical activity (Huang et al.).
The weight room is currently designed for the student athletes while which is why the second
weight room would be focused on students who do not participate in varsity athletics. The
current weight room contains ten free weight racks, two T-bars, dumbbell sets from two and a
half pounds to one hundred pounds, EZ Bars, medicine balls, swill balls, fifteen cardio machines,
and eight machine weights (which two of them broken). The free weight racks take up about half
of the weight room. Teams use most of this space to conduct team exercises lead by Chris
Hartman, the Assistant Athletic Director/Strength & Conditioning Coach as stated in the Hamline
University athletics website, who also has an office in the weight room and is aware of the layout
of the weight room. Team lifting sessions can take about an hour to an hour and a half primarily
using the free weight racks, and dumbbell station.
Business like Planet Fitness makes it a point to eliminate the idea of intimidation as mentioned in
their mission statement referring it to a Judgment Free Zone (Planet Fitness). This business
model has proven successful and helps to introduce new people to gyms and using them to
exercise. The current Hamline weight room does not follow this model due to its focus being
student athletes and it being a place to get better at their sport. Introducing a new weight room
with the students in mind can focus on this type of concept in order to introduce students to a
more active lifestyle reinforcing their positive experience in the weight room so that they come
back to exercise more in the new weight room. Making exercise a good experience is important
for students Shepard states past exposure is important both in terms of forming habits, beliefs,
and attitudes, and also in developing the physical skills necessary to make exercise an enjoyable

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

experience (pg. 114). Having a place to exercise could also entice students to live on campus
longer by having a facility closer to the dorms because of the positive influence brought by
healthy habits. This is why it is good to break the habit of college students who live on campus.
Reducing sedentary life style can be a result of creating a weight room for students. College
students tend to live very sedentary lifestyles and (Seo et al pg. 316) physical inactivity has been
recognized as a top-three risk factor for a variety of non-communicable diseases that contribute
to about 60% of deaths. College students living unhealthy life styles is a very common idea that
is backed up by the constant unhealthy choices made by college students as a whole.
Stress relief also could also be gained by focusing on a positive atmosphere in the weight room.
Stress relief can be handled poorly by students as the ten most frequently reported coping
mechanisms, six were considered to be risk factors for low stress tolerance Bland et al (2014).
These coping habits also do not help with stress relief and can lead to added stress. Physical
activity was proven by Bland et al (2014) in their study of stress and physical activity, is it
important to employ additional protective mechanisms this study confirms the importance of
a variety of physical activity modes Bland et al (2014). Also it states that student athletes showed
a better tolerance to stress due to their physical activity.
To find out if creating a second weight room would be feasible I did the following:

Administered a survey to Hamline Students

Read peer-reviewed journal articles

Looked at other studies concerning stress and benefits of physical activity on grades

Referenced the cost of another school about its cost in building a new weight room

In the following sections I will discuss my research methods, results, conclusion, and
recommendation.

Methods
The methods used to research and gather information about building a second weight room in
Sorin Hall are as follow:

I began research by accessing the Hamline library online database known as Summon.

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

I began research on weight room design and found an article that specifies the design of
Michigan States weight room and the space required to create a comfortable lifting
environment.

Then I found the article Comparison of Factors Associated with Physical Inactivity
Among East Asian College Students which helped to find more information about
sedentary lifestyles. Because there is limited studies of college students the information
from this article was helpful even though it focused on East Asia schools.

I then found an article pertaining to stress and found Quantifying the Impact of Physical
Activity on Stress Tolerance in College Students to show how physical activity can help
college students with stress.

After finding those articles I went to Google Scholar to conduct more research.

I found Curricular Physical Activity and Academic Performance

Then I searched for the average budget for collegiate weight rooms and found
http://www.centralia.edu/athletics/weightroom.html where Centralia University posted
their budget for others to use as reference as they gave a detailed reference to what they
bought for their weight room and the prices they paid for to build their weight room.

I also went to Planet Fitnesss website to see their mission statement and used that as a
reference to intimation in the weight room.

A survey was set up using 37 students where questions were asked pertaining the demand
for a weight room and how the weight room is used.

10 questions were asked in the survey

Results
After searching for articles and other things to aid in the research five different articles were
found. In one article (Seo et al) states that physical inactivity has been recognized as a top-three
risk factor for a variety of non-communicable diseases that contribute to about 60% of deaths.
This helps for the emphasis on the need to reduce sedentary lifestyle in students by implementing
a new weight room.

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

Additionally, it was found that (Shepard) states past exposure is important both in terms of
forming habits, beliefs, and attitudes, and also in developing the physical skills necessary to
make exercise an enjoyable experience. This helps to push the idea that if the students enjoyed
the weight room they would enjoy their stay in the dorms their freshman year and would stay
longer in the dorms.
Finally I found that a journal pertaining to weight room design but this one was focused on
athletics rather than normal weight room design. This article gave good insight on the optimal
design of a weight room should be.
STUDENT SURVEYS

46%

Not a Student Athlete

54%

Student Athlete

Figure 1. On 3/28/2015 I distributed a survey in which thirty seven students participated with
twenty being students who are not in athletics and seventeen being student-athletes.
I was looking for the demographic of students versus student-athletes so that it wasnt biased
towards students or student athletes since the survey group was small. The results turned out
favorable allowing an almost even division of students and student athletes. This helps in regard
to the weight room that I am proposing is focused more on students while the student athletes
will remain in the original weight room.

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

10
8
7
Number of Students
5
4
2
0

1
0

Number of days in a week

Figure 2. In figure 2 the question on the survey was intended to show the usage of the weight
room by students in the survey ranging from zero times a week to seven days a week.
By showing this data I can see the ones who use the weight room and who dont giving me an
idea of the group that would need to be enticed to use the weight room and increase the usage of
the weight room by offering a new weight room as that driving factor.

19%
Yes
No

81%

Figure 3.Survey results when asked if they would want a new weight room.
The majority of students in the survey want a new weight room which shows that there is a

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

10
demand for a new weight room and to note that the majority of students that took the survey
were students not in athletics.

Conclusions
The results of the survey showed that there is a demand for a new weight room and that the
weight room is being used by both students and the student athletes. In the research it was found
that reducing stress would be a great benefit to a second weight room being built and after the
weight room is built students can be educated on the benefits of using the weight room in order
to live healthier lifestyles and help improve their performance in school and creating a positive
experience.

Recommendations
After studying the benefits of building a second weight room and the other factors that go into
usage of the weight room. The demand for a weight room is there and I believe if the survey was
expanded the results would show that students would like a second weight room so that the
student athletes can use the old weight room since they have been using the same weight room
for some time. Letting the students use the new weight room would entice them to use it because
of the exclusivity that it brings in the minds of the students. So I recommend that the new weight
room should be located in Sorins former cafeteria which is convenient because it is close to the

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

11
first year dorms and the space available is more than enough to build an acceptable weight room
with enough room for students to exercise and that by using the old weights in the current weight
room and transferring the old weight over to the new weight room. The cost of replacing the
current weight rooms equipment would be under $50,000 dollars. The funds would be collected
by the athletic department through fundraising and other activities created by SAAC (StudentAthlete Advisory Committee) and through donations from alumni.

References
Planet Fitness: Proud home of the Judgement Free Zone. (n.d.).
http://www.planetfitness.com/mission-statement
Seo, D., Torabi, M., Chin, M., Huang, S., Chen, C., Mok, M., ... Wang, C. (2012). A Comparison
of Factors Associated with Physical Inactivity Among East Asian College Students. International
Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 316-323.
Shephard, R. (1997). Curricular Physical Activity and Academic Performance. Pediatric
Exercise Science, 9, 113-126.
Bland, H., Melton, B., Bigham, L., & Welle, P. (2014). QUANTIFYING THE IMPACT OF
PHYSICAL ACTIVITY ON STRESS TOLERANCE IN COLLEGE STUDENTS. College Student
Journal, 48(4), 559-568.
Athletics. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.centralia.edu/athletics/weightroom.html
http://www.forbes.com/colleges/hamline-university/

BUILDING A SECOND WEIGHT ROOM

12
Huang T., Jo Harris K., E. Lee R., Nazir N., Born W., Kaur H. (2003) Assessing Overweight,
Obesity, Diet, and Physical Activity in College Students. Journal of American College Health
Vol. 52, NO.2, 83-86
Hamline Athletics Retrieved from http://www.hamlineathletics.com/staff.aspx?staff=5