The kinesiology department will have a grand opening of an outdoor exercise area 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday on the tennis courts south of Candler Physical Education Center.
The new equipment is not for recreational use but for kinesiology classes such as KINE 1177, Core Training 1; KINE 1179, Physical Conditioning 1; or KINE 1185, Extreme Fitness 1, so students can learn how to use them properly.
The exercise area has chin bars, horizontal ladders, a climbing wall, a balance beam and parallel bars. There will be demonstrations of various exercises such as tire flipping and battling ropes.
The area is important because it is unique with fitness, kinesiology Chair Bill Richardson said.
“In this day and age, general fitness with both cardio work and strength training has changed a little bit,” he said. “We’re doing what you would call functional fitness. Exercises that use body weight to provide the resistance or to elevate the heart rate.”
“It has good variety to it and students really enjoy it,” he added. “With the new equipment, it’s the perfect kind of playground; we call it the backyard. It’s a really neat addition to what we can do with our classes. Any fitness class can use it.”
Students will demonstrate how to use the equipment and stations.
“A conditioning class will do kind of a circuit, where they go through the permanent stations to do a particular exercise then to the other stations with the mobile equipment like medicine balls and kettle bells,” he said. “It should be pretty neat.”
Tire flipping is an exercise routine with a person lifting and flipping a tractor tire over, which can build strength and cardio, according to www.Menshealth.com.
Battling ropes is an exercise with ropes typically 2 inches in diameter wrapped around an anchor point while a person holds them and makes waves for endurance training, according to www.Askmen.com.
The area and equipment cost $35,000, which includes the equipment, installation, and storage shed. Also included is mobile equipment such as medicine balls, body bars, jump ropes, battling ropes and kettle bells.
The funding for this equipment came from funds the department generated by renting the Candler gyms evenings but primarily on the weekends to youth sports leagues in volleyball and basketball.
“We don’t receive any other funds from the college,” he said. “It’s not like some big bonus on top of some other funding. In a roundabout way, we save the college $55,000 a year. That’s typically how much we generate a year.”
“Some of the funds are to pay those who supervise and the custodians who are here on the weekends when the events are going on,” he added. “We get by, but it takes every bit of that for normal operations and reasonable amount of equipment.”
Dr. Conrad D. Krueger, dean of arts and sciences, assisted with providing $20,000 to set up the area.
For more information, call Richardson at 210-486-1019.
Clarification: The $20,000 for the dean’s backyard, outside exercise area, was funded by this college and not personally by the dean of arts and sciences, Conrad Krueger.
