It seems like everyone and their mom lifts weights. 

I’m not talking about the ever-rising population of gym rats, but rather the number of kids that play LT sports, and thus are in the weight room.

Being a part of the girls track team comes with lots of different workouts that need to be done. It isn’t all just running, contrary to popular belief. Rather, there are stretches, road runs, track workouts, mental awareness activities, and yes, lifting weights, that need to occur to have the best season possible. 

However, getting into the weight room seems to be an impossible task. The girls distance team tries to get into the weight room twice a week, but it can sometimes take twice as long to get in and out due to the insane amount of kids in there.

The weight room is a hot commodity, I get it. But when there is a girls team that is in season just standing around twiddling their thumbs waiting for a boys team that isn’t even in season to be done lifting weights, something has to be done.

There have been countless times when I have gone into the weight room with my teammates, totaling about 30 of us, only to be greeted by the boys lacrosse team, who at the time wasn’t in season, and the weight men of the boys track team. The thing was, each rack seemed to only have two to three boys lifting at a time. Seems typical, right? 

Yes, it should be, but when we got into the weight room after already having an hour and a half practice we only had two racks to use. Six girls were rotating through each rack until the boys cleared out to deadlift. 

This isn’t an issue only the track team has faced; even the girls lacrosse team has noticed the uptick of out-of-season boys sports taking up valuable space in the weight room.

While making a new weight room is a big undertaking, something as simple as a schedule isn’t. It seems to be an easy fix, yet I’m not sure how much has been done to fix this problem. While all sports teams who need to lift weights should be accommodated, prioritizing in-season sports should come first. Many sports, including the track team, have their regular practice first followed by time spent in the weight room. Sports that don’t have field time during off-season but still try to get in the weight room should either go after any clubs are done using it or after the in-season sports are done. Five to 6 p.m. is a high-traffic time slot and should be reserved for athletes who are currently competing. 

While making a plan to focus on long-term investments in the athletic department, it is equally, if not more important, to focus on the short-term goals that will make the athletic teams run even more smoothly. An area that is in dire need of attention is the weight room.