Kelly Huynh approached the Eppley Recreation Center on Monday night with optimism.
This semester would be different. This semester she wouldn’t be thrown off by night classes, homework or a lack of motivation. This semester she’d get fit.
With a sunny spring break destination in mind, Huynh, a senior community health major, plans to hit the gym at least three days a week this semester — no excuses.
Last Monday night and almost every weeknight since the start of the semester, scores of Kelly Huynhs have flocked to the university’s fitness facilities, all of them promising themselves this semester will be different.
But if the past serves as any indication, many of them will be wrong.
“This is just the first two weeks,” said Conrad Yanguba, an ERC student employee. “Once school starts setting in, people will stop going once or twice. Then they’ll stop going forever.”
The ERC sees a rush at the start of every semester, Yanguba explained. As he manned a station in ERC’s weight room, he stood undaunted by the cramped quarters and the abundance of questions he typically fields this time of year, confident that come mid-March, the crowds will disappear.
Whether motivated by spring break, a New Year’s resolution or the rejuvenation of a fresh semester, the lion’s share of new lifters who hit the gym hard in January don’t follow through until May, Yanguba said.
“Once people’s course loads start picking up, things around here pretty much die,” he said.
Weight-room rats seem to take the early semester traffic in stride.
“For the most part, everybody’s pretty fairly good,” said Scott Malecki, a senior Spanish major who works out three to four days a week regardless of the time of year. “People will usually give up a machine if they’ve been on a while, or at least they’ll let you work in a set.”
Upstairs in the cardio room, the crowds create more chaos. At 7 p.m. Monday, the collective whir of more than 60 treadmills, ellipticals and workout bikes pumping, grinding and popping drowned out a Beyonce song playing through the gym’s speakers system.
Every machine in the room was taken. The unlucky few without machines wandered aimlessly, anticipating a call from an attendant with a waitlist.
The waits usually last about 15 minutes, and waiting runners generally keep calm. Generally.
“It does get catty once in a while,” said Matt Green, an ERC employee of two years. “People are fighting over machines and stuff. … It gets a little testy.”
When she’s not attending cardio classes, this upstairs room is Huynh’s workout domain. Huynh worked out regularly when she belonged to a gym in high school, but when she started college, the distractions started piling up.
Although she didn’t make it to the gym once last semester, approaching her “two-week test,” Huynh said her determination remains strong.
“I have a goal this time,” Huynh said.
As of Monday, Huynh had worked out at the ERC four times since school started.
ERC management prepares for the onslaught at the start of every semester, scheduling extra staff during peak hours and instructing employees to enforce gym rules vigilantly for newcomers who might not know them.
Brianne Rowh, Campus Recreation Services’ assistant director of fitness, has encountered this January jam every year in the four years she’s held the position. But with a host of new programming prepared for the month of February, Rowh hopes she can keep at least a few newly inspired students focused on fitness.
With funky names such as “Wild and Well Terps Game Night” (an indoor field day), “Eppley After Dark” (a nighttime dance-a-thon) and “Maryland’s largest YogaFit class,” the Tuesday night programs aim to provide alternatives to traditional workouts.
“I have seen this pattern over and over again,” Rowh said. “Even if we can capture 10 percent of the crowd that wouldn’t normally be here after spring break, that’d be a success.”
But Huynh has her own strategy for maintaining motivation: bringing a friend. Lucy Valera, a fellow senior community health major, has accompanied Huynh to the ERC for half her trips so far.
“Even though she doesn’t go all the time, her trying to go helps me go,” Huynh said. “We motivate each other.”
slivnick at umdbk dot com
