1 /5 TMY Jones: In the past the LTU gym was an acceptable place to lift weights. Over time more and more athletes were using the gym facilities and management evidently didn’t know how to cope with the growth. I do realize this could be due a lack of funds. But, I feel NO consideration was given to existing alumni who have paid for years and donated thousands in the past to help expand the overall campus. Myself, I donated thousands to help build a study/testing lab.
At various times the locker rooms were unavailable to alumni, students and LTU staff. This was due to games and activities in session. This appeared to be occurring more frequent as each year passed. If you were in a situation where you needed to change you had to squeeze into a bathroom along with others doing likewise.
The next incident occurred when all the weight machines were moved into a racket ball court. This was on the opposite side of the complex. I was told this was done to make room for more free weights for the athletes. Yet a room next door sat there with additional older free weights. Why?? When a game was going on, the racket ball court where the weight machines were, was closed off to alumni and students. If you wanted to lift you were forced to use the free weight rooms while an activity was in session.
The final straw for me was when I went there on Aug 15, 2018. I discovered, without warning all the weight machines were moved out of the racket ball court to another location on campus. I would now have to leave the gym and go there if I wanted to use weight machines. This all happened AFTER I paid my full year alumni membership fee up front. We were NOT told this was going to happen and now try to get a work out in. We are all packed into the free weight room and sitting there with NO leg and arm machines. You are now forced to do squats for legs and dumbells for arms.
If you want to circuit train forget it. They could have at least put the weight machines next door into the other room and cleared out the older free weights machines. Maybe not all of it would have fit in that room, but at least there would be some machines. Poor planning IMO.
I was told the machines are for non-athletes and the free weights are for the athletes.
To remove weight machines and reserve that strictly for the non-athletes and then categorize the free weight room strictly for the athletes makes no sense to me. There are benefits that can be experienced using both.
