On my first day at De Anza, I excitedly rushed to the Lifetime Wellness and Fitness Center, aka De Anza’s more accessible gym, but was quickly disappointed as the facility was full of muscle isolation and cardio machines, which are ineffective compared to classic barbell lifting.  Unfortunately, while there is a separate gym with weights, it’s only accessible to those who sign up for kinesiology classes.

This far too restrictive weight training room (PE11LE) is seriously underutilized and unreasonably difficult to access for students. All of the classes that allow access to the Weight Training Room meet twice a week for 50 minute periods — completely inadequate even for getting enough exercise for the week, let alone for serious, productive weight training. Having observed one of these gym class sessions in progress, I’ve noticed that out of the three power racks and two olympic lifting platforms, often only one or two are used at a time. I walk past the Weight Training Room every single day on my way to class, and 80 percent of the time the doors are locked, it’s equipment unused.

The fee for enrolling in these classes at $15.50 for resident students is quite affordable. But for international and out-of-state students, the $93.50 fee for half a unit for an hour and forty minutes of gym access per week is obscenely exorbitant.

So why is the weightlifting room limited to kinesiology enrollees? Supposedly, “all free weight exercises have to be spotted to be safe.” This would imply that De Anza students are seemingly more prone to injury and less responsible for their own health and safety when lifting. Are we unable to safely perform free weight exercises without being spotted like gym goers everywhere else?

There is no reason that I should have to walk 15 minutes to the YMCA to be able to workout, when there is a perfectly functional gym on campus which is barred to me due to unreasonable regulation. There is no reason why I should not be able to pay a quarterly rate for access to the weight training room like I can for the Lifetime Fitness and Wellness center. As it stands, the Weight Training Room is an underutilized resource and an untapped source of revenue for De Anza College.