Want to know why college these days is so darn expensive???? Look no further than Purdue University, my alma mater, and where everyone in my family including my 20 year old amazing son has gone or is going to college! Was up in West Lafayette In near the Purdue University campus most of the weekend and saw $2.13/gal gas for the first time in a few years. Also saw one of the most amazing college fitness centers in the whole country yesterday for the first time since its renovation, The France A. Córdova Recreational Sports Center. Wow! Back when I was in school they called it the Co-Rec. Used to go play basketball for hours there, back in the day. Used to swim, play racket ball, work out with free weights, run and jog on the indoor running track, 5 miles at a time. I was a workout warrior! :) But now, 2014, this place, The Co-Rec is even more amazing. Purdue has sunk millions of dollars of renovation into this facility. It has a huge climbing wall, indoor food court, huge big screen TVs, huge rooms of workout equipment and treadmills and stationary bikes that dwarf what they had back in the 80s and 90s. Just an amazing facility. Please believe me when I say that I dont exaggerate: I was literally agape for much of the time, as I explored the CoRec. I realized that the name CoRec was not going to cut it. This is no mere gym. This is a Gleaming Fitness Palace. Back in my younger, stupider days, I joined a fancy gym in Indianapolis. It was posh, with lots of young go-getter professional types piling in to do a little chiseling. Let me tell you: the CoRec puts that gym to shame. It makes that gym look like the old skanky weight room dungeon I used to go to at my local Y. Of course, go-getter professional types have money, and Ballys, and Lifetime Fitness are for-profit entities, and Purdues primary population of 18-22 year olds do not have money, and neither does the State of Indiana or its meager allotment of funds for higher education. But these are details. The Cordova Recreational Sports Center is five stories and about 338,000 square feet— not a misprint— of Gleaming Fitness Palace. I dont say gleaming loosely. Like most new construction at American universities, the GFP is a beautiful melding of glass and steel, designed, no doubt, by some pricey architect. It is quite the place! There is, of course, row upon endless row of the latest fitness equipment, the cutting edge in treadmills and rowing machines and stair steppers and arc trainers and ellipticals and the like. The treadmills have built-in televisions, which I suppose is there in case the dozens of hanging flatscreens dont suit your fancy. (There is an endless number of TVs in this building, even several in each of the three major locker rooms.) When you get bored with that, you can turn on the virtual personal trainer, a chipper digital lady who gives encouragement and info about a simulated run up a mountain course, which in animated on the screen. You can also play Solitaire. Not kidding. You can take advantage of the iPod connectivity or the built-in heart monitors or dozens of other features. And of course theres a vast collection of weights in every shape and size imaginable, barbells and dumbbells and kettle bells, presses and stations and cages galore, Smith machines and cable pulls and dip stations and chin up bars, absolutely everything you need to rhythmically grunt your way to a better body. Its not just that all this equipment exists. Its all the different places you can use them. Theres the immense Colby fitness space (14 TVs!). Theres the powerlifters paradise in East Fitness. Theres the Scifres Functional Fitness area— be sure to check out the Endless Rope machine and stretching cage. Theres the Fitness Loft, for people in the hurry, not to be confused with the Fitness Pavilion, for people looking for seclusion, not to be confused with the Fitness Mezzanine. If none of these suit your fancy, try Upper Fitness! Of course, there are plenty of personal trainers ready to make appointments to really amp up your workout. Of course, machines and weights are but a small part of the total fitness world. You can play on one of our many, many indoor basketball courts; I think I counted 20 separate hoops, but I got pretty distracted while trying to count them all. Or you could play racquetball in one of the half dozen courts. Or volleyball, or badminton, in spaces designated for those purposes. Or indoor soccer. Or indoor hockey. Or you could run on not one but two separate indoor tracks! Or how about the climbing wall, when I saw it, I thought, yeah, that is impressive. Ah, but little did I know. That was merely the bouldering wall. That wasnt the climbing wall. No, the climbing wall was a ways down the hall. All 55 vertical feet of climbing surface, complete with rope harnesses and pulley system. It loomed above me. Need a separate spinning studio? Got one. Need an array of punching bags and other equipment for the Combative Sports? Got em. Special spaces for aerobics and dance? Naturally. Hey, even the fencing club gets a room striped with fencing pistes. Its all here. Sadly, you cant run indoors on turf. In that building! Sorry, I didnt mean you couldnt run on indoor turf at Purdue. (What do you take us for, plebes?) I just meant you cant do it at CoRec. You have to go next door for that. Of course, in these enlightened times, just working out is a small part of fitness— or, sorry, wellness. So if you need to relax and cool down, why not take advantage of some of the other facilities, like one of three saunas? Or schedule a massage? (In completely unrelated news, I have been having a hard time with my students sense of entitlement and self-definition as customers.) Or hey, why not check out some cooking lessons in the demonstration kitchen? (Yes. A demonstration kitchen. Yes.) Or perhaps what you need is a dip in the pool. Sorry, not the pool. One of the pools. The pool in the CoRec isnt the only pool; what kind of cow college do you think this is? The Boilermaker Aquatics Center, located on the other side of the CoRec, holds the competition pool, diving boards, heated diving well, its own locker rooms, etc. No, Im talking about the CoRecs pool. The fabulous wrap-around pool that is overlooked by the atrium, one described in as having three lap lanes, 26 person spa, vortex, two water basketball goals, water volleyball and much more. That spa has heated water and a Jacuzzi function. And, yes, you read correctly above: the pool has a vortex area, a feature that creates a downward suction that you can swim against for fitness. I plan to, in the Vortex Challenge class! I cant wait, actually. Because of course there are an endless number of classes, yoga and Zumba and Pilates and boot camps and kickboxing and Blast This and Power That and as many kinds of organized fitness activity one can imagine, all staffed with bright, smiling teachers. These classes are not to be confused with Club Sports, which are not to be confused with Intramural Sports, which are not to be confused with varsity, NCAA sports, which of course have many of their own facilities, such as the 15,000-person basketball arena or 60,000-person football stadium. When youre done, you can relax in the beautiful atrium, equipped with WiFi (natch) and charging stations and yet-more TVs. You can buy yourself an overpriced smoothie from the Freshens refreshment station! Consider using the towel or locker service, and remember you can rent or buy a whole variety of equipment for your fitness needs.
Posted on: Mon, 15 Dec 2014 01:06:18 +0000
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