Penn State gym officials said they're preparing for extra long lines at the gym, as students put their fitness resolutions for the New Year into action.
Dave Leone (senior-kinesiology), a personal trainer at the White Building, said the 210-person fitness room where he works will have the longest wait for equipment around lunchtime and from 4 to 10 p.m.
"The personal trainers' schedules are full right now, which never happens," Leone said. "It's really, really hectic."
It's a surge fitness facilities see every year. Director of Penn State Strength and Fitness Chip Harrison said more students go to the gyms in the spring than in the fall. "There's about a 20 percent increase in [gym membership] sales from fall to spring, and the first week always ends up being real busy," he said.
Then again, a resolution to buy a gym membership doesn't mean students will actually use it. Gym attendance only increases about 10 to 15 percent from the fall semester to the spring semester.
Two students who said they might be hitting the gym are Tyler Fondrk (sophomore-actuarial science) and Maddie Tyska (sophomore-art education). Fondrk, whose mother bakes homemade Christmas cookies every year, said he ate about six cookies a day for a week.
"I felt so unhealthy," he said. "I was better [last] week though, because I realized how bad I ate. I've been eating healthier."
Most students' goals are to lose weight or just be in better shape as they head into the new semester, Leone said.
Fondrk said he also ate leftover ham, brisket and cheesy mashed potatoes from his family's Christmas dinner. But while Tyska said she ate a complete holiday meal, she doesn't feel unhealthy. Her family's holiday dinner included lasagna, salmon, pasta, sausage, stuffed shells and chicken stir-fry.
"I felt extremely full but not unhealthy," she said. "When it's a packaged food, I always look at the calories on the back, and I don't like to put extra salt on things."
But she did give into some holiday temptation and couldn't resist eating extra gingerbread cookies.
Both Fondrk and Tyska are ready to hit the gym.
