Photo by Joey Mcleister Star Tribune
Pete Senty, a senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato, watched Pat Riley (coach, team president and part-owner of the Miami Heat) on one of the many TV stations available on the workout equipment at the new Tec Rec center in the Otto Recreation Center at Minnesota State University. Students and faculty can also email and do homework on the computers.
Let's face it. Exercising on a machine is mind-numbingly tedious -- talk about a hamster on a wheel. Your body might be getting a workout, but it would go a lot faster if the mind got a little action, too.
So the exercise and technology gurus at Minnesota State University, Mankato, got together and came up with a solution. The new $8.4 million Otto Recreation Center features 40 treadmills, exercycles, stair-steppers and elliptical trainers that are wired with virtually every electronic stimulant available.
They say it's leading-edge -- no other club or university rec center has anything like it. Want to watch TV? Every workout station is crowned with a Sony LCD TV monitor that gets 78 cable channels (sorry, no HBO or Showtime). You change channels on the computer's keyboard.
Want to go on online? Is 100 megabits per second fast enough for you? E-mail, instant messenging, Web radio -- you name it, you can access it while you strive for maximum oxygen volume or just a little fat-burning. Students can also link to MavNET, the university's intranet; and, of course, its D2L system (Desire to Learn), where professors post homework, notes and other class info. A CD/DVD slot means students can bring music and movies.
It's part of the university's mission to exercise students' bodies and minds, said Todd Pfingsten, director of campus recreation. And it's one way to start them on a lifetime habit of exercise. "If we can get them in here, we can hook them," he said.
Wayne Sharpe, director of the academic computer center:
The key to the whole tech rec project was finding the Sony Vaio V617 G with its LCD monitor, Sharpe said. It combined the TV and the computer in one box, with a super-crisp screen image. "That was the crowning moment, when we found that," he said. Everything else they looked at was a TV connected to a computer, he said. The Vaio retails for about $2,600, but the university got a volume discount of $1,900 each, he said. "Students are short on time. They are always multi-tasking. This way they can double up exercise and study," he said. Though in truth, 60 to 70 percent of the time students double up on exercise and watching TV while on the machines, he said.
Jenn Bruns, program coordinator for fitness and wellness:
She usually uses an exercycle when she works out. She often e-mails her mom at work in Renville, Minn. "She thinks it's funny when I e-mail her from the bike," Bruns said, because of all the typos. Bruns also brings her own music, and inputs her daily workout information on a website called Fitday.com, an online diet and fitness journal. It tracks her daily calories and exercise balance -- how much she ate and how much she burned.
Jen Blue, women's track coach:
Most of the time she works out with her team, but she recently injured a hamstring muscle and has been forced inside to the elliptical trainer. Fortunately, she had Bill Cosby to keep her company on the TV monitor. She's very happy with the new high-tech rec center because it appeals to prospective student athletes. Her most recent potential recruits "thought it was the coolest thing they'd ever seen," Blue said.
Jordan Anderson, junior from Litchfield, Minn.:
He rarely went to the rec center. But then he figured he could watch TV and bike at the same time. "Now that I can watch TV I do it more often," he said. He goes to the rec center two or three times per week and usually watches sports. He also checks homework assignments on the school's D2L course work system.
Jason Baynes, senior from Burnsville:
Baynes, an accounting major, is a weightlifter with the arms to show it. He likes to use the recumbent exercycle because "it keeps the weight off my back," he said. He comes in every day and bikes for half an hour. He listens to music and does his accounting homework online. Like all the students, he brings his own headphones.
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