Members laud JCC Fitness Center renovations
Staff members of the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center are not waiting for the construction of the recently approved new and renovated building. They already have started improving the JCC’s physical fitness facilities and equipment.
“We want to show our members that we are committed to doing things for their benefit now” and “to demonstrate our commitment to good service,” said Jay Roth, JCC executive vice president.
Earlier this month, the JCC installed new exercise equipment into its Life Fitness Center; and it took a squash court and made it into the Habush Free Weight Room, connected to the Habush Fitness Room.
“The changes made,” said Roth, “are all designed to make members’ fitness experience at the JCC the best possible.”
And the results are clear to members who were using the new facilities last week.
“I think it’s wonderful,” said Melanie Wasserman, who was using the new equipment in the Life Fitness Center. The new machines have “enriched my workout because there are more choices.”
Howard Loeb praised the new “bright, well-equipped, well-monitored” Habush Free Weight Room. “It’s much better than when it fit into a corner of the Habush room,” he said.
According to James Paschen, JCC member and co-chair with Melanie Hersch of the center’s Health, Recreation and Fitness committee, the changes addressed two issues: expansion of space and replacement of out-of-date equipment.
“A lot of the equipment has been getting so old that it could not be repaired [as the manufacturers] weren’t making computer chips for it any more,” said Paschen.
Moreover, in the some 13 years since the JCC last purchased equipment, research into fitness and design of equipment has advanced, said Carolyn Destache, director of the JCC’s Health, Recreation and Fitness department.
The new strength-training equipment is “very user friendly and bio-mechanically more correct,” Destache said. It also “enables people to have a variety of different workouts.”
“That’s what exercise is about: making it different, fun and entertaining for someone … so they keep coming back and still get a quality workout,” Destache said.
Some examples of the new equipment are the Cybex ArcTrainer, of which the JCC now has two, and the Nu-Step Recumbent Stepper. Paschen, who is retired and said he has “leg and back issues” in exercising, particularly likes these machines because they enable him to work out with “less pressure on the knee joints.”
Such equipment means that the JCC’s fitness program is “not just a place for young people to build beach muscles,” Paschen said. “The chances are there is something in that fitness room and weight room that will benefit you no matter what your age.”
In addition to the exercise equipment, the JCC has added a new “Cardio Theater Audio Entertainment System” to the Life Fitness Center. Besides adding some new television sets, this system enables exercisers to plug headphones into the exercise equipment so exercisers can listen to TV programs or to FM radio stations, said Destache.
Paschen said he likes this feature also. “You have to have your head someplace else” while exercising, “or else you’ll quit,” he said.
As for space, the free weight room “was not adequate,” said Hersch, who said that is where she tends to exercise. “Everybody was crammed.”
The new Habush Free Weight Room has much more space — people can “work out and not trip on each other” — and it “looks really nice,” Hersch said. Destache added that some new equipment has been bought for this room as well.
And this will only be the beginning. “This revamping is being done with the expansion in mind,” said Destache. “All of the new equipment we have gotten will be folded into the our new, expanded fitness area plus more that will be acquired.”
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