By
Heidi Kurpiela
The gym intimidates some people.
At first glance you see this: the treadmill-runner who racks
up the miles running nowhere, the weight lifter whose biceps
look like speed bumps … the tanned glutes in spandex
bicycle shorts, the abs, the buns, the legs of steel all
pumping, breathing and sweating together. Everyone seems
to know what they’re doing. Or, if not, everyone seems
to look good doing it.
There are four individuals who, up until three weeks ago,
were flustered by Buffalo State College’s workout
room. That is, until 25-year-old Alaskan hockey player and
Buffalo State graduate student Rocky Reeves
began working with them as a part of the Alive and
Well Faculty/Staff Wellness Program.
Program Coordinator Linda O’Donnell
says the campus program started nine years ago, but never
introduced one-on-one training sessions before.
She says Reeves’ program is unique.
How so?
Earlier this semester an e-mail went out to all faculty
and staff members, offering a six-session workout during
Bengal Pause with Reeves (who already holds a bachelor’s
degree in health and wellness.) Any employee
willing to hit the gym for a three-week cardio and weight
training course could volunteer. In just two days 25 volunteers
responded. Reeves and O’Donnell picked four people.
Joe
“I knew I was well overdue for something
like this so I signed up right away,” says Joe Ball,
associate director of campus services.
Ball, 47, is exuberant even after 45 minutes on the treadmill,
hydraulic stepping and weight-lifting machines. He gives
Reeves a hearty pat on the back and says, “This guy
here is fantastic!”
His voice booms proudly over the rock music that plays in
the Fitness Center as he asks if this article
can be e-mailed to his daughter at college because, “she’s
been at me for years to do something like this.”
Ball’s goal is to simply get in shape, not build massive
muscles.
“No need for that,” he says, “my girl-chasing
days ended years ago.”
Eileen
Eileen Merberg, director of orientation
and an avid aerobics fan, says she was ready to try something
different to get in shape.
“I wanted to be more familiar with the machines around
here,” she says as she bops around in her tie-dyed
T-shirt, from the shoulder press to the leg extension.
The program is winding down with one last session remaining
and Merberg, 41, says she’ll stick to her fitness
routine once Reeves has left and she’s on her own.
Reeves will graduate this semester and return home to Alaska
to play for the Anchorage Aces hockey team.
But even then, he jokes, he’ll be checking in on his
four fitness trainees.
“It’s been inspiring,” says Merberg.
Barry
Design professor Barry Yavener
calls himself a “seasonal athlete,” who enjoys
the outdoors so much that he finds himself less active when
it gets cold out.
Yavener, 48, is at ease, pumping the chest press, but he
says he wasn’t always as comfortable on the equipment.
“The first time I walked in here I didn’t know
what each machine did,” he says. “Now I don’t
walk in here like it’s a foreign land. And if a machine
I want is being used I don’t have to sit around and
wait for it. I can just jump on a different one.”
Yavener says Reeves’ approach has been the biggest
help in his smooth transition.
“He (Reeves) is so patient and has a very
intelligent approach to his goals. You just know
he’s doing this because he likes it,” he says.
As a matter of fact, Reeves often worked with Yavener outside
of their coordinated Bengal Pause sessions.
Deborah
Deborah Jones, 51, works in admissions
and says she needed “a total body makeover.”
First, though, she needed to walk into the gym unafraid.
And when she did she fell for the stepper.
“It’s my favorite machine,” she says.
As for the fitness contraptions and robust people operating
them, she says, “I won’t let them intimidate
me anymore.”
Jones, just like the others, carries around a clipboard
with a plan attached to it that Reeves tailored to her individual
abilities and goals.
“Its important to have written guidelines,”
says Reeves. “You want to take down material so you
know when you can jump it up a notch. The ideal program
with these four individuals is for them to be able to monitor
themselves.”
He says they’re pretty much on their own already.
In fact, Jones will be unaided next week when she begins
her new fitness membership.
“I just brought in my papers today so I could join,”
she says eagerly.
Rocky
Unfortunately, O’Donnell says the Faculty/Staff
Wellness Program has been cut due to budget pitfalls and
will not be available next semester.
“It’s sad. Obesity and health disease have peaked,”
she says. “Over 60 percent of our population
in Western New York is inactive. It’s unfortunate
this program had to be cut.”
As for Reeves, he’s pleased with the program’s
results and even prouder of his “clients.”
He’ll soon be back in Anchorage to start his hockey
season, but he doesn’t see his time spent preparing
as a trainer at Buffalo State as a “back-up plan.”
On the contrary, he says his background in health and wellness
is just a different responsibility.
“There are no back-up plans. If you say, ‘back-up’
then you set yourself up for failure,” he says.
And Reeves has certainly shown four staff members that failure
is not an option.
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