Now We All Can Become Healthy Bulldogs

Tuesday November 10, 2011 South Carolina State University's Fitness Center located in Truth Hall had its grand opening at 1 p.m.

"I believe that our kids should have a place of fitness to go to, because we as colored people, being that this is a HBCU, suffer from many different health issues," said Pinky Carter, of Brooks Health Center. "Our students told us that they had nothing to do, so we thought the fitness center would have been a positive place for them to spend their time."

"We have always had various places on campus for our students to go and do their physical activities; however, the new fitness center is going to bring these various activities together."

In the future, we hope to start morning exercise classes from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. which would be convenient to those students with afternoon classes and afternoon exercise classes from 5: 30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. for students with morning based schedules," said Carter.

Fitness advisor Jatorie Robinson says that the fitness center is well established with equipment of great quality and calibration. "This center will change serious health problems for those who take advantage of the opportunity," said Robinson.

The hours of operation are from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. which is a broad spectrum. Students should be able to find time to use the center. The center has only been opened for less than 2 weeks and the population is very heavy.

"The center is very nice and fully equipped, now I can go to one place and get a full body workout rather than walking all over campus," said Ashley Davis. "It helps to have the exercise room right next to the Pete's Arena because I can go and work off some of the calories that I have inhaled. "

"Many students get up and run early in the morning because they have no place on campus to go that opens up as early as they choose to work out, but now many early fitness birds can get up and go to the fitness center rather than walk or run the tracks on these cold mornings," said Quanshina Mc'Conico

The fitness center is fully equipped with 5 treadmills, 6 ellipticals, and 7 weight benches, 16 sets of dumbbells and a full equipped and spacious zumba and aerobics room. Operation hours are: Monday to Friday, 7 a.m. to 10 p.m., Saturday's 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Sunday's 2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

"This was made for you so please take care of it," said Carter.