TV has rarely married well with good health. But further to the battle against tedium while you exercise, coming soon to the South Park YMCA are new 17″ personal viewing screens with 60 channels of cable (including The Comedy Network, if you wanted to watch South Park while sweating on South Park). Four will be attached to four new treadmills while the rest will be installed on the existing ones, for a total of 13 screen-mounted treadmills. If that wasnt enough, reports manager of membership Allison Covert, they’re also getting new cross-trainers (the walking/skiing machines) and fitness bikes to go in their freshly painted space. Head on down to 1565 South Park, 423-9709 to watch TV and burn calories.
This article appears in Jan 29 – Feb 4, 2009.
Jeez, it’s too bad they don’t spend the money on more grease pencils so people can actually sign up for a machine.
Actually the fact that the tv’s will be installed on individual machines is a HUGE improvement. Right now, the cardio machines all face in the direction of a row of TV’s that hang from the ceiling. Even if you don’t feel like watching TV, there is no where else to look. Each television sits directly at eye level when you are facing forward on any cardio machine.
I enjoy watching TV, but usually when i work out I don’t want to be bombarded with images from CNN,ESPN, and Much Music. Im trying to look good, be more athletic and calm my mind down a bit. I dont need reminders of Britney and Beyonce lookin fine as hell. I cant watch other athletes strut their skills at the very moment that I am trying to improve on mine; and I need a few moments where I can clear my mind in order to better understand the wars, violence, stock market crashes etc. that are unfolding all around me.
When the South Park YMCA gets the new machines, each person will be able to choose what they want to watch. Right now, if someone wants to switch to a channel that is not currently on, its kind of a big ordeal. You have to go in the cardio room and check what channels are on, if your channel isn’t there you have to turn around and go back to the front desk. There you ask one of the front desk staff members to come into the cardio room with you where they will ask the entire room if anyone objects to having a certain channel changed and then change the channel.
So, it’ll be easier to watch if you want to watch. But most importantly, you have the option to NOT WATCH ANYTHING if you dont want to.
So there it is. On a more important note, while the South Parkers are enjoying their personal Tv’s I hope the Gottingen Y is receiving funding as well so that it can make improvements where its management sees fit. I dont know how YMCA funding works, but if it’s some type of central system than that would make sense.