The fitness center is a space in the high school where students can all do different modalities to work out. Some examples include strength training, yoga and cardiovascular exercise. All this is done with the main objective of helping in students’ mental, physical and social development. However, in order to get all these benefits by visiting the fitness center, all students must go through a certification process.
“It’s really useful because you can just go there after school and you don’t have to pay for it. So that’s really good,” Maja Doth, an exchange student from Germany who went through the certification process at the beginning of the school year, said.
This is a process that all students must go through, regardless of their background. The certification process is a process designed with the primary goal of teaching students at State High the basic concepts that they need to know to ensure they understand how to use classroom machines properly and safely.
Students learn where the muscles are that they are working with, the rules of the facility, and the proper way to use the machines. Once they start using the fitness center, they are fully integrated into it, and they feel more comfortable in the space.
Once the school year begins, if students have never used the fitness center before and they are interested in using it, students must go through this process. Students get to choose between getting trained during the school day, after school, or even online.
A teacher will teach students basic knowledge that they need to know about the machines, techniques and rules of the classroom, and then they will have to answer some questions. If students go through the process online, it will take them a week at most, whereas in person, two days. Once students get certified once, they maintain it; however, the high school requires a new permission form every year, just to make sure all information is up to date.
“It was easy to, like, learn about machines and how to use it, but the actual questions and the answers to the questions were more difficult than I expected it to be, actually,” Doth said.
Students have different points of view about how difficult the process was, but they both agree about the fact that it was doable.
“I think if you’re willing to learn how to use each equipment, then it is simple how to use this equipment,” Asma Warraich, who went through the certification process in ninth grade, said. “And even for non-athletes it is a really good opportunity, just to relax and exercise and, like, just feel good about themselves,” Warraich said.
The pre-certification process has a great number of benefits. Not just for people who don’t usually exercise, but for athletes too.
“If you have a little bit of background, people will be like, oh, I didn’t really need this. And I do understand that. But to make sure we’re all on the same page, it is a very useful process,” Diane Swauger, the fitness center supervisor, said.
On the other hand, it teaches students who are using the fitness center for the first time how to perform the exercises correctly, because if they don’t, they have a higher risk of getting injured and frustrated by not seeing improvements.
“Mental, physical, social, emotional. The benefits are compounding. It’s not just you coming in and looking a certain way; it’s being able to move your body in comfortable ways, connect with other students, work out stress, build confidence. So it’s exponential in how it can benefit students,” Swauger said.
Last time Swauger did a survey to learn students’ opinions about how useful the process was, 70% thought it was useful, and 30% didn’t.
State High isn’t the only high school that has noticed all the benefits that the process provides. In fact, other high schools in the area want to learn more about it.
“It’s important enough that within a school year, I typically get a handful of other school districts emailing us, asking about our process, and if we can assist them in developing theirs because they see the benefit of having a certification for safety and protocol procedures within their school districts, as well,” Swauger said.
Not all schools in the world have these kinds of facilities in such good conditions and for free.
“[In Germany] We have fitness centers outside of school, but we don’t have one in school,” Doth said.
Overall, even if the pre-certification process takes some time to complete, many feel that it is a useful certification that ensures the safety and comfort of students while using the fitness center.
