Renovated SRC has new weight racks, but don't wear a crop top

The Student Recreation Center transformed over Fall Break with added equipment and layout and policy changes. Here's what you need to know to navigate the new SRC.

New equipment

Campus Recreation Facilities and Operations Intern, Christina Orantes, who is a graduate student at UNC, was a key component of the renovation process, which began a year and a half ago when she was still a student.

“So essentially, we removed a lot of our cardio equipment and decreased our plate-loaded and our pin-select machines,” Orantes said. "Then, (we) upgraded all of our racks to dual racks and new benches.”

Orantes has worked for Campus Recreation since she was a first-year and drew inspiration from her time spent at the SRC and working at the Olympic weight room in Loudermilk Center for Excellence. The goal of the renovations was to cater to the new trend of CrossFit style workouts. 

“Tomorrow, we’re having six of our 12 platforms put in,” Orantes said. "We have another six coming in. We’re ordering 14 new dumbbell benches and new sets of dumbbells. Our two dual-cable machines are being replaced, and we’re adding a turf area on the left hand where we’re going to have med balls, sleds and stuff like that.”

Layout changes

“There’s a lot more space to walk around. Before, (the SRC) used to be kind of crowded. Used to pass between machines and hit someone else,” junior Daniel Peralta said .

Some of the space will be occupied by new equipment, which is still en route to the SRC. 

“Even though (the SRC) looks really spacious right now, it won’t actually stay like this because we have more renovations,” Orantes said.

New policies

The new renovations have also brought along new weightlifting policies in the SRC. One new policy designates specific areas where weightlifters can deadlift.

“You’re going to have to deadlift behind a rack,” employee Yazmire Witherspoon said. “That’s just strictly for safety precautions. So, if you were to drop a rack, we would rather you throw it on the rack than to throw it behind you or anywhere in the open space.”

Another new policy prohibits clothing that exposes bare skin on the stomach and back area.

“We’ve had problems with ringworms in the past," Witherspoon said. "So, the more your skin is exposed to the equipment, then the more likely you are to get something. We’re just limiting the stomach and in the back area.”

Mixed reviews

Orantes said she has heard mixed reviews about the renovations. The new renovations have affected some of the older generation of patrons, she said. When asked about how the new renovations have altered his workouts, 83-year-old chemistry professor Paul Kropp said he struggled to locate equipment.

“I worked on what I could find and not what I wanted, if you know what I mean,” Kropp said.

Kropp mainly uses machine-operated exercise equipment and said he will adjust his workout routine whenever he figures out what is now available.

The increase of racks in the SRC has increased the efficiency of Peralta’s workouts.

“I do a lot of Olympic lifting,” Peralta said. “So deadlifting, squats, power lifts, so more racks is a better thing. I used to wait a lot for racks. Now there's one always open.”

However, with the addition of racks, some equipment had to be compromised.

“The only downside: we moved a lot of the cardio upstairs or to Rams,” Witherspoon said. 

What’s next?

“There’s a lot of new equipment that hasn’t come in that’s going to fill up all this open space where people want to work out," Witherspoon said. "That’s why we’re trying to designate areas so that when the equipment comes it won’t be like, ‘Well, I was working out here before.'"

Barring any further delays, the SRC is supposed to be fully renovated by the end of the fall semester. In the meantime, Campus Recreation staff is trying to prepare everyone for the fully renovated SRC.

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