Terry Horne, recreation assistant for 233rd Base Support Battalion, helps Darmstadt spouse Lara Aguilar with her weight training routine Saturday at the Cambrai-Fritsch Fitness Center. Aguilar was one of 22 women who took the women's weight resistance training course, a new program offered at all fitness centers in the 26th Area Support Group. (Lisa Horn / S&S)
Terry Horne, recreation assistant for 233rd Base Support Battalion, helps Darmstadt spouse Lara Aguilar with her weight training routine Saturday at the Cambrai-Fritsch Fitness Center. Aguilar was one of 22 women who took the women's weight resistance training course, a new program offered at all fitness centers in the 26th Area Support Group. (Lisa Horn / S&S)
Mark Lewis, Kelley Barracks Fitness Center facility manager, looks on while Pfc. Nancy Coronado tries out some Nautilus equipment Saturday at Cambrai-Fritsch Fitness Center. Coronado was one of 22 women who took the women's weight resistance training course, a new program offered at all fitness centers in the 26th Area Support Group. (Lisa Horn / S&S)
DARMSTADT, Germany — Brigitte Gosnell, who lost 40 pounds while her husband was deployed last year, has been going to the gym regularly. Recently, however, she stopped making progress.
Gosnell was one of 22 women who attended Darmstadt’s inaugural women’s resistance training class at the Cambrai-Fritsch Fitness Center.
She attended Saturday’s class to help refresh her workout and learn how to use weight equipment effectively.
“I’ve plateaued,” she said after the class. “I learned a lot and thought I knew it all.”
The two-hour class is a result of a 26th Area Support Group gym patrons. Seventy-one percent of the women responding wanted to better familiarize themselves with the weight room and learn about using weights in a safe and effective way.
The survey asked patrons how gyms could better suit their needs and what classes would help. The results have contributed to an overall restructuring of ASG fitness centers, said Todd Hoover, chief of sports and fitness for the ASG, which includes the Heidelberg, Kaiserslautern, Darmstadt, Babenhausen and Mannheim communities.
“Part of the plan is that if you go to the gym in Darmstadt and then you find yourself the next day to be in the Mannheim community, you should get the same kind of program that you had in Darmstadt,” Hoover said.
In addition to offering classes requested by gym patrons, the streamlining includes code system that will appear on equipment at every ASG fitness center. Machines will be color-coded with a specific color for each part of the body they are designed to target — legs, chest, back, shoulders, arms and abs.
A standardized training program was also implemented in February to better equip ASG fitness center staff with tools to help people get more out of their workouts.
Women’s resistance training classes have been offered in Kaiserslautern and Mannheim. The next class will be from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Heidelberg’s Campbell Barracks Fitness Center.
Classes in the Darmstadt community will be given every other month, alternating between Darmstadt and the Babenhausen gym.
Hoover said organizers hope the resistance training classes will serve as a foundation for future classes. They also hope that the transformation of the 26th ASG’s fitness centers will spread to other U.S. Army Europe communities, he said.
In addition to the resistance training class, the 26th ASG gyms will offer classes in weight management, men’s weight training and the use of supplements.
“By focusing on the needs of the community, I think we’re better apt to serve them,” Hoover said. “By making sure we listen to what they want … we [can] provide premium quality programs.”
