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MHS students benefit from new, expanded fitness center

Madison wrestlers, competing in the always-tough Watertown Duels Tournament last Saturday, produced a third-place finish in the annual mat classic, edging Sioux Falls Washington 42-36.

Figuring into that win, along with 40-29 and 48-31 victories over Sisseton earlier that day, was Tom Shoemaker, the Dogs' 119-pounder. Shoemaker earned a hard-fought 8-6 decision over Washington's Dan DeVaney.

Shoemaker and Coach Chris Waba credit a lot of whatever success the Bulldogs have this year to the new MHS fitness room. "The new equipment is definitely helping all of us," said Shoemaker. "It has more and better equipment. It's nice to have more room and the treadmills. It helps out with my wrestling. It should help me some more in the future. Of course, it depends on how much time a person puts into weight training."

Waba expanded on Shoemaker's feelings. "I think the weight room has great benefits for everyone," said Waba. "As far as strength in wrestling, that really goes without saying. We try to maintain and not worry so much about gaining strength during the wrestling season." Shoemaker added, "I work out in the weight room for about 45 minutes to an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. I also try to get in there other times."

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Waba sees the real bonus of using the new equipment in the off-season. "During the off-season is when we like seeing our wrestlers there to improve their strength," said Waba. He quickly points out that the equipment is great for non-athletes. "The new weight room is very beneficial in the fact that there are several machines that the student/athletes can work on to improve their cardiovascular conditioning, Waba said. "I have seen an increase in weight-room usage this year. It's a great addition to our school system." Available for student-athletes is the following equipment and its manufacturers:

Power-Lift -- Five half racks with oak platforms and benches. Hammer Strength -- Hammer Jammer; Hammer four-way neck machine; and Hammer chest press/lat pulldown machine. Magnum Fitness -- Lat pulldown machine, pec/rear delt machine; leg curl machine; leg extension machine, multi-hip machine, and glute/hamstring station. Legend -- flat bench, utility bench, decline bench, dip/chin/ab station, mini situp station, 45-degree hyper extension station, and dumbbell rack. Iron Grip -- barbells, plates, dumbbells.

Tom Milne, who oversees the operation of the new fitness center, said, "One of our goals was to increase the number of students (particularly female students) signing up for strength training classes. We also wanted to offer additional lifetime fitness classes at the same time, improving the students' physical fitness levels by adding more cardiovascular machines."

Milne, who is Madison's head football and powerlifting coach, feels that those goals are being achieved.