By Brittany Arquette
City Times

Walk into any Bally’s or 24 Hour Fitness and it’s the same thing: for only a couple of hundred dollars down and $40 a month, you can become a member.

But at that price, don’t even think about a personal trainer.

If you’re a student at City, though, you have access to a workout facility with all the same equipment as a mainstream gym, plus the one on one attention you would get from a personal trainer, right here on campus.

The Fitness Center, not to be confused with its neighbor the Harry West Gymnasium, offers fitness classes that focus on you individually, by focusing on the five components of fitness: cardiovascular endurance, muscular endurance, muscular strength, body composition and flexibility.

“After only five weeks of being in these classes, I’ve seen students go down 10 to 30 heart beats per minute, increase flexibility 2-4 inches and lose 2-3 percent body fat,” said Health and Exercise Professor Peter Gregory. “It all depends on how committed you are.”

The best part about the classes is the price. Because fitness classes are only half a unit, the cost for the entire semester is only $10.

You can only take the class four semesters, after that you would have to pay a $100 fee per semester to use the workout facilities. However, you can instead take an advanced fitness class, which combines physical strength with mental strength.

“A lot of athletes have the strength to do well, but when the best of the best are competing, it comes down to mental strength,” Gregory said.

For more information about the Fitness Center, visit the school website at www.sdcity.edu and click on athletics.