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Haley Murray

The Recreation Center administrators are planning to develop a Lifestyle Enhancement Center in the vacant space left by the sports medicine office, director Bill McMinn said.

The sports medicine office will move to the Healthplex when it opens in the fall.

"It's a center that will create a hub for personal training, functional fitness, and measurement and evaluation, as well as an additional programming space," fitness coordinator Lynne Thompson-Cundiff said.

The center will become a headquarters for the Recreation Center's personal trainers. Using the equipment already offered, as well as new equipment McMinn described as cutting edge, the trainers will be able to design a 12-month cardiovascular program for interested students.

"It's going to happen sometime during the coming year," he said. "What we're doing is expanding what we're currently offering in sports medicine."

The center will offer the tests that measure anaerobic threshold, which are offered in sports medicine, but new software will be available to assist both the center's users and the personal trainers, Thompson-Cundiff said.

The software program will use the heart rate and other information from the equipment and create a yearlong program for cardiovascular exercise based on a person's anaerobic threshold, she said.

"It will be beneficial to all," she said. "Designing programs, especially a year-long, is time-intensive work."

The anaerobic threshold is the point at which a person's body can no longer break down oxygen efficiently. A low threshold can limit the duration of activity and the amount of time the heart and lungs can work. Using the cardiovascular program designed with the software, a person can increase their anaerobic threshold and therefore the efficiency of their heart and lungs, she said.

The Lifestyle Enhancement Center will also offer body composition analysis, nutrition consultation, muscular strength and endurance tests and complete fitness tests.

In addition, Thompson-Cundiff said even the front desk personnel will be qualified to answer any questions, because they will all have an exercise science background.

"It will be a resource center that will allow students to have a place to go to ask questions," Thompson-Cundiff said.

The development will occur in phases over the next two or three years, with the first phase defining the programs they want the center to offer and utilizing existing equipment, McMinn said.

McMinn said recreation fees students pay, currently $95 for full-time students, would not increase. The money will come from existing funds in internal budgets, though McMinn said he is not sure exactly how much the center will cost to develop.

"We're still in the planning stages and we are researching different types of equipment, et cetera," he said.

The Lifestyle Enhancement Center is tentatively scheduled to open Spring 2006. Students and members wanting to utilize the program can make appointments or walk-in if they have questions, McMinn said.

"We want to create an environment for students when exercise is a habit," he said. "We don't obligate people to do things, but we can inspire them."

Reporter Haley Murray can be reached at haley_murray@dailyegyptian.com