Whiteman AFB, Mo., has benefi ted greatly from new equipment purchas-es and upgrades, helping to lift the fi tness center to greater heights.

“When I took over in Feb. 2010, I identifi ed fi tness equipment to Air Force MAJCOM and the Wing leadership that needed replacement,” notes White-man AFB Fitness Center Director Michael Taylor. “Through the generosity of the MAJCOM and Wing Leadership, we are putting an emphasis on the Airmen’s physical fi tness, especially now that the Air Force has entered into a new Physical Training standard.”

Over the past year, the fi tness center added all new cardio equipment from Precor, as well as new selectorized equipment from Life Fitness. In total, the base spent approximately $300,000 on new fi tness equipment, including all new equipment for the family fi tness room.

“We got all new cardio equipment from Precor – treadmills, elliptical crosstrainers, upright and recumbent bikes, and Adaptive Motion Trainers,” notes Taylor. “They really worked well with us, gave us good customer service and a good price.”

Taylor says it was imperative that each of the 46 pieces of cardio equipment include viewing screens. “Each cardio piece has its own viewing screen with cable TV and music,” he points out. “So, people can’t use the excuse that they are going to miss their favorite TV show. We even had one person tell us they come in to work out because they don’t get that channel at home. People are extremely happy about that feature.”

The fi tness center also benefi ted from new strength equipment, featuring selectorized equipment (15 pieces) from the Life Fitness/Hammer Strength Motion Technology line. “They love it,” says Taylor. “The old equipment that we had wasn’t meeting our needs, and I saw that. It didn’t hit in the right spots, whereas this new equipment, I have had several people come up and tell me that they had worked out here several times before but with this new equipment they went home and they were sore. They could tell it was making a difference.”

The key, Taylor points out, is that the equipment is isolateral, which allows each arm or leg to work with weight independently. “If you are working out your arms, for example, you have two weight stacks, one for each arm. It is the closest thing to free weights without actually having to change the weights,” he notes.

The facility also features new dumbbells (from 5 pounds to 150 pounds) featuring the new Iron Grip urethane covers and base name logo. Additional aerobic fi tness equipment, such as new medicine balls and kettlebells, for ex-ample, were purchased from BSN.

“I get out and I talk with our customers and fi nd out what they want and need, which informs my decisions when I am purchasing new equipment, and helps me to stay in touch with the latest trends,” says Taylor.

LAYOUT AND DESIGNWith the infl ux of new equipment, Taylor and his staff were able to make

subtle changes to the layout to improve fl oor space and overall fl ow of the facility.

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New Fitness Equipment BOOSTING MORALE

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“We made changes in the layout and design of the center to maximize the limited space that we have here,” he explains. “By getting the specifi c equipment that we did, we were able to thin out the equipment that we no longer needed. The equipment does so much for us that we actually reduced the total number of pieces of equipment needed in the room.”

He adds that by making changes and improving fl ow, the room feels less crowded and more wide open, giving more room for spotters, for example. “We put our collective minds together and solicited advice from our heavy duty weight lift-ers, and as a result, they really enjoy the new layout. It is less cluttered and gives them more mirror time. We have been get-ting a good response from people and it is well utilized.”

In addition to the newly equipped cardio and weight rooms, the facility houses two basketball gyms (one on each side of the building); four racquetball courts (one of which is permanently set up for wallyball); a dedicated spin room; and a parent-child workout room.

“We turned an old racquetball court into a parent-child workout room, and that is where part of the new cardio equip-ment is as well,” notes Taylor. “So, for spouses who have small children at home, we have a dedicated area with age-appro-priate toys from the Child Development Center (CDC) and G-rated movies. We created a safe environment for them.”

The parent-child workout room has all new fi tness equip-ment, including treadmills and elliptical cross trainers from Precor, and a stationary bike from Star Trac.

“The families just love it!” notes Taylor. “When we do tours of the facility, that is one of the areas that we point out to people because many do not know it is available to them.”

A Health and Wellness Center (HAWC) is attached to the fi tness center as well, providing health promotion and educa-tion classes, programs and resources. A nutritionist and exer-

cise physiologist are also on staff. “We work hand in hand with them,” notes Taylor. “A good

workout or diet is going to be comprised of eating and work-ing out right. A lot of people forget about the nutrition side and they don’t see the results. Together we help people fi nd the right balance between working out and nutrition. We refer people to the HAWC to make sure they are getting the right nutrition and health advice, and the HAWC sends people to us to make sure that they are working out properly and effectively to achieve their goals.”

He points out that giving people proper guidance on what to do is important. “A common misconception is that the more diffi cult the exercise or movement, the better the workout you’ll get, and that is not true,” he says. “You’d be surprised at what people do with equipment and the awkward position they put themselves in. That is part of th reason why we chose the isolateral selectorized equipment because there is only one way to do the exercise, and it makes you move along the same lines your body is supposed to move.”

PROGRAMMING PROWESSOne area of need is additional space for group exercise

classes. The fi tness center currently uses one of the gyms for aerobic classes, and offers about 22 classes a week. Classes such as Zumba (popular with spouses), Spin, Extreme Fitness (like circuit training), Boot Camp (good for PT test prepara-tion), Abdominal Core Training and Yoga are just a small sam-pling of the group exercise options available.

For those strapped for time, the Lunch Time Blitz class is targeted for people who can only work out during their lunch hour, and is designed to get people in and out in an hour’s time.

Another popular program is Body by Whiteman, which is similar to the popular TV show The Biggest Loser. “We take

MARCH 2011 • GOVERNMENT RECREATION & FITNESS

Air Force Fitness

miles each time they work out or participate in a class, with the ultimate goal of earning enough miles to reach the destination of their deployed spouse, whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan.

“We created a fake passport for them,” Taylor notes. “So for each class for 30 minutes it is worth 50 miles toward their

journey to where their spouse is deployed. They can track their progress and see how far along the journey they are. We calculate how many miles it is to their spouse and they accumulate the miles to join their spouse. The overall incentive for us is to get them out of the house and into the fi tness center. They also get to socialize and bond with other spouses while they are getting fi t. Plus, it is a good stress reliever that helps them to blow off some steam or take their minds off things.”

The fi tness center also runs intramural sports, in-cluding fl ag football, basketball, volleyball, soccer and softball. Outside the facility are three softball fi elds, a soccer/fl ag football fi eld and a track. Sporting equip-ment and supplies are purchased through Gopher, BSN and Power Systems.

Overall, the new fi tness equipment upgrades have helped to boost morale of Airmen and their families, and better prepare Airmen for the new PT test.

“My ultimate goal is to support the commander’s new PT program, especially with the new Air Force fi t-ness standards,” says Taylor. “Our commitment to Air-men takes precedence over everything. We are trying to make sure we have the right equipment here for folks to maintain their fi tness level, to pass their PT test and be mission ready.”

In addition to better preparing Airmen for combat, the fi tness center staff tries to reach out to people as much as possible in an effort to help increase overall health and morale.

“They view the fi tness center as more than just a gym and have incorporated it as part of a lifestyle,” notes Tay-lor. “We are seeing more people realizing that this is a place that they should be visiting to make sure they meet their fi tness requirements, and my hope is they see us as meeting their needs — that they know we are here to help them meet their fi tness testing standards.” —GRF

it a step further,” says Taylor. “It is not just about losing weight, but about getting on the road to health and well-ness. We incorporate the Mi-croFit system, testing them and getting a baseline of their fi tness — a starting point — and then we bring them back in after each month to see how they are doing.”

The fi tness center also offers programming support for spouses of deployed Air-men.

“We have incentive pro-grams that we run in con-junction with our Airmen and Family Readiness folks, who help us advertise to the spouses of those who are deployed,” Taylor explains. “We have a program called Freedom Miles, which we saw at an-other Air Force base and we thought would be a good idea to implement here.”

The Freedom Miles program allows spouses to accrue

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Air Force Fitness