HS weight rooms: What's yours like, and what you do to improve it?

[Rick Karboviak]

I thought this would be a good little topic for all the coaches here, especially the ones with a high school edge. I know some high schools are well-funded with their weight rooms, and others are basically working out in an old locker room, or in some cases, the universal weight stack unit is IN the locker room off in a corner.

Here's what mine used to be, in a nutshell, back in my HS days:

We had a court-length stage area, with 2 upper level 'cage' type rooms. One was for storage of all sports equipment & uniforms, while the other was our machine room. The history goes is that the old Air Force Station outside of my hometown, when they had to close, they donated the exercise equipment machines they had out there to the high school, and that's where the school put all of them. The AFS base closed in the early 80's, I believe. So, by the time I entered school in 1982-83, this weight equipment was well-established up there. We had a couple benches that seemed to float in a small area outside the locker room, or up into a corner on the stage. An iron walk-in squat rack was created by the shop class, which I still think exists today. We had barbells galore, plus one or two curl bars as well. The thing I remember most was 'the program' that everyone went by: a college football training program from North Dakota State University's days in the 1980's, when they were multiple Div. II Nat'l champs. NDSU's lifting program was considered 'the gold standard', and that program booklet was left around there like it was a Bible of sorts. In the early 90's, when I started 'liftin' weights', this program was lying around. I think the origins of it came from an old HS alum who played FB for NDSU back in those days, and it stuck around when he'd lift during the summers whlie in college.

Anyways, now they have a really good set-up the last time I checked. Their 'weight room' is now divided into two sections: up in those 'cage rooms' on the stage. The free weights are on the side of the former equipment storage room, and the machines are still there from the Air Force donation. I haven't talked to anyone there to see what is really being utilized, but I guess there is a PE teacher/coach who has taken the reigns over and started a good program for the kids who want to do it.

My last HS I coached at had an excellent weight room, complete with a wide assortment of kettlebells. The basketball booster club was & has been really helpful to the improvements of the weight room through the years. Thousands of dollars are usually spent each year on new stuff & various training equipment, which is also utilized greatly by the PE programs. I was asked to speak & help the PE teachers now & then with their exercise programs, and I coached with one of them, who was the head FB coach, too. There has also been a big increase in the number of female athletes participating in their sports' plans for strength training, and I think its due to the quality of equipment they can use, and the well-structured setup they have for a big emphasis on training overall for all the sports. The coaches have really worked well at that school with talking about the best strategies they can take for all the athletes. I think that is really, really important. The school had a seperate Coaches Assocation, which met monthly on Wed nights through the school year, and they would bring up issues that were affecting them. This Coaches Assocation was the 'united voice' of coaches to the AD/School board with major issues facing the athletic programs. If your school is big enough, I think its a good idea to implement a Coaches Assocation.

So, I hope this topic got off to a good start, and further posts can help some other coaches out with the challenges they face.

Just some things to think about if you are facing challenges:

1. Can you utilize everything your weight room has? What is needed essentially, and what can be expended to increase space or making it more 'user-friendly'?

2. What items can give you the best 'bang for the buck'? I think its best to go with something that you can use in multiple ways/stations, versus having just one lone function only on it. For example, can you spend less than $2k on a multi-function machine that's plate-loaded, or do you go with the single function weight stack machine that takes up the same space & costs just as much?

3. I haven't read it, but Mike Boyle has a great book on designing & structuring facilities, like a big-time 'here's what's needed, here's what is useless' list of stuff & is full of successful implementation strategies. If you are planning new things for your HS or even college, it may be a wise thing to look into.

- RK

[Jeremy Jeffreys]

Our weight room at Red Bay is very user friendly. Our most efficient pieces of equipment are 8 Power Stations. These stations are very useful with our decline to flat to incline benches, which provide lots of versatility. We have a barbell on both the inside of the rack and the outside of the rack. I suggested to our head coach a couple of years ago that this would allow us to manage our time in the weight room much more efficiently, and to this point it has paid great dividends. With 2 barbells on each rack, we are able to superset a barbell lift on the inside of the rack with a barbell lift on the outside of the rack on the platform. This also allows us to work out in groups of 3 or 4 players on each station. We actually tri-set our workouts by adding an auxillary exercise. This is usually a body weight exercise, or a lift using a cable lat-pull, a bear jump, or a ham curl/leg extension machine. A typical phase of a Red Bay workout may look something like this. #s represent a group member

1. Bench 2. Barbell Bent-Row 3. Squat Bender 4. Spotter for the Bench ROTATE
4. Bench 1. Barbell Bent-Row 2. Squat Bender 3. Spotter for the Bench ROTATE
3. Bench 4. Barbell Bent-Row 1. Squat Bender 2. Spotter for the Bench ROTATE
2. Bench 3. Barbell Bent-Row 4. Squat Bender 1. Spotter for the Bench ROTATE

Bench Reps: 5-3-3-2-1
Row Reps: 6-6-6-6
Squat Bender Reps: 10-10-10-10

We also have a step up box on each station, accompanied with a jump box and a mobile speed jump board. We are always looking for ways to improve our weight room, but funds can be hard to come by in a school with only 200 students in grades 10-12. Our Football Program raises $30-40K/year, but those funds get eaten up fairly quickly. This year I plan to have a lift-a-thon to help improve the weight room. Each player will seek out sponsors who will donate a penny, a nickel, a dime, or any amount per pound of weight that he lifts. The total will come from the combination of 1 max reps for the Bench Press, Back Squat, and Power Clean. So, if a player lifts say 1,000 total pounds, and you sponsor him at a penny a pound, then your donation becomes $10. I hope this will be an effective fund raiser. I would like if each player can get a minimum of $100 worth of sponsorships.

Please let me know if you think this is a good idea, and any other ideas you have for fund raising for the weight room.

Thanks, Coach "J"

[Jeremy Jeffreys]

More Pics of Our Weight Room