A new hobby for many high schoolers has arisen in modern day: weight lifting. It’s not that no one has done it in previous years, but now almost all upperclassmen can be seen at the gym every evening after school. There is no apparent reason for the recent trend, so when a couple seniors at south were asked why the continue to workout they had some interesting responses.

The recent spurt seems to have come with the opening Neighborhood Club Health and Fitness joint located on Waterloo and St Clair. Before the Neighborhood Club opened in 2014, the closest place workout was Pointe Fitness on Harper or Grosse Pointe Athletic Club, until the later closed.

Everyone that lifts has some motivation on why they want to continue to keep going to the gym. Oliver Livingston is a senior at South that is a four year varsity golfer.

“It really is hard to get myself to get up after a long day of school and go work out, but the main thing that keeps me going day after day is because I want my body to look good for spring break this year and I want to be able to hit the golf ball as far as I possibly can,” Oliver Livingston ‘17 said.

Jay Ulbrich ‘17 is another senior at South who first began working out his junior year of high school. He is now a three year varsity lacrosse player and a co-captain for this upcoming season.

“The main motivation I have to work out is for lacrosse season. I want to be the best player I can possibly be, and to do that I have to get my body in the best shape it can be in,” Ulbrich said.

When asking many south students why they don’t spend more time in the gym, one common problem was answered every time. That problem being that they are lost and really have no idea what to do with the weights. Livingston and Ulbrich both struggled finding what to do in the gym when they began lifting, they said, but the problem truly is an easy fix.

“When I first began lifting, I was a little confused, so my good friend Jack Brooks ‘17 would bring me to the Neighborhood Club with him and he would show me what to do for each muscle,”  Ulbrich  said.

Livingston had a different introduction than Ulbrich.

“My parents got me a trainer for the first month for three days a week, and after that month went by I got the hang of which weights to use on a certain day, and now I am very comfortable going by myself,” Livingston said.

So the final question is, does working out really help your athletic game? Studies done by many health and athletic magazines including Sports Illustrated and Men’s Health have shown that being stronger in sports does give you more of an advantage over a weaker player. What people want to know is does the money and hard work in the gym pay off on the athletic field?

“Absolutely, there is no doubt in my mind that I am triple the player I am now, rather than my previous two seasons,”Ulbrich said. “You just have to treat athletics like a full time job and you can’t afford to take days off.”  

Livingston felt similarly, he said.

“I sure think so; golf isn’t a real physically taxing sport, but I can tell you that I can for sure hit the (golf) ball a lot longer now than I could my sophomore and freshman years, twenty yards at least,” Livingston said.