Weight to Go:

Still feeling guilty about those late-night exam period pop tarts? Perhaps it's time for a trip to the bowels of the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC), where hordes of health-crazed Harvard students flock every afternoon in search of a perfectly toned body.

During the peak pre-dinner hours, the fantasy world of mirrors and sleek red and black decor in the MAC's basement is filled with straining bodies struggling with Nautilus machines, exercise bikes and free weights.

Each of the three rooms in the basement 'health club' has a different atmosphere. At the bottom of the staircase, lies the Universal weight room. The floor-to-ceiling mirrors reflect a row of exercise cycles, four or five Walkman-sporting students, and an imposing array of Universal machines.

"In this room, the numbers are reversed--mostly girls use the exercise bikes. But I've noticed that guys come in to use the machines and scope the action," says one of the bike riders.

Some men and women find camraderie in the weight room. Ann Moon '89 says that many of her friends have gone out with men they've met in the weight room; in fact, next week one of her friends will attend a rock concert with a Medical School student she met a while working out.

And one weight room aficionado says she heard a group of football-minded Kirkland House residents joined the popular 5:30 aerobics class to expand their athletic horizons.

Down the hall, the newly-refurbished Nautilus room boasts a corridor-long hall of mirrors and nine "toning" machines. Here varsity athletes mix with recreational shaper-uppers. One day earlier this week, a man sporting a red "Harvard men don't stop at third base" shirt struggled with the dreaded thigh machine, while a women's lacrosse player chatted with one of the weight room regulars.

But the hard-core bodybuilding addicts head for the free weight room, which also serves as a refuge for out-of-season varsity athletes. Top 40 music blares from a box as approximately 20 men execute their daily ritual of pumping iron.

The senior monitor at the MAC estimates that 200-300 people flock to the five-year-old athletic facility every day. Working out "is becoming more and more popular," he says. "The sport is just mushrooming."

Kim Scola '87, works out three time a week during the winter months; he misses the varsity athletics he played in high school. Because Harvard varsity sports are such big time commitments, many high school jock-types have turned to House athletics, and recreational fitness programs--especially the basement hideaway at the MAC.

As part of his fitness routine, Scola uses both the free weights and the Universal machines. He also takes aikido--martial arts--classes which are offered by the Athletic Department at the MAC.

Some students prefer to pursue their own regimen. Lucian Wu '90, who started working out on his own this year, says the finds the atmosphere can be somewhat intimidating, "especially if you're not on the football team."

To get away from the hard-core jocks, Wu says, "You just have to concentrate on what you're doing for yourself. Try not to keep it an ego thing." He says he thinks that weightlifting fosters individualism, but admits, "A lot of it has to do with looks--it's pure vanity, that's my motivation. It's a matter of feeling good and looking good."

Weighty Matters

The MAC, however, cannot fulfill the desires of every Harvard weight lifter. Across the river, the Indoor Track and Tennis (ITT) Center houses the training ground for most of Harvard's varsity athletes. But the facilities there cannot satisfy increasing student demand.

"ITT has outgrown its use," says head trainer Bill Coughlan. Several varsity teams have abandoned the crowd scene at ITT for the haven of team-only facilities--the track team has blocked off one section of the indoor track for team workouts and the football team recently established a weight room underneath the stadium.

But those elite centers of varsity iron-pumping by no means dominate the Harvard 'health club' scene. House gyms and graduate school rooms, including a small free-weight center for Law School students, reduce the strain on the jewels of Harvard's weight-room circuit, the varsity-oriented ITT and the social hub MAC.

Associate Director of Operations Don Allard says these smaller centers help meet the burgeoning demand for weight rooms--"even sub-places like the ones at Hemenway and the houses help take the pressure off the ITT."

Mather House boasts one of the most extensive supplementary rooms on campus, according to student director Peter Buonfiglio '87. A core group of 30 regulars frequents the Mather gym, which boasts, in Buonfiglio's words, "A very social atmosphere where it's easy to spend half your time talking and hanging out with friends."

New free weights, and exercise bicycle and an ergometer have spurred interest in the Mather House weight room. Buonfiglio says the changes have brought people out of the woodwork; "the hard-body fad mixes with the yuppie health craze" at the weight room," he says.

For some, body building provides exercise for the mind as well as the body. Andrew Sullivan, a Lowell House tutor and author of an article on body building for The New Republic, finds the psychology of the newly-popular Harvard weight rooms fascinating. "They are fundamentally solitary, which is why I think [working out] is the ultimate yuppie 80s activity," Sullivan says. "The weight room is sublimated safe sex, and that's the reason why it's booming."