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PACIFIC OCEAN – Recently, Sailors and Marines aboard amphibious assault ship USS Boxer (LHD 4) finished constructing a secondary gym at the aft end of the ship. Simply referred to as the “Aft Gym,” the space contains pull-up bars, spin bikes, row machines, Total Body Resistance Exercise (TRX) bands, kettlebells and dumbbells.
“Before we built the Aft Gym, there were a lot of ideas floating around about this gym with more open space for people to come and work out,” said David Pedersen, Boxer’s afloat fitness director, commonly referred to as “Fit Boss.” Boxer already has a main gym at the forward end of the ship with machines and free-weights, but Pedersen said that there are distinct advantages that this smaller Aft Gym has over Boxer’s forward main gym.
"Immediately I thought of turning this space into sort of a functional fitness area where people could do calisthenics like pull-ups, crunches, burpees and stretching without having to worry about being crammed in the main gym with all of the new equipment being moved in there and the other people moving about.”
This newly available space isn’t just a room for people to come individually and work out. Pedersen has plans to bring people together in the Aft Gym as well.
“Another thing I want to be able to do is teach and facilitate classes like High Intensity Yoga, Zumba, and NAVROM (Navy Range of Motion). I would also like to be able to use this area for divisional and unit PT. For example, let’s say that [Supply Department] wants to come in here to work out and have a function just for them. That’s something that we would be able to do here.”
The Aft Gym has also been a major upgrade for the Fitness Enhancement Program (FEP).
“FEP is in here every single morning. Right now, unfortunately we have 25 people on FEP and I’m not always able to fit all of them in here at the same time, but it’s much better than trying to fit them all in the main gym in the morning. The people on FEP are already forced to go there because they didn’t meet a certain physical fitness standard. On top of that, they kept having to switch between locations like the main gym or the hangar bay or the flight deck. Now they have this space and they are able to get really good instruction and it has really helped them.”
Pedersen also said that he is seeing big differences in both the progress and enjoyment in FEP and he is thankful for the Boxer leadership team for helping him put the Aft Gym together and helping raise morale and make Boxer more fit.
Boxer is underway conducting routine operations as a part of USS Boxer Amphibious Ready Group (ARG) in the eastern Pacific Ocean.
For more news from USS Boxer (LHD 4) visit http://www.navy.mil/local/lhd4/.
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| Date Taken: | 02.16.2019 |
| Date Posted: | 02.19.2019 17:25 |
| Story ID: | 311173 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 217 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, BOXER Opens New Aft Gym, by PO2 Dale Hopkins, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
