Advancing Weights: Next year a co-ed Advanced Weights class will be offered to give girls the opportunity to improve their lifting skills

Junior Lauren McGuire braced the 105-pound barbell as she pushed it above her head and carefully brought it back down, completing her third set of bench presses for the day. Five reps. Take a break. Repeat. 

Despite being a three-sport athlete — basketball, lacrosse and track — McGuire lifts at least three times a week during class. Sometimes she even finds time before or after school to go to the weight room.

Just before spring break all girls taking weights took a survey asking: “Are you interested in participating in advanced weights?” and “Would you be willing to share the weight room (not a rack) with boys for advanced weights?” 96 out of 113 answered yes to the first question and of those 96, 80% said they would be willing to do co-ed.

After already taking beginner weights to learn the basics of lifting, McGuire and her fellow female weight lifters were ready to move up a level, begin lifting more and doing harder workouts. However, currently there is only an advanced weights class for boys. This is why weights teacher Mark Simoneau is creating a separate co-ed class for students who have already taken the beginner weights class and want to continue pushing themselves to get stronger.

Having this advanced class will also give Simoneau and other coaches the chance to help students personalize their workouts.

“[With an advanced class] we can focus specifically on where [students] are, whether they’re advanced or whether they’re just getting started lifting,” Simoneau said. “It gives us the ability to be more specific with what we’re coaching.”

Despite the fact that there is no advanced girls’ weights class, there’s still a group of students who have been in a weights class before and complete more advanced workouts, reaching for the 35 pound dumbbell as opposed to the ten. 

Sophomore Evan Platz is part of this advanced group and encourages more girls to sign up for the new co-ed class.

“If you’re willing to put in the effort, you’re going to enjoy [advanced weights],” Platz said. “It’s not a free pass, you have to do your work, but if you’re really interested in getting stronger, you should totally take it.”

Weightlifting is not only a healthy activity, but it helps athletes improve in their respective sports according to Sophomore Brynn Delaney. Delaney plays basketball, lacrosse and track and feels that weight lifting has helped her get stronger and faster to perform better due to weights coaching from Simoneau and other teachers.

“If [students are] in their season, they’re competing and practicing five days a week,” Simoneau said. “The volume of work that you’re doing is a little bit lower than somebody that’s off-season, so we know we want to balance that volume of work with what they’re doing in their sport.”

Freshman and distance runner Chloe Swan is in the beginner weights class this semester but plans on moving up to the advanced level next year. The class provides conditioning for her sport while also being a break from academics.

“It’s not like normal PE [where you’re] playing random sports.” Swan said. “I don’t want to play football for a semester. I’d rather actually do something that’s more tailored to me.”