Seize the Sweaty encourages women to get involved with Liberty Recreation Center

Every female student at Liberty University is invited to attend a Ladies’ Night at the LaHaye Recreation and Fitness Center on Wednesday, Feb. 21, where they will be able to utilize exercise classes and consult with personal trainers.

The Ladies’ Night, which will be from 9:30-11:30 p.m., is the launch of Liberty Recreation Center’s “Seize the Sweaty” campaign with the goal of encouraging female students to utilize the gym more. Bri O’Neal, assistant director of marketing for Recreation Centers, said although the Seize the Sweaty campaign is targeting women, it is also open to men.

“We created the Ladies’ Night specifically so that there could be an event where girls could come and meet with personal trainers one-on-one and get some demonstrations of how to use the equipment,” O’Neal said. “They can utilize the gym with other friends from their dorms, and they could attend the group exercise classes.”

Only women will be allowed into the gym during the after-hours event. All of the staff during Ladies’ Night will be female. The event will be an approved late-night event for students on campus. Although the event is primarily targeted toward students, faculty and staff may also attend if they have a membership to the gym.

Rylie Culkin, the associate director of marketing and communications at Liberty Recreation Centers, said the events are designed to encourage girls to try something new.

“The group (exercise) classes that will be hosted that night are classes that maybe girls are a bit more afraid of trying, so CrossFit will be one of the classes. But there will also be TRX, Power Pump and Kettlebells,” Culkin said.

Culkin said the Ladies’ Night will also feature personal trainers and have video demos of different exercises. All of the facilities, including the basketball courts, rock walls and swimming pool, will be open. According to O’Neal, there will be an aquatics class at the pool.

“It’s a night to let the girls within the university understand that the gym doesn’t have to be an intimidating place,” O’Neal said. “It can be something that is encouraging and exciting to do.”

The “Seize the Sweaty” campaign is the result of one of graphic design student Madeline Seelhammer’s class projects for the spring 2017 semester.

Seelhammer said her project involved quite a bit of research as to why girls do not like to go to the gym.

“What I figured out was that most girls didn’t want to go to the gym because they didn’t know how to use the equipment or weren’t comfortable, or they felt like they were being judged because they don’t attend often,” Seelhammer said. “The other big one was that they didn’t want to go out there and sweat.”

Seelhammer said this is where she got the idea for the Seize the Sweaty campaign.

“(The campaign) was centered around encouraging girls to go and not be afraid to get there and get dirty, and to do your thing without caring about what everyone thought,” Seelhammer said.

Seelhammer created a system that will track how many times each person goes to LaHaye each month, and at the end of the month, one person will win the Sweaty Person of the Month award and receive a prize. Both men and women can participate in Sweaty Person of the Month.

“This is a bit more incentive to participate in the program, rather than just having a campaign with no reward at the end,” Seelhammer said.

Culkin said that depending on how the Ladies’ Night is received by students, they may plan other events for the campaign in future semesters.

O’Neal said announcements will be going out on social media as to how students can participate in the campaign. They can be found at www.facebook.com/LURecCenters/.