Cody Jacobucci Visits the
Z Center

The Experience:

About

You walk into one of three main entrances to get into the Z. There is actually a 4th that has been closed for a while but is so much more conveniently located as it is closer to the academic buildings, and right in the middle of the facility, but for some reason we need to talk in at the west end of the gym.

In order to get into the gym, you have to tap your ID to get through some turnstiles. These are constantly broken and present a problem if you have a large bag (like lacrosse and hockey athletes coming from the locker rooms, so you have to use the handicap door. If you would like a towel to use for showering after the workout, you can use your towel card, or buy one for 5 dollars that you can exchange for a towel and get it back when you return the towel.

Next, I stop in the locker room to change. There are no pictures of these locker rooms since that is not allowed, however they are nice by locker room standards. Rows of lockers, 3 stalls, and a room with 10 shower heads around the perimeter all make up the men’s locker room. I change and bring my stuff up to the second floor as I plan to walk out of the east exit as it is closer to the direction I will be going after, and it saves time to use the lockers on the second floor so I don’t have to backtrack to the locker room.

I walk up the second floor, fill up my water bottle at the nice bottle filling station, and begin the least efficient search of all time- trying to find an open day locker. All of the lockers on the 2nd floor are day lockers, and many people do not use locks so it is impossible to tell which lockers are used and which are not unless you open them. After opening anywhere from 1 to 40 lockers to find that there is an opening or that all are taken, I put my stuff away or put it off to the side respectively. I am about to stretch, so maybe a locker will open between now and then!

I stretch on one of two mats. The mats are a decent size, but given that people always align themselves as efficiently as cars do on the streets of Boston- only about 4 people can fit on a mat that normally holds 6 or 7. Knock that down to about 3 people if two people are foam rolling as they take up more space. I bring my water and notepad to record notes on my workout with me. Luckily, there are enough platforms along the sides of the walls to store your phone, water bottle, and notepad. You need to make sure that if you leave your stuff in the locker room, you bring your ID with you because otherwise you will be locked out and have no way to get the ID you need to get in… not that this has ever happened to me! Phone wallets have solved this problem for me!

Now I am ready to lift! Or am I?

Even though there are 7 available racks (4 double as bench racks), 2 platforms, and a few places I have found over the year have enough space for deadlifts, they are almost always taken. Squat racks are sought after because they can be used for so many different exercises. The first question I have to ask when I get to the gym if it is anywhere between 4:30 and 8 PM or 7 to 9 AM is “How many sets do you have left?”

After the main lift, I head over the free weights. There are 3 different dumbbell racks with weights ranging from 5 pounds to 120 pounds. Typically there is not much trouble here. Occasionally I will put a weight back while resting and someone will take it, but there is usually another set of dumbbells with the same weight around so I can grab another. It is a nice feature that dumbbells in the bicep curl weight range have at least 3 pairs. One of the racks only carries weights from 5 to 50 pounds- perfect for many auxiliary exercises at the end of the workout like curls or shoulder raises.