Get Swole 24/7 with Southwest Rec’s New Parking Rule

Let’s face it, people of UF. The gym can be rough.

You’d think we would have a different attitude in a place literally called Gain(e)s-ville, but there are times it is a nightmare to work out. Let me rephrase that, though — it’s not so much the actual working out that’s rough, and it’s definitely not the facilities that make it an unpleasant experience.

It’s simply the amount of people trying to use the gym at the same time.

I know, I know. It’s a wonderful shared community experience to cram 30 percent of our university into Student Rec and the other 70 percent into Southwest.

It’s so much fun to all be there at the same time! It’s like a Gator football game every night, except with more clothes and less sweating!

We all do it.

It’s right about that time in the late afternoon where you just ended class, or you just ate dinner at the house (5:30 is an old-people time to eat dinner, Greek life) and you have a few free hours before you open up your textbooks or start watching Netflix. So you decide to go to the gym.

If you live on or within immediate proximity of campus, you walk over to Student Rec. You swipe your card (their hand things rarely work), put your stuff in a locker and go upstairs, only to find every single machine is taken.  So your natural reaction is, “It’s nice out. I’m not gonna actually do homework anyway. I’ll go to Southwest!”

What happens next is different for everyone. Either you brave the bus (ew), run or bike (because you’re a masochist) or, you drive. You pull up to the parking lot in your whip and discover… NO SPOTS AVAILABLE. Perfect.

So you drive around in circles until some sweaty stranger pulls out of their spot after taking their sweet time finding the right song to play and allowing the AC to get just right. Yeah, you could carpool, but spontaneous gym visits don’t get that much coordination. You could also park in the garage, but your car is afraid of heights.

Then you walk into the gym (this time actually scanning your hand). You walk down that hallway and see every single lock on the lockers is turned horizontally. You keep going to check out the weight room and the one-in-one-out line looks identical to the one at Fat Daddy’s (same people too). And once you actually get inside, every machine or tool you wait to use for your werk is taken, and you run into everyone you’ve ever met and end up spending an hour standing and talking.

One of the reasons Southwest gets this way because parking at Southwest isn’t lifted until 3:30 pm, but the gym first opens at 5:30 am. That’s a lot of hours people don’t have access to Southwest. Parking in between those times without a decal is great if leg day is worth a $30 parking ticket to you. (It’s not.) UF’s parking attendants are as persistent as salesmen working for Stratton Oakmont. Maybe if people could drive themselves to the gym all hours of the day, the sudden influx between 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. might spread out through the day.

Well, America, SG listened to me. (It’s amazing how fast they responded to that last paragraph.)

As of today, April 1, the parking lot behind the beach volleyball courts at Southwest will be open 24/7 to park without a decal. Hallelujah! Praise Yeezus! You can park behind the courts and walk over to the gym without a decal any gosh darn time of the day. But be careful, because it’s just a no-decal zone. (Cue “No Flex Zone.”) You can only use the lot if you are going to the gym, and you only have two and 1/2 hours in your spot, which shouldn’t be a problem unless you take a nap on the ab mats.

Rejoice, UF. Our western face-station just became accessible 24 hours a day.

Hopefully this works and the gym gets less crowded and our workouts get easier and more productive. With less people, you’re more likely to get your proper routine in and less likely to run into that questionable BOMO that seems to follow you everywhere.

Featured photo courtesy of: HerCampus

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