2 /5 Patrick Bacon: Whoever was in charge of the new rearrangement of equipment obviously didnt really have the members in mind. Not only is it set up like a maze, but once you finally find the machine you want to use, the ones that are identical to it are on the entire other side of the gym. Shouldnt similar equipment be next to each other? That alone doesnt make any sense to me. To make things worse, the placement is so awkward. On half the machines, youre awkwardly facing other people who are working out on other machines just feet away. I dont want to stare at somebody else as I (and they) are trying to work out. The worst part of all, the new handlebars theyve installed on the Smith machines are super rough and not smooth, so when youre benching, you have this stabbing, sharp pain pushing into your hands like sandpaper. I left the gym and hour ago and my hands are still sore. I brought this up to the front desk and he didnt have any solution or advice, just said he didnt know. Nothing he can do about it, but I asked him kindly to bring it up to management because nobody wants to go to the gym and have a painful or confusing experience. Im really bummed with these changes... I overheard others complaining as well. I dont want to just be a complainer just because there are changes, but I wouldnt be if they didnt make for a bad experience. The new machines themselves are decent (though also not necessary), but the placement is just nonsensical and those bars are extremely painful for lifting. This reminds me of when they got new treadmills and to increase the speed you have to press the button each .1 of speed you want to increase, whereas you used to be able to just hold it down so it would increase quicker. Why make things harder? I dont get it.


