On Monday, January 29th, in Fireside Lounge, Redprint held a creative kickoff event: a pull-up challenge. The event advertised the Redprint app, available on the App Store.
Participants were given a pull-up bar and stood in line to wait. Their scores were then marked on a scoreboard.
Zachary Piper is the director of Champlain’s Fitness Center and the fitness and recreation coordinator. He hosted Redprint’s launch event, alongside several Redprint spokespeople. Piper spoke to me about how the Fitness Center is implementing Redprint.
“Everything started with the coordination with Redprint by them reaching out to me… Their message was all about getting people into the gym by making people feel comfortable in the gym,” said Piper. “What they do is they put their stickers on all of our machines and some of our other free weights and things that you can use for exercise.”
The stickers are located all over the fitness center and function with the Redprint app. Tap your phone as you would with Apple Pay, and an instructional video will pop up showing you how to use the equipment.
The Redprint app offers another key feature: it allows you to track your workouts, encouraging routine and making it easy to know how hard you can push yourself.
“I was really impressed with the two co-founders, Michael and Brenna, who have this whole mission about making a gym, specifically a college gym, which is often when a lot of people are introduced to this hobby, a place of accessibility where [students] can go and feel comfortable,” Piper added.
These instructional videos are made by students—in fact, there’s a need for regular Champlain gym-goers to show off their proper form.
“…a thing [about] this Redprint program that’s cool is, it’s Champlain students that are going to be on the videos demonstrating the exercises,” Piper said.
Gyms tend to be heavily masculine zones, which makes it more challenging for women and people who don’t identify with masculinity to find gym motivation. Michael Heitz, Brennick Hendrick-Fox, and James Morrow, the three co-founders, have a mission to make the gym an accessible place. Similar to the co-founders, Piper discussed his interest in making the gym a more inclusive, judgment-free zone. One of his core values in his position is to make the Fitness Center more inclusive and less judgmental.
“And [that’s] really hard to do because I think regardless of what anyone is thinking or feeling when it’s your first time in the gym, and you see other people who are really experienced, you worry that you’re going to do something wrong… and it can be really self-degrading.”
Redprint and the Fitness Center are taking steps to tackle these challenges. Redprint’s instructional videos at Champlain feature Champlain students, which Piper says is meant to foster a sense of inclusivity.
“All I ever want is to be working in a space… that encourages everyone to find their comfort zone because physical health is going to improve your mental health. That’s something we all need. [And] some of those feelings of insecurity are unavoidable because… we all have different bodies. It’s such a natural response to feel nervous and unsure about it. But it’s whatever we can do to wipe that away at our campus. We’re better off for it.” Piper concluded.
Redprint’s implementation shows Champlain’s dedication to a no-judgment experience at their gym, and it shows promise for the future of inclusivity at the Fitness Center.
