The Wilbur N. Daniel African American Cultural Center (WNDAACC), Military Student Center (MSC), and Adult, Nontraditional & Transfer Student Center invited students and guests to “live like an American Ninja Warrior for a night” at the Total Obstacle Fitness Center on Friday, April 12.
The mission statement behind the fitness center is to provide a convenient way to start journeys into better fitness and to reach full potentials in a fun environment.
“At Austin Peay we’re big on collaboration. If you look around you see a lot of students have family, they have friends, they have kids. We wanted them all to come out and feel like they’re part of our APSU community,” Director of the WNDAACC, Marcelius Braxton said.
This event stems from the “take me out to the ballgame” program that the APSU cultural centers have been providing. The program encourages students to bring their families with them to a different APSU sports game each month.
While the environment changed from metal bleachers to floor mats, the purpose remains: students leave their homes and bring along some family and friends to have an enjoyable and eventful night.
“I was on PeayLink looking for something else and then I saw an obstacle course and I thought it would be good for me and my brothers to go. It’s been fun,” junior accounting major, Chuka Aruh said.
Before beginning the obstacle course, students had to warm up. Coach Storm of the total obstacle fitness center said safety is a number one priority. Storm took students outside of the gym so they could loosen up their bodies. Students, friends, parents and toddlers joined together in squats, shuffles, hops and jogs.
“This is a good fun fitness event with a lot of team building and strength and conditioning. There is also a lot of thinking about themselves and how they negotiate with different obstacles,” Owner of Total Obstacle Fitness, Joe Shakeenab said.
After the warm-ups, the participants split up in two groups. One group had the older students who had more advanced training sections, while the other group had younger students that were patiently accommodating with.
The event was surprisingly informative. Before the obstacle course could be run in its entirety, it was divided into sections. Participants went through the course level by level with their respective coaches much like the American Ninja Warrior series would. The coaches gave detailed step-by-step instructions on how to tackle each obstacle to the best of their ability. Surprisingly, mistakes from the participants were far and few between.
When practice was over, all bets were off and the participants were free to roam the gym with everything they learned. The roam erupted in supportive applause, encouraging chants and cheerful laughter.
“We watched the show pretty much regularly and tried to emulate it the best we could. I think we did a good job honestly. I had a great time,” freshman accounting major, Kene Aruh said.
For more information about the Total Fitness Center, visit their website. Events and class schedules are listed. To keep up to date on what else the WNDAACC, ANTS and MSC have to offer, visit their respective websites or visit them when you are free on campus Monday through Friday.
Editor’s Note: Revisions were made to this article on April 16, in regards to who sponsored the Ninja Warrior Event. This event was sponsored by WNDAACC, ANTS and MSC.
