By Shelby Brown

Copy Chief

  CSU Bakersfield students now have another option for personal fitness advice and training through the Weightlifting Club. The club aims to support students’ fitness and mental well-being through weightlifting.

  The Weightlifting Club provides its members with personal fitness training at the Student Recreation Center free of charge.

  Member Sally Coronal, first year master’s of social work student, expressed one of the things she enjoyed about the club. 

  “I really liked it because they offer…personal training, and it’s at no charge,” said Coronal.

  She explained that it was really great to have someone help her with her form and that the advice she gets from other members transfer over to the workouts she does alone. 

  Vice President Eddie Diaz, a sophomore criminal justice major, helped start the club.  He said that the main goal of the club was to make people that were apprehensive about working out feel more          comfortable. 

  The club plans to do this by providing its members with good advice and support.

  Diaz, who has experience as a personal trainer, said his goal is to “motivate people to exercise. I feel that it definitely has an advantage as far as mental focus, and people don’t realize that until they try it out themselves.” 

  A major goal for Diaz is to recruit people of varying fitness levels to support each other and their fitness journeys.

  President of the club, Lorenzo Tafolla, a senior sociology major, explained that physical fitness was a major aspect of the club; however, there are other goals as well. The club’s hope is to motivate students to do better in all aspects of life.

  Tafolla said, “This club represents motivation year round. It doesn’t matter if it’s in the gym or outside the gym. It could be physically or        mentally.” 

  He shared his personal story about how exercise helped him overcome anxiety and           depression by providing him with an escape from negative feelings, and he hopes the club brings that for others.

  Coronal uses exercise for more than just personal fitness as well. She uses it as part of her stress relief and self-care routine. 

  She explained, “working out is part of my self-care. It’s taking care of my mental well-being.”

  Tafolla and Diaz decided to bring war veteran and weightlifter, KC Mitchell, to CSUB to talk with students about motivation through rough times. 

  Tafolla explained that after Mitchell lost his leg in the Afghanistan war, “He got depressed. He used painkillers. For him to overcome that phase, he chose weightlifting.”

  Tafolla and Diaz believe that Mitchell’s story can help students realize that exercise can lift people out of hard times in life. They expressed that exercise is a healthy opportunity to get away from the stress of life and get fit. 

  Mitchell will be at CSUB on February 12, 2018 in the Solario room in the SRC.