Ashley Amundson – Independent Project

Ashley Amundsen – Independent Project

Class of 2017

Introduction to Topic

Most people have large dreams and aspirations that they would like to accomplish. From becoming the captain of a sports team to being offered a job at a local restaurant, there are a variety of things that people want to do in life, all of which require a healthy mind and healthy body. Health is one of the most important assets that a person can have, without it, little can be done. There are many different areas of health that need to be maintained; my independent project specifically focuses on personal health. Personal health is vitally important in that if people take responsibilities for their own bodies right from the start, they are bound to have fewer health issues down the road.

Project Description

My time spent at the Arena Club along with my time spent redesigning and 3D modeling the hospital in Problem One inspired me to merge the two things together. While the Arena Club provides a wonderful environment to workout, I could not help but wonder how it could be improved upon. What could be added that would motivate people to workout harder, and more efficiently? Would changing the color of the walls have any effect on how well people trained? What about the floor plan? These were all questions that came to mind once I stepped foot in the Arena Club. Once I had collected enough information on what exactly needed to be innovated regarding the building and floor plan of the gym, I got to work in Sketchup, piecing all of the rooms and different types of equipment together in order to accurately model my new and improved gym. The most intriguing aspect of my remodeled gym was the addition of a “multi-environment” room. This room provides the technology to allow its’ users to adjust the temperature and humidity to better suit their needs while training. For example, if a winter athlete is training during the summer, they could still train in an environment closest to what they would actually be competing in.

Experience Description

Deciding where to conduct my shadowing experience was the easiest part of my independent project. Once I knew that I wanted to explore the topic of personal health, I knew exactly who to contact. One of my youth pastors works full time as a personal trainer at the Arena Club located in Churchville, Maryland. Having already known Mr. Bradley prior to my internship with him made the entire experience flow that much smoother. It would have been much more difficult to walk into a company without knowing anyone there, including the mentor. Although it was nice already knowing one person on the first day, it also could have been beneficial to walk in not knowing anyone because that would better simulate what it would be like walking into a job on the first day.

Carrying on with the idea of first days’, my first day at the Arena Club was spectacular. My mentor, Mr. Mark Bradley, gave me a quick tour around the building and soon enough, I got to shadow my first training session. Over the course of my internship, I saw many different people that Mr. Bradley would train. The young boys that I saw on my first day of shadowing would continue to be some of my favorite to watch during the times I came in to shadow.They were brothers, who were both training for ice hockey. Each time they came in for a workout, they were excited and ready to participate in a rigorous workout. The types of workouts that Mr. Bradley would give them were always different and challenging in new and unique ways. This held true for all of his clients.

As someone with little athletic experience, everything about training at the gym was new to me. This included the advance, sports-specific equipment that was used, the format of the workouts and the fact that someone was guiding the workout for the entirety of its’ duration. The new turf field seemed to be a popular spot for Mr. Bradley’s younger clients, since they were focused on training for sports. The clients who were training for weight loss or weight gain would typically stay in the main part of the gym where all of the weights and machines were located.

Innovation Description

While one may think that it is difficult to innovate something, after immersing oneself in a particular field or environment, it is relatively easy to point out flaws here and there whether they are minor or major. This held true for my experience at the Arena Club. While my time there was excellent, I knew there must have been more they were doing for their clients. My own observations, as well as the input of my mentor, Mr. Bradley, lead me to redesign the layout of the gym. This would be my first innovation, a new and improved design for public gyms. Once I had determined what my end goal would be for my first innovation, I had to figure out what media I would use to create it. This decision was not very difficult considering the technical experience I had gained earlier in the year with Sketchup. I knew Sketchup would be the perfect program to use that would capture what I envisioned my innovated gym design to be. It was simple enough to use, while still providing the freedom I needed to be successful.

Prior to even opening my first Sketchup file, I had to map out a floor plan of the gym. To do this, I used an app on my computer called Drawboard PDF. This app was used to layout a quick design. Once I had the basic idea, then I moved over to SmartDraw.com where they allowed me to make and produce a more comprehensible floor plan. Realistic dimensions are also captured in the floor plan sketches as well as the 3D model. Both of these allowed me to thoroughly layout my thoughts that would then be transferred over into Sketchup.

After enough preliminary work, I headed over to Sketchup. The first thing that I did was download most of everything that I knew I would need from the 3D warehouse. This way, everything would be laid out in front of me so I could easily access parts while making my overall design. I spent a considerable amount of time selecting files from the 3D Warehouse. From previous works in Sketchup, I knew that I had to be conservative with the file sizes that I selected so that the Sketchup file would be functional. Once I had my smaller parts, that included exercise machines such as treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines and much more, I began to place them into their respective “rooms” of the gym. Of course most of the gym was open to other parts of the gym for ease of access to the customers as well as the workers. To represent the stretching and core area, I carefully aligned yoga mats as well as something to hold the yoga mats. To represent the weight machines, I placed several different types of machines. In the free weight section, I included several racks of free weights as well as dumbbells and a bench. The front desk included it’s own separate room, which would serve to not only act as a welcome area to old and new customers, but also act as a layer of security. Gym members would be required to use a pin number to enter the welcome room and then a fingerprint to enter the gym from the waiting room area. The bathrooms that are in my gym follow standard health codes. The male and female bathrooms are symmetrical although the male side does include urinals where the female side does not. One of the last rooms in my gym design is a health suite. All standard first aid equipment is included as well as specific materials that are necessary to treat common workout injuries. This follows the “RICE” acronym that stands for Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. A long gurney is provided for those who need to rest and potentially elevate one part of their body. The cabinets featured in the model will hold all other necessary first aid materials.

Arguably the most exciting and innovative part of my new gym design is the “multi-environment” room. This room allows athletes of any sport and any season to truly engage in their training sessions. It features four walls that use green screen technology so that athletes can visually immerse themselves in the true environment in which their sport takes place. For example, if someone were training for a winter sport, visually, they would feel as though they were actually in a wintery environment. Alongside the green screen technology is the ability to control the temperature and the humidity of the room. These are both important factors that affect athletes while they are training as well as competing.

Alongside all of the other innovative components of my new gym design is a kiosk that will aid gym members in selecting specific exercises for their workout. Rather than wasting time, wandering around the gym wondering what they should be doing to enhance their workout, they can take a quick trip over to a kiosk and run the code that I have written. This code was written in Python and many hours have been put into it to ensure that its’ algorithms and abstractions are highly efficient. The code will prompt the user with a series of two simple questions that will guide the user to a list of several exercises that they could complete, if they choose. There are also notes that are featured to clear up any confusion or provide some encouragement to those who are reading them.

In order to effectively market my gym design, I created a website that will showcase all of the different aspects of my gym. My website is also the main promoter of the fictional company, Activate and Unleash Fitness that has “bought” my innovated floor plan. As a company, they update motivational blog posts. There are also descriptions of the new gym design as well as the Multi-Environment room. The Multi-Environment room is the main selling point about this gym, so there is an individual blog post describing its’ functions. The design for the website was also strategic. The color schemes include warm, earthy tones that promote health and wellness.

Introduction to Topic

Most people have large dreams and aspirations that they would like to accomplish. From becoming the captain of a sports team to being offered a job at a local restaurant, there are a variety of things that people want to do in life, all of which require a healthy mind and healthy body. Health is one of the most important assets that a person can have, without it, little can be done. There are many different areas of health that need to be maintained; my independent project specifically focuses on personal health. Personal health is vitally important in that if people take responsibilities for their own bodies right from the start, they are bound to have fewer health issues down the road.

Project Description

My time spent at the Arena Club along with my time spent redesigning and 3D modeling the hospital in Problem One inspired me to merge the two things together. While the Arena Club provides a wonderful environment to workout, I could not help but wonder how it could be improved upon. What could be added that would motivate people to workout harder, and more efficiently? Would changing the color of the walls have any effect on how well people trained? What about the floor plan? These were all questions that came to mind once I stepped foot in the Arena Club. Once I had collected enough information on what exactly needed to be innovated regarding the building and floor plan of the gym, I got to work in Sketchup, piecing all of the rooms and different types of equipment together in order to accurately model my new and improved gym. The most intriguing aspect of my remodeled gym was the addition of a “multi-environment” room. This room provides the technology to allow its’ users to adjust the temperature and humidity to better suit their needs while training. For example, if a winter athlete is training during the summer, they could still train in an environment closest to what they would actually be competing in.

Experience Description

Deciding where to conduct my shadowing experience was the easiest part of my independent project. Once I knew that I wanted to explore the topic of personal health, I knew exactly who to contact. One of my youth pastors works full time as a personal trainer at the Arena Club located in Churchville, Maryland. Having already known Mr. Bradley prior to my internship with him made the entire experience flow that much smoother. It would have been much more difficult to walk into a company without knowing anyone there, including the mentor. Although it was nice already knowing one person on the first day, it also could have been beneficial to walk in not knowing anyone because that would better simulate what it would be like walking into a job on the first day.

Carrying on with the idea of first days’, my first day at the Arena Club was spectacular. My mentor, Mr. Mark Bradley, gave me a quick tour around the building and soon enough, I got to shadow my first training session. Over the course of my internship, I saw many different people that Mr. Bradley would train. The young boys that I saw on my first day of shadowing would continue to be some of my favorite to watch during the times I came in to shadow.They were brothers, who were both training for ice hockey. Each time they came in for a workout, they were excited and ready to participate in a rigorous workout. The types of workouts that Mr. Bradley would give them were always different and challenging in new and unique ways. This held true for all of his clients.

As someone with little athletic experience, everything about training at the gym was new to me. This included the advance, sports-specific equipment that was used, the format of the workouts and the fact that someone was guiding the workout for the entirety of its’ duration. The new turf field seemed to be a popular spot for Mr. Bradley’s younger clients, since they were focused on training for sports. The clients who were training for weight loss or weight gain would typically stay in the main part of the gym where all of the weights and machines were located.

Innovation Description

While one may think that it is difficult to innovate something, after immersing oneself in a particular field or environment, it is relatively easy to point out flaws here and there whether they are minor or major. This held true for my experience at the Arena Club. While my time there was excellent, I knew there must have been more they were doing for their clients. My own observations, as well as the input of my mentor, Mr. Bradley, lead me to redesign the layout of the gym. This would be my first innovation, a new and improved design for public gyms. Once I had determined what my end goal would be for my first innovation, I had to figure out what media I would use to create it. This decision was not very difficult considering the technical experience I had gained earlier in the year with Sketchup. I knew Sketchup would be the perfect program to use that would capture what I envisioned my innovated gym design to be. It was simple enough to use, while still providing the freedom I needed to be successful.

Prior to even opening my first Sketchup file, I had to map out a floor plan of the gym. To do this, I used an app on my computer called Drawboard PDF. This app was used to layout a quick design. Once I had the basic idea, then I moved over to SmartDraw.com where they allowed me to make and produce a more comprehensible floor plan. Realistic dimensions are also captured in the floor plan sketches as well as the 3D model. Both of these allowed me to thoroughly layout my thoughts that would then be transferred over into Sketchup.

After enough preliminary work, I headed over to Sketchup. The first thing that I did was download most of everything that I knew I would need from the 3D warehouse. This way, everything would be laid out in front of me so I could easily access parts while making my overall design. I spent a considerable amount of time selecting files from the 3D Warehouse. From previous works in Sketchup, I knew that I had to be conservative with the file sizes that I selected so that the Sketchup file would be functional. Once I had my smaller parts, that included exercise machines such as treadmills, ellipticals, weight machines and much more, I began to place them into their respective “rooms” of the gym. Of course most of the gym was open to other parts of the gym for ease of access to the customers as well as the workers. To represent the stretching and core area, I carefully aligned yoga mats as well as something to hold the yoga mats. To represent the weight machines, I placed several different types of machines. In the free weight section, I included several racks of free weights as well as dumbbells and a bench. The front desk included it’s own separate room, which would serve to not only act as a welcome area to old and new customers, but also act as a layer of security. Gym members would be required to use a pin number to enter the welcome room and then a fingerprint to enter the gym from the waiting room area. The bathrooms that are in my gym follow standard health codes. The male and female bathrooms are symmetrical although the male side does include urinals where the female side does not. One of the last rooms in my gym design is a health suite. All standard first aid equipment is included as well as specific materials that are necessary to treat common workout injuries. This follows the “RICE” acronym that stands for Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate. A long gurney is provided for those who need to rest and potentially elevate one part of their body. The cabinets featured in the model will hold all other necessary first aid materials.

Arguably the most exciting and innovative part of my new gym design is the “multi-environment” room. This room allows athletes of any sport and any season to truly engage in their training sessions. It features four walls that use green screen technology so that athletes can visually immerse themselves in the true environment in which their sport takes place. For example, if someone were training for a winter sport, visually, they would feel as though they were actually in a wintery environment. Alongside the green screen technology is the ability to control the temperature and the humidity of the room. These are both important factors that affect athletes while they are training as well as competing.

Alongside all of the other innovative components of my new gym design is a kiosk that will aid gym members in selecting specific exercises for their workout. Rather than wasting time, wandering around the gym wondering what they should be doing to enhance their workout, they can take a quick trip over to a kiosk and run the code that I have written. This code was written in Python and many hours have been put into it to ensure that its’ algorithms and abstractions are highly efficient. The code will prompt the user with a series of two simple questions that will guide the user to a list of several exercises that they could complete, if they choose. There are also notes that are featured to clear up any confusion or provide some encouragement to those who are reading them.

In order to effectively market my gym design, I created a website that will showcase all of the different aspects of my gym. My website is also the main promoter of the fictional company, Activate and Unleash Fitness that has “bought” my innovated floor plan. As a company, they update motivational blog posts. There are also descriptions of the new gym design as well as the Multi-Environment room. The Multi-Environment room is the main selling point about this gym, so there is an individual blog post describing its’ functions. The design for the website was also strategic. The color schemes include warm, earthy tones that promote health and wellness.