When I arrived back on campus for 25F, my final Hanover fall, it had been a long time. After being off in the winter, abroad in the spring and home for the summer, I was struck by how much had changed while I was away. The front of Collis was no longer boarded up by the construction, Novack had a new fancy line system, the Hop was opening again for the first time since my freshman fall and Foco was now accessible by fingerprint identification. The hardest pill to swallow, though, was the new layout in the gym, something I’ve dubbed the “death of Girl Gym.”
My fellow non-freshman female NARP’s know what I mean. Once upon a time, the upstairs section of the gym was for the girls. It was where we would go to lift weights without feeling like there were a million eyes on us, watching and judging our every move. I think I can speak for a lot of us in saying that the gym can be a scary place, especially during the hours of approximately 4 to 6 p.m., when what seems like the entire Dartmouth student population is working out.
For the reader who might not resonate with this semi-universal experience, the typical gym routine for many of us girls involves a little bit of cardio on the treadmill, Stairmaster or other machine of choice, followed by some sort of strength workout on a mat. This is where Girl Gym used to come into play.
To set the scene, when you walk upstairs to the mezzanine level of the gym, there used to be a mirror-lined area with open floorspace, two benches and a rack of a wide range of dumbbells. Slightly secluded from the main body of the gym, this area was ideal for the latter half of this workout routine. Right or wrong, good or bad, this area was usually full of girls, hence its nickname — Girl Gym.
This past winter, however, the gym underwent a major restructuring, resulting in the mezzanine level now being almost completely dedicated to squat racks.
According to senior associate athletics director for external strategy Chris Celona, asbestos was found in several offices on the first floor of the Lewinstein Athletic Center in March 2024. The asbestos was likely dislodged by the vibrations of the weightlifting equipment directly above on the first floor of Zimmerman Fitness Center. Following a period during which this area of the gym was closed, the power platforms were moved to the upstairs mezzanine area to prevent further dislodging of materials from the ceiling below, as well as to reduce noise in the offices.
While this change was clearly necessary, some students were upset to find Girl Gym gone when they arrived back on campus for winter term.
“The upstairs Girl Gym was kind of like my little sanctuary,” Louise McKown ’26 said. “I could get a good workout in but not have to worry about being perceived.”
In a reference to the “Barbie” movie, McKown equated the loss of Girl Gym to the Kens taking over Barbieland.
The first of many gym-goers’ qualms about this rearrangement was that it came with no warning.
“I honestly didn’t really know where to work out for a couple of weeks,” McKown recalled. “I did my best, but it was really awkward.”
While the new layout hasn’t stopped McKown from going to the gym, she noted that she now finds it much more difficult to find floor space for her mat downstairs and she misses being able to check her form in the mirror.
Like McKown, Lauren Calabrese ’26 also previously sought refuge upstairs for her mat workouts. Now that Girl Gym no longer exists, she has eliminated weights from her workout routine altogether.
However, she still goes to the gym for the treadmill, allowing her a direct view of the upstairs area.
“It seems a lot less functional now. It’s just a less efficient use of space,” Calabrese said. “I look up at that area, and no one’s really there, whereas it was always so busy before.”
Caelan Corkery ’26, who has worked at the gym since her freshman winter, agreed that the downstairs area now feels more crowded. On the other hand, she said she knows of several people who now prefer to run outside due to the death of Girl Gym. Corkery also noted that she would be “too embarrassed” to use the downstairs floorspace for mat workouts.
As you can probably tell by this point, there is an army of very passionate Girl Gym mourners, of which I am a member. However, some girls are braver than I!
“To be honest, I’m fine,” Victoria Wang ’27, a non-frequenter of the upstairs section of the gym, said. She added that when she learned how to use the squat racks, which now occupy the mezzanine level, she realized that she liked having them in front of the mirror.
Audrey Kim ’27, whose gym routine consists mostly of lifting weights, also had a more neutral, if not positive, reaction to the loss of Girl Gym. She explained that the addition of more weightlifting equipment in the open space that was once Girl Gym has made it easier to find a machine, especially during peak gym hours.
“By getting rid of this open space and putting in more machines, it actually gave me more freedom and access to different exercises,” Kim said.
While the absence of Girl Gym has been a topic of light-hearted conversation amongst my friends, it also feels like a quiet social experiment on female gym-goers: Why do so many of us feel so much embarrassment and self-consciousness about working out under the gaze of others, specifically men? I don’t have a good answer, and maybe I never will. I find it quite sad, though, that a necessary rearrangement of gym equipment to mitigate a safety hazard has so deeply affected some girls’ workout routines. No one should be forced to run outside, especially as we head into a brutal Hanover winter.
Although it is somehow already Week 5, and I have more pressing things to think about — like midterms, or fitting in as many hikes as possible before my last Upper Valley fall fades into my last Upper Valley winter — I still find myself missing Girl Gym now and then, especially when I’ve just dragged myself out of bed and into the freezing cold morning for a quick workout before class and the last thing I want is to interact with anyone. If the death of Girl Gym is supposed to motivate me to build up the courage to learn how to use the squat racks, that time has not yet come. For now, I’ll settle for the mirror-less downstairs floorspace for my mat routines and hope that exposure therapy will help me overcome the death of Girl Gym.