In high school, kids are required to take part in a physical activity class.  Like most American high schools, AHS offers the options of weights or gym class.  It is a requirement to take either weights or gym class all four years of high school, or eight semesters.  Students are free to change their physical activity class at semesters.  If a student isn’t enjoying weights, they can switch to gym and vise versa.  Many older AHS students have participated in both weights and gym class during their high school career.

In the first semester of the 2016-17 school year, Junior Riley Seufert took gym class for the first time in her high school career.  “I’m not a very strong human being so I switched to gym,” Seufert said.  “To me gym is more fun than weights, we always get to do something different.  I also learned more than I thought I would in gym class.”

Sophomore Sebastian Linfor takes weights class at AHS.  “I want to get stronger and be able to lift more,” Linfor said.  Prior to coming to school at AHS, Linfor attended East Wake High School in Wendell, North Carolina.  At East Wake, Linfor said students couldn’t take a weights class until their junior year of high school.  “They manually recorded their workouts on sheets of paper at East Wake,” Linfor said.  Sophomore Tristin Jessen also takes weights class.  Jessen takes weights because he wants to “get tough,” and because “weights is tough.”  Jessens’ favorite part of weights class is “getting jacked.”  Jessen isn’t the only one who enjoys ‘getting jacked’ in AHS.

Weights instructor Ryan Henderson also adores ‘getting jacked’ along with a number of other AHS students!  Henderson said about 100 students took weights class first semester of the 2016-17 school year.  All together Henderson spends about six hours each school day in the weight room. Henderson also teaches a few gym classes along with coach Tucker Weber.  Henderson said that he enjoys teaching weights class more than gym class. “I love teaching weights.  I’m passionate about kids getting stronger and better succeeding in their sport because of lifting,” Henderson said.  Henderson is most happy when he sees a kid “really fall in love with lifting,” and getting involved in the weight room.

If you have a niche for weightlifting like Henderson, take weights class!  If you find gym more satisfactory, take gym!  If you’re not sure which class you would rather be in, it might benefit you to try out both!  Studies show that it is important to engage in physical activity for at least 60 minutes a day if possible.  Taking a physical activity class can benefit students in many ways, including relieving stress, which many AHS students may have.  Make your physical activity fun- choose the right class!