DOWAGIAC — In the world of fitness, trends come and go, just like the hundreds of devices that seem to appear year after year that is supposed to help turn you into a lean, mean fighting machine.

While some trends make complete sense, others seem just to be fads that fade away about as quickly as a New Year’s resolution.

At Southwestern Michigan College, the school’s Student Activity Center houses one of the area’s most active fitness centers.

Among its amenities are three resistance pools, a gymnasium, racquetball courts, a rock-climbing wall and a variety of fitness machines and free weights that anyone from a novice to the serious workout warrior can use.

The facility is open to SMC students, as well as the general public. Memberships range from three months to a year, as well as day passes.

William Roggeman, the manager of the SAC, is no stranger to the world of physical fitness or the vast number of ways people try to get into shape.

Roggeman was a physical education teacher before coming to SMC, so he has more than 30 years of experience in the field.

“Like anything else, it is in cycles,” he said. “It comes and goes. I think people are now looking for something to make them feel better about themselves. Certainly, getting in better shape and feeling good about your body is on the upswing. Working out is one thing that is tied to that.”

Another trend may also be pushing more people toward getting into better shape — eating healthier food that is not processed as much. Farm to table is on an upswing. Eating better and exercise seem to go together, Roggeman said.

“People are about self-improvement,” he said. “Those infomercials that are on in the middle of the night are always preaching about making yourself better. It is either mental health or physical body health or physical eating health. Those are ways that people can try to improve themselves and be a better person. The eating and physical exercise go hand-in-hand.”

The third leg of the milk stand, in this case, would be mental health improves as your physical fitness and eating habits change.

“Having taught health as long as I did, too, we always talked about the triangle of health,” Roggeman said. “Exercise helps all of that.”

Among the trends in physical fitness are the expansions of fitness centers, which SMC had already done when it renovated the former Charles O. Zollar building and gymnasium into the SAC 10 years ago when the residence halls were added.

Going along with that trend are the smaller facilities, which nearly every community in southwest Michigan has experienced over the last five years.

The number of people who use the fitness center at SMC always gets an increase when a new semester begins, and students return to campus. Those numbers drop off slightly as the semester goes on, and school work begins to overtake the priority of working out, Roggeman said.

“Our community membership stayed pretty consistent,” he said.

The fitness center and the other elements of the SAC are free to all students. Community members can sign up for a three-month membership ($150), a six-month membership ($200) or a 12-month membership ($350). Members must be at least 16 years of age.

Day passes are also available. The gym and fitness center day pass is $10 and a full usage pass costs $20, which includes a gym, fitness center, rock-climbing room and resistance pools.

“Having been in public education for 30 plus years, when I saw this facility, I was in awe,” Roggeman said. “I never had a fitness center. That was that nice. With the addition of a number of cardio machines they have added, and the back end with all the free weights, it is outstanding.”

When SMC renovated the Zollar building and created the SAC, it was about giving the students, who can now live on campus in the residence halls, something to do and a place to go.

The plan worked.

“I have heard a lot of comments from students when they do come to campus is that one of the reasons they wanted to come here is because this such a nice facility,” Roggeman said. “The thought process was more about exercise and fitness, and giving the individual something to exercise in rather than just have a recreational play center.”

Taking on the competition

The number of gadgets that one can purchase to work out at home seems to increase by the hour. Commercials bombard the airwaves every day with weight loss supplements, weight loss programs, and exercise machines for the home.

Most cost more or are equal to the amount it would cost to join the fitness center at SMC.

Roggeman does fear those items, especially the workout machines, will put a major dent into the number of people who will come to work out at a facility.

“I think a lot of people go through phases,” he said. “There is some interest in exercising at home on my time, in my area, and that can work. A lot of people like to keep to themselves so that they will go for a run by themselves or a bike ride by themselves. They are ok with that, but I think most people thrive in a group setting.”

Whether or not it is a class or the same five or six people who work out around the same time that they do, it helps them in a variety of ways.

“I think it helps motivate them,” Roggeman said. “They get competitive. You develop a comradery in the gym that takes you a long way.”

Five years down the road

Roggeman said that everything runs in a cycle. What was popular 10 years ago comes back, as well as things that are popular now may lose their attraction for many years before being rediscovered.

The trick is not necessarily to follow the trends or fads, but to keep focused on what works best for each individual.

“If you go back to Jack LaLanne in the 50s, what he was preaching came back around in the 1970s,” Roggeman said. “Right now, it is very individual. We have this station for you to work on, and then you go over here and work on this station. If anything, things evolve, and it may lean back to where people start doing things in groups again, or three or four people doing things in a class. The tried and true methods do not change. They just get more popular. There is something for everyone.”

For those who tend to want to work out in a group, SMC offers classes during the spring semester in Body Pump, Zumba, yoga and cardio drumming, contact the SAC at (800) 456-8675.