Texas Tech University has partnered with Escape Fitness and Marathon Fitness to transform two dormant racquetball courts into a functional fitness training facility on its Lubbock campus—the first of its kind among Lone Star state universities.
The newly opened Raider Escape Room features Escape- and Marathon-manufactured equipment across 1,600 square feet, all finished in the university’s signature red, black and white colors. Staff and students can access the space five days a week for small-group training, sports conditioning and personal training. Individual classes are $15.
The project came about after several Recreational Sports staff members from Texas Tech were invited to attend a Marathon Fitness training session, said Betty Blanton, associate director of Recreational Sports at Texas Tech. Blanton and her staff later corresponded with representatives from several other universities who had developed functional fitness spaces—designed to condition exercisers for real-life scenarios—including the University of Georgia.
“Our personal training program had outgrown [its] space, and we viewed functional fitness as a valuable piece of our fitness plan for the Texas Tech community,” Blanton told Club Industry. “Personal trainers and their clients could not be happier, and we envision the Raider Escape Small Group Training program to continue to grow.”
In total, the cost of the project was between $76,000 and $80,000, Blanton said. All renovations were handled by the university’s maintenance staff.
The university is the first in Texas to design an entire room around Escape’s functional training equipment, according to a statement provided to Club Industry. This includes a 15-foot Octagon Hub Training System frame, Plyosoft Boxes, Bulgarian Bags, Corebags, kettlebells and recycled-foam training TIYRs (pronounced "tires").
“Students want to have fun while getting fit,” Christopher Eyre, West Coast account executive for Escape Fitness, said in the statement. “They’ve grown up paying hyper-attention to every detail of their surroundings. Our team wanted to bring high visual impact to the Raider Escape Room’s functional fitness training initiative by creating a colorful, dynamic place where they’d want to spend time—with the best trainers.”