When pupils and staff at Fivemiletown College use the school’s gym, they have something in common with some of the world’s greatest athletes. Technogym - the company who fitted out the school gym - is also the official supplier of the state of the art fitness equipment, which was  used by athletes who make their final preparations for the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.
Fivemiletown College, is the first school in Northern Ireland to install Technogym’s computer controlled gym equipment and to have it integrated with the C2k  school’s network. With more and more people opting for a sedentary lifestyle, the school’s management decided that this was an opportune time to invest in ‘high-tech’ gym equipment to encourage pupils and staff improve their fitness levels. 
The school’s Technogym is fitted with a variety of cardiovascular equipment, all of which comes with integrated workout management systems. Users are given a personalised fitness plan, which takes into account both their fitness and level of ability. Each time they visit the gym, they log on to their own fitness programme and the machines are pre-set to match their fitness levels which are updated after each visit. The workrate is recorded each time and as the user gets fitter, the programme is automatically adjusted.

At the end of each session, users can get a complete breakdown of what they did and the information is stored on the server until their next visit to the gym. ICT plays a major role at both work and play at Fivemiletown College and pupils using the gym can access their personal training programme and associated data remotely home via the internet.
The fitness plans are tailored to suit each individual’s needs and the machines cut out when the optimum level is reached which avoids over-exercising. Vice Principal Ian McConaghy says that while improved levels of fitness are the most obvious benefits of the Technogym, there are other benefits as well.
“There is a lot of friendly rivalry going on between both pupils and staff using the gym which in itself is a great motivator.”

He adds that while there are clear benefits for students studying PE at both A and GCSE level, there are many cross curricular applications for data generated by the school’s Technogym.

“For example, it can help make topics like percentages and averages in Maths much more interesting but there are many less obvious uses. It’s well documented that there’s a direct link between what we eat and our health and fitness. At Fivemiletown College we work hard to promote healthy minds and bodies and in the summer term, the Year 8s will be using data from the Technogym for a ‘healthy living’ project for HE.”