Coach Joe O’Hara has worked with LM’s athletes in the weight room for the past six years. The school’s fully equipped weight room allows teams and individual athletes to further develop their strength and conditioning to improve their athletic performance. For many athletes, extra time dedicated to the weight room has fostered a new love for lifting.
Abby Gannon ’24, a member of the girls’ varsity track and cross country teams, has a fond appreciation for lifting and incorporates it into her training program. She shares that “Coach Joe’s insightful teaching and sarcasm overall just makes the atmosphere in the weight room highly enjoyable and fun. It takes the strain off of working out and replaces it with good times.” She continues to add some words of advice for new athletes interested in beginning strength training, stating, “Although it seems scary to walk into a room full of heavyweights when you are beginning, Coach Joe is there to help and support you throughout the process of learning.”
Another LM athlete has also grown attached to the weight room and the benefits of strength training. Felix Morales ’23, a member of the varsity football, wrestling, and lacrosse teams, shares, “I use the weight room as a way to become stronger; it benefits me by helping my lower body and upper body be more explosive on drives in football.” Like Gannon, the two share a liking for O’Hara and his teachings. Morales states, “Coach Joe has helped me in many ways. I have benefitted from him teaching me many different workouts that target different muscles in my body. This makes me a better athlete in all the different sports I play.”
Not only is the weight room filled with sports teams, it is also open to individual students who want to get in a good workout and build strength. Students can schedule times for lifting with free instruction and feedback from O’Hara. Individuals are encouraged to participate in the weight room but are required to email for a scheduled time prior to their session.
To learn more about the weight room and O’Hara, we sat down with him and asked him a few questions:
SF: What sports do you see most in here?
O’Hara: Girl’s track and football.
SF: How does strength training help prevent athletes from getting injured?
O’Hara: By building up the muscles, rehabbing,
prehabbing, and making the athlete stronger. Giving the athlete time to work out instead of just constantly doing the same motions like running will allow then to get into some joint-impact free training that should reduce injury.
SF: How has COVID-19 affected the weightroom and the amount of people in it?
O’Hara: So we shut down for almost a year and then we had a 25-person limit for the first three months of coming back. Since then, except for the mask policy, nothing’s really changed, but it has allowed us to kind of be a little bit stricter about scheduling.
SF: What is your favorite thing about coaching the kids at LM?
O’Hara: Usually just laughing at them.
