“Last year, the MAC was sort of ... unusable,” says Eric J. Powell ’04. “The weights were cracking. The benches were splitting. Everything was old and rusty. It was miserable.”

But after extensive renovations to the Malkin Athletic Center (MAC) this summer, the MAC’s popularity has greatly increased since students’ return to school.

The impetus behind the change has come from the Boston Sports Club, a for-profit company that has been managing the MAC since last spring.

“They have expertise in an area that we did not,” said John Wentzell, the assistant athletic director. Before they were hired to help with the gym, “we didn’t have eyes and ears in there, but they really had their finger on the pulse, and have been able to push for what needs to be done. Just their professional presence is going to start paying great dividends.”

The renovation included the replacement of all of the equipment in the weight and nautilus rooms, most of which was more than 20 years old. The “glut of stair masters,” as Wentzell puts it, were replaced by elliptical trainers, which people were “clamoring for.”

“Everyone is coming back so enthusiastic about their workouts,” says Stefan C.. Kenel-Pierre ’03, a receptionist at the MAC.

Students like Kenel-Pierre, who once avoided the old facilities are now flooding back, won over by the improvements.

“We have seen a tremendous increase from last semester,” says Wendy Brown, who works for Boston Sports Clubs at the MAC. “Word travels fast. As soon as people heard about the new machines, it was a free for all.”

Brown says 5,724 students came in last week, and predicts that numbers will keep rising through September.

“I only ever came here when the law school gym was closed,” says Tinika Brown, a student at the law school, “but I will come here now, even though the law school gym’s closer to where I live, and I like that there are so many ellipticals. I’m just worried about the crowds when all the undergrads have moved in.”

Besides the Hemenway Gym, often frequented by law students, and the Murr Center, which is near the football stadium, the MAC’s previously less than spectacular offerings also lost students to professional gyms, such as Boston Sports Clubs in Central Square ($77 a month + initiation fee) and the Wellbridge Center at the Charles Hotel ($112 a month + initiation fee).

Less than satisfied with school-provided facilities, Nicole C. Brown ’03 joined the Wellbridge Center, signing up a group of her close friends as well, and says she does not plan to return to the MAC.

“I’ll keep the membership this year,” she says, “because I have a relationship there now and my routine is set. I also like that it’s not a part of Harvard. Different kinds of people go there.”

But she says that she will at least take a look. “All my friends are telling me I have to see it,” she says.

The general student opinion has in fact been overwhelmingly positive.

“I’ve come here three days a week, every week since I was a freshman, and I’m going to keep doing that. The difference is now I’m going to be getting a much better workout doing that,” says Bradford R. Sohn ’02. “It has been night and day.”

But now that the equipment is up to date, overcrowding is the MAC’s next big issue.

“I have never seen so many people in the MAC before,” said Katharine E. Jackson ’04, who successfully battled her way over to the elliptical machines.

“This is only step one,” said Wentzell. “Now we need more space. We need about four or five of that cardio room. But we are excited, because the University is really starting to focus in on our need.”

—Staff writer Eugenia B. Schraa can be reached at schraa@fas.harvard.edu.