Exercising is the easiest way to start and maintain a healthy lifestyle. It not only helps you lose weight or gain muscle, but it does some other amazing things for your health, such as decreasing your risk for high blood pressure or heart problems. In addition to decreasing your risk of health diseases, it also improves your mood! Who does not want to be happier and skinnier? Exercise can help with stress and anxiety as well. For example, if you are feeling overwhelmed, a quick jog or walk might be just the thing you need to calm you down! However, exercise is not for everyone. Some people say they do not have the time, while others flat out hate working out. There are ways to get around all of those excuses, and continue to live a healthy life. Here are some easy ways to get more physically active in your life.
Not taking shortcuts walking across campus is an easy way to help increase calories burned. Choosing to take the long way may also bring you to places you may have never seen. Consider the average college student: most of his or her classes will be in just a couple buildings. This will leave them possibly never seeing some of the beautiful landscape of their campus. Once a week, students may desire to venture to parts of the campus they have not seen or have not seen in a while. The University of Louisiana at Lafayette (ULL) campus is filled with beautiful trees and even a pond filled with alligators. The student union is the most recent addition to our campus and is a great place to hang out. If the student spends years at ULL and never sees the amazing landscape, they may regret not taking the extra time to “smell the roses”. There is great importance in taking time to embrace the moment. Another way of not taking shortcuts is to walk on the sidewalks versus cutting grass. Not only will it help keep the grass green, but taking those few extra steps while carrying a book bag will add to calories burned.
Another consideration is taking the stairs instead of taking the elevator. Some people may choose to add a workout to their routine by walking or running stairs for lunch breaks. From having a free workout to doing something other than studying; there are many reasons to plan a time to exercise. Searching the internet, I found that stair climbing has become the new trend.
In various places all over the world there is the extreme sport of stair climbing. New York holds the Empire State Building Run-up and many other countries hold tower running events. Many tower running events are to benefit charities, held in world skyscrapers, from Taipei, Taiwan and Milan. In the United States, races are held in Chicago, Las Vegas, Denver, Des Moines, Grand Rapids, Omaha and Philadelphia. With all the popularity of such fun events, students may consider training while at college. University of Louisiana at Lafayette has many buildings with stairs for getting or keeping fit. Our English building, H. L. Griffin has 5 flights of stairs and with almost every student having to take an English course at some point during their college career, I highly suggest embracing the stair climbing challenge and hiking up Mount Griffin.
In addition to these easy ways to incorporate exercise into your everyday lifestyle, it is important to actually exercise. Bourgeois Hall is a few minutes from the main campus and has almost all activities there are to offer. With the accessible hours throughout the semester, and even special hours during the summer and winter breaks, Bourgeois is easy access to students, just make sure to remember to bring your student ID. Bourgeois has almost everything imaginable when it comes to different ways to work out. It has an aquatics center, open recreation, club sports, intramurals, and many more.
If actually working out is your thing, head on over to the gym inside of Bourgeois. On the top level is cardio, where you will find treadmills, stair machines, ellipticals, and bikes. But once you go downstairs to the first floor, you will see the sea of machines for every type of exercise, as well as free weights. The best thing about the gym is the fact that if you do not know how to work a machine or are not quite sure what to do, there are so many friendly people who will gladly help you out. If you prefer to actually run instead of hitting the treadmill, do not be alarmed. Surrounding the basketball court, on the second level is a track where people frequently go to run when they want all the benefits of running, but in an air conditioned environment.
If you want to get involved, join a club sport or an intramural team! ULL currently has eighteen different club sports available. Sports include bowling, cycling, ice hockey, skateboarding, soccer, waterski, and many more. If you are interested, head on over to recsports.louisiana.edu and email the advisor listed under the sport you would like to play! If you and your friends want to pal around and have a good time while getting in some exercise, try signing up to play an intramural sport. They are played in different leagues, which is up to you how you would like to play and they offer everything from volleyball to basketball to softball to racquetball and everything in between. Grab some of your friends and go out to have a good time, I promise you will always have a blast in intramurals!
Lastly, if you are big into exercise classes, have no fear, Bourgeois has that to offer too! Nothing is more fun than grabbing some friends, or showing up to a class alone and meeting new people, all while laughing at yourself throughout your workout. Bourgeois offers the traditional classes such as Zumba, yoga, and cycling. However, they also offer one of a kind classes such as Ragin’ Abs, Cajun Wild Card, Butts & Guts, as well as Booty Ballet. They are once a week classes you can go to that are offered at many different times, so it is easy to incorporate it into your busy schedules. I highly recommend looking into these classes!
Exercise is a major key to living a healthy lifestyle. While it may not always be the most fun thing to do, or even be at the bottom of your list of what you want to do for the day, there are easy ways to incorporate exercise into everything you do. In addition, ULL offers plenty of fun activities to make you forget you are even working out that are completely FREE. Just make sure to not forget your Cajun Card, otherwise you would not be able to get in!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/health/nutrition/19fitness.html?_r=0
