Every college student gets stressed. We could tell you over a hundred reasons why we don’t want to go to our classes, or how much time we put into our homework that it never was looked over by our professor. We get angry, hungry, and stressed a little more than we should. Plus, when we aren’t doing homework, we are getting errands done, walking around all over campus, or even doing nothing. Just nothing. We can forget about the beautiful thing called the fitness center, offered by most, if not all colleges.

It doesn’t matter if you are a star athlete or a couch potato, you can always treat your body to the gym. Yes, college is busy and stressful, but if you really plan it out, there’s no excuse to spend a few minutes there.

After realizing that I could find time for it, I started going to the gym more often. Not because I wanted to lose weight, but to stay fit while I spend the majority of my college career being in classes all day and eating dining hall food all the time. I’m not the first to say “Let’s run three miles and lift 50 pounds of weights after our worst class ever!”. However, it wasn’t until my friends and I decided to make it a hobby to treat our bodies with a healthy workout every night. I then realized I do want to work my butt off after my hard classes. Why? Because I want to feel productive after I spend all my free time doing nothing, even if that means I have sore muscles or become drenched in sweat over a few miles on the treadmill. It’s surprisingly an amazing way to forget about stress and just jam out to our favorite songs. Sadly, we can’t focus sometimes and we need a break.

The gym can be used as a source to let out some steam. We all have those days where we get annoyed of our classmates, feel overwhelmed over class projects, or if we ever feel homesick. Running on the treadmill, lifting some weights, or even yoga can help us forget about our stress for a little while. I recommend listening to music during your workout to really block out the world and make the time there as fun as possible. Don’t be afraid to run the extra mile, do the longer workout, anything that will give you a satisfying workout.

We can use the gym as an excuse to better ourselves. It’s the one thing that we can be motivated by and commit ourselves to. Don’t have any club meetings? Go to the gym. Need a minute to escape school? Go to the gym. Don’t want the “food baby” appearing after dinner? Just go to the gym!

The things we eat in the dining hall are most likely not good for us. There are plenty of healthy options, but they get boring after a while. If you’re like me, I need to change my meals up, or else I might go crazy. Working off the ice cream after dinner, or the fried food you had eating out might feel better if worked off the calories.

Last but not least, the best part of the gym has got to be because it’s free. What college student doesn’t like free stuff?