The key is to make your schedule ahead of time and set goals for yourself. I usually schedule out my week the Saturday or Sunday before and look for any free time I have to fit in a workout, a fitness class, or even just a walk or a run if that’s your thing. When it comes to setting fitness goals, it’s important to make them attainable and to make sure that they don’t solely depend on losing or maintaining a certain weight. Instead, make goals that will encourage you to try new activities and help you stay healthy in a more general sense. My personal goal for this upcoming semester is to do at least one activity each day to stay active.
If you’re planning on staying home for your first semester, there are plenty of options to keep you on your toes. My favorite way to stay active up on campus was to attend the many different fitness classes offered through some of the gyms on campus such as yoga, cardio and core, kickboxing, and many more. When Penn State moved online last semester, the fitness classes moved to Instagram live! With no equipment needed, this was the easiest way to stay active at home for me. Penn State also joined many different colleges throughout the country in the #RecMovement which connects students, faculty, staff, and alumni to virtual fitness classes and challenges from every participating university. Penn State is in 21st place as of right now for minutes of movement, so join me and other Penn Staters to move us up on the leaderboard! The link below will take you to the campus recreation programing site which includes links to the virtual fitness class schedule, the #RecMovement, and other programs: https://studentaffairs.psu.edu/campusrec/virtual-programming
If you’re planning to stay on or around campus, we have a few awesome recreation centers and countless intramural sports and fitness clubs to help keep you active. With everything going on right now, these facilities are not available and the groups may or may not be active, but fingers crossed that you’ll be able to do this stuff in the future.
IM and Club Sports are very popular and include all the regulars, with a few interesting ones including fencing, Quidditch, trap and skeet, and many more. They’re even currently offering virtual summer challenges such as a Duathon and the Punt, Pass, and Kick challenge. This link will take you to the IM and Club Sports page to see everything they have to offer: https://www.imleagues.com/spa/intramural/619072e9c12948fe921ef06f2ebbeb57/home
There are three main gyms on campus that vary in size, location, and facilities offered: the White Building, the IM Building, and Rec Hall.
The White Building is located along Shortlidge Road and the HUB lawn and is closest to the Pollock and South halls. It houses facilities such as a huge weight room, pool, and lots of different multi-purpose rooms that are used for fitness classes and clubs.
The IM Building is located along Curtin Road right beside the WE ARE sculpture and is closest to East halls. It’s our biggest recreation center on campus with tons of cool facilities such as the climbing wall and bouldering center, ⅙ mile indoor track, weight room, an indoor turf field, and much more.
Rec Hall is located at the intersection of Burrows Road and Curtin Road and is closest to West halls. It has racquetball and squash courts, an indoor track, and it also houses Hepper Fitness Center.
There’s even an app that rewards you for going to the gyms around campus! Plyo is an awesome app that tracks your time at the gym and gives you points for the amount of time that you’re there. You can even get extra points for going with friends who also have the app. These points can be redeemed in the app for rewards in stores and restaurants downtown and online, a great way to save a little extra money just by going to the gym! I just recently used most of my points in a few raffles for Starbucks and Target gift cards. At local restaurants around State College, you can get a percent off of your purchase or even free food such as smoothies, entrees, and appetizers. You can learn more and download the app here: https://plyoapp.com/
Elena Mazur
Team F Envoy
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