Have you ever typed up something on PC and then your computer crashed and you lost it because you were an idiot to not save it?
Yeah well…this is my first time and the reason this blog is a little overdue.
A week or so ago, we had a chatski about eating well in college. Today we can have a chatski about being active in college.
For many of my blogging bffs about to go off to school, you are being a recruited for a sport. While I was never recruited, I can tell you during season you will have no problems being active. At all. If your butt doesn’t make it to practice…you’ll be in a bit of trouble and thus have to make up practices (so you never really catch a break).
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But what about during off season? Or what if you aren’t on a team?
I don’t know a single college without a gym. If you do, please let me know, I’m interested. Most college gyms have a plethora of different machines weather you are into cardio or lifting or both. Take the first few days before classes – to explore the gym. Play around on machines, see what you like or what you don’t. Not every one likes the same machines, so you should feel out what you like at your gym. I hate recommended cardio machines for people because it’s all on general taste.
You don’t have to go everyday, or even stay for an hour. You just want to an outlet to be active and relive some of your stress from classes or um…housemates.
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But what if you just hate the gym?
My housemates hate the gym. They do not like going at all, it bores them, it’s stinky ect. They do stay active though going to different classes and really going out that way. Along with a gym, most colleges have anywhere from tennis courts, an ice rink, workout classes and most even have a pool. I’m not saying you should try (or learn) to swim laps, I’m just saying it’s a great stress buster and I always have the most satisfying workouts via swimming.
Amen Nicole. If I’m throwing money into classes-my butt is over there. That is BCBG clothing I could be spending it on.
You don’t even have to go near your athletic complex, rent DVDs from your library of Julian or other videos. Those can be done at home and as early or as late as you like.
Sign up for intramurals! There is nothing like being active with 10 of your closest BFFS and not really evening knowing you are getting exercise in.
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But what about making time between classes, studying, social life, and your other jives?
I took a lot of crap for this one actually.
And I mean a lot of criticism first semester for being on the cross country and swim team. A lot of people would snidely ask me how I had time to balance sports and that it was a good thing I wasn’t taking hard classes, and if my studies were suffering, oh yes and the everymore HTF I blogged on top of all of that. Incase you wondered, I got a 3.6 first semester, so my studies were not suffering and I was not bumming around in easy classes either. Math major is a little bit hard to have an “easy load”… There is always room to fit exercise in somewhere, you just may have to give up a little facebook stalking (or blog stalking).
Anywho-Let’s just say there was a lot more negativity then positivity.
Making time for the gym is all about your priorities. You don’t have to go everyday but you do have to prioritize. I make a master schedule of my week.
My biggest advice is to plan the week on Sunday. Plan the days you are going to the gym. Plan everything. Plan what you want to get done each day (such as projects/homework/papers/equations), plan outside of the school things (laundry/going to the groceries ect) and when you’ll need to do that, but also plan when you are going to the gym. If you plan it, you are so much more likely to actually get there. Seriously getting to the gym or wherever you are working out, is half the battle.
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More from the Tweeting Besties:
I couldn’t agree more with Becca and Lauren. I literally walk between 5-8 miles around campus on the weekdays.
Most gym fees are included in your tuition which means you aren’t paying a billion dollars per month.
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In short:
Take 5 minutes each week to plan out your week. Set priorities.
And you don’t have to rely on boring cardio machines all the time, workout with friends, do other things outside of stinky gyms. You’ll love it that way.
So be active and have fun in school. 4 years is an awfully short time.
Awesome tips, people have no reason not to exercise in college. There’s always time, especially since the gym is only a few minutes walking for some students. I love group exercise classes, running routes around campus, and trips with the outing club (I’ve done hiking ones, but there’s rock climbing, canoeing, biking, and more).
I found it easier to make gym-time in college… with a different schedule each day, sometimes it was in the morning and other times in the evening. It was crucial for me to deal with the stress of school!
These are great suggestions. My school has a gym, but I just found out I can only take it four times and I have maxed out! Ugh! Needed the weights!
LOVE the tips!! You are so right- there’s no excuse!! Specially since you juggled a MATH major+swim and XC teams!! Seriously, you’re my idol 🙂
I wasnt good with food in iniversity but one thing I was good at was being consistant at exercise! I was in teh gym 4-5 days a week always doing SOMETHING… plus i worked off campus, and my campus was built on a hill so it was a longgggggg uphill walk to work! ahahah
eww yes i have definitely had that happen…oh gosh i feel bad for you, it absolutely sucks having to rewrite stuff! hahaha love that sometimes exercise just means a little less blog stocking…which sucks but fb and blog stalking will always be there the next day!
Love the tips! Math major+2 sports, you are amazing! To stay active I pretty much walk everywhere, I live in the city and go to school in a high rise and my work is close by too. Since I have to walk to go everywhere I probably clock in some miles I don’t even notice! Another way I like to stay active is signing up for races. If I spend a hug chunk of my money to be running something, you bet I’m training for it!
I stayed active by walking to class (my apartment was about 2 miles away) — and I also had a somewhat physical job. I worked at Pier 1 and I always worked the truck days — meaning we’d unload a semi full of furniture and home stuff — doing that for 2 hours twice a week helped me stay in shape.
I try really hard to make it a priority to go to the gym. Waking up early really helps- I wouldn’t be doing work if I didn’t go, I’d just be sleeping more!
SO SO SO cute picture of the ice skating fun! 🙂 I love it! You are adorable!
The gym came included in my tuition too, well I had to pay for the gym lol I didn’t have a choice so I would just go after class. The bad part was the commute since my butt lived an hour away from my college 🙁
Love this Hollie! I am definitely bookmarking this for when I go to college next year! Thanks for all the tips!
Great tips! Hopefully I will have 3 seasons of running (xc, indoor, and outdoor track) so I won’t have too much to worry about. Im really excited to be able to walk to my classes and have access to a gym on campus! Balancing school, social life, and athletics will probably be really hard, but I’m so excited for it. I still have a year though.
I agree that just getting to the gym is half the battle. SOmetimes when I really don’t want to go, I change into my gear and go anyways. Usually once I’m there the feeling is gone. But if it’s not, I’ll just do a light workout. No big deal. At least I’ve done SOMETHING.
Working out is always a priority for me. If it means getting up at 5 AM 7 days a week, you know I’ll do it 😉
Awesome tips! You are amazing for balancing all that stuff.
You are so right about the planning. So necessary!
Honestly just waking to class and taking the stairs helped me a lot. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people who drove to class when it would be so easy to walk, or who took elevators all the time. Senior year I started running and ran probably 8-10 miles a week. Not much, and I know some people like you run that in a day, but it kept me active enough that I didn’t put on the pounds and was fairly healthy.
Team sports 🙂 also ice skating!!! LOVE it !
I agree big time! I didn’t discover the working out or the gym until second semester freshman year. But one I realized how amazing it felt to relieve all the academic stress, I was addicted! We also had to take 6 credits of gym at my school. Since I loved tennis, I just took tons of tennis classes and it was a lot of fun.
I actually joined the local Gold’s Gym by my school this past summer because I wasn’t taking classes and it was cheaper than having to pay for the fees, classes and parking at the school gym. I signed up for a year, so knowing that I was paying $30 a month (well worth it!), was my motivation for going. Then I got into figure competition training, and my motivation grew even more!
Nice post!
I plan on running cross country in college so I’m excited about that. Either way I would remain active in college. I don’t know why people get to college and just stop playing sports or going to the gym. I feel if you love something you should continue.
These are great tips love it! I’m actually going to be living about 5 mi from campus next year but that is where getting a bike will not only come in hand for tri’s but also for commuting to school most days!
Oh btw I have that suit your wearing in the last pic.
I am so jealous you have an ice skating rink! The closest one to me is 2 hours away! I think I need to go to a college that has an ice rink now 😉 Or one in the same town at least.
I LOVE your freshman picture. Can you imagine how much we grow on the inside and outside just in a few years?!?! its crazy!
What a fun post 🙂 WE are so twinnies. I think we should all meet up and do a half marathon together! How much fun! After college I will be down! 😀
And get a buddy to meet you there and workout with them. Then you can do more on your own if you want, but just starting is 9/10ths of the battle! Cool post Holl-weezy. Wish I had responded on Twitter lol
Awesome tips 🙂 I haven’t really been too great about staying active in school because it seems to be the first thing I cut out when I have a huge lab and 5 million assignments due the next day, but this term has been going pretty well so far. The biggest thing for me is getting the exercise in either in the morning or on my lunch break, so that I have the evening free for hw and relaxing. Having a training plan has also helped keep me accountable 🙂
i wish it was that easy for me. my gym is sososo expensive – more expensive than the local gym15 mins away from me. http://www.sportandrec.unsw.edu.au/memberships/membershipprices
$60/month. incredibly expensive. it’s really sad but it means i have to study inbetween classes and workout after/before uni 🙁
Your pics are fantastic. I laughed throughout this entire post! Underwater pic = me almost spitting coffee all over my monitor.
Although I wasn’t always at my healthiest during college, I’ve always loved outdoorsy type of activities: hiking, jogging, playing tennis, swimming, etc. It’s easy to be active when you’re playing a fun game of sand-volleyball or something else that doesn’t feel like a “chore”
When I was in college, I used a big exercise ball as my computer chair in my dorm. Then when I was on the computer (on my ball) I’d just have to urge to do some crunches or other ball exercises…
…and it was just kind of fun to sit on a ball all the time!
I wish I had been more active in college. I was working two jobs, and just didn’t know how to prioritize my time & make exercising something I did every day.
I totally agree with the “plan your week” thing, & think it applies to pretty much everyone, regardless of your stage in life. It’s my number one tip also, & I’m definitely past college age. 😉
Great ideas! I actually wasn’t active in college at all, and that’s why I gained like 10 pounds. Now that I’m out, I’m so much more active and fit. It’s weird haha!
Awesome post Hollie.
I’m struggling with staying active but I’m finding things I can do from home (walking, running, biking) and have a Wii Fit and EA Active in my house I can use along with light dumbbells and an exercise ball. Now I just need to make working out a priority (biggest struggle)!
Awesome tips!!! I’m in college myself and I’m so glad I stumbled upon this! I agree that taking time to plan fitness into your week is key!
I’m actually not a big gym goer, I’m learning to love running and biking. I also use the small gym at my apartment complex in the morning when no one is there:) I’m shy!
Great tips! I live in a small city, so I walk a lot of places, but I also ran cross country. My college just opened a new rec center so now instead of running I’ve been biking and swimming to switch things up. For me, the hardest part is the rest day because I feel so lazy. Awesome blog, I will continue to read!