6
SPRING FEVER
KANSAN.COM
Warm weather provides more exercise opportunities
- ANISSA FRITZ
@anissahitzz
The weather getting warmer gives University students more opportunity to use campus and the city of Lawrence as their personal outdoor gym. And the best part is, it's free.
Emily Russell, a senior from Gardner, Kan., is a certified personal trainer at Ambler Student Recreation Center. Russell said running, hiking or biking at Clinton Lake are effective outdoor workouts.
But even for students who can't make the trek to the lake, Russell said there are options.
"Both of the high schools [in Lawrence] have their tracks open. So, usually, there is no one there, and you can run sprints or run the stairs" Russell said. "It works out really nice as high intensity training."
Pranjal Neupane, another personal trainer at Ambler and a senior from Overland Park said he prefers hill workouts.
"You just have to find a gradual slope--that isn't hard to find around Lawrence at all," Neupane said. "My favorite one is on the corner of Indiana and Sunnyside."
There is no excuse to not have good posture in your exercises."
Emily Russell personal trainer
Neupane likes to sprint up the hill and do a light jog on the way back down. He says this works different muscles that running on a flat surface doesn't.
For those who don't enjoy running, Russell suggests using one's own body
weight as resistance or going to a local park that has bars and different level surfaces.
Both trainers emphasize drinking a lot of water when working out outdoors due to the extra heat and elements.
Neupane said students can pretty much do anything outside that they would normally do in the gym.
"The gym is a very clean environment. The floors are all even and there isn't any dirt," Neupane said. "Outdoors in the grass, it is a different resistance on your feet. You're exposed to the elements a little bit more so it makes it a little bit tougher."
Russell warned to always practice good form no matter where students work out.
"There is no excuse to not have good posture in your exercises," Russell said.
-Edited by Cele Fryer
Paige Stingley/KANSAN
Emily Russell (top), a senior from Gardner, holds a plank, making sure that every part of her body is in line. Pranal Neupane (below), a senior from Overland Park, does a series of mountain climbers in between sprints up the hill at Amber Rec Center.
Clough: How taking tiny risks is best way to revitalize
Illustration by Gracie Williams
Spring semester has a way of wearing you down. Especially by this point in the season, with finals looming just around the corner, it's hard not to feel stagnant physically, mentally and emotionally.
> MATTHEW CLOUGH
@mcloughsofty
Despite the suffocating stringencies of school, spring is my favorite season. It's refreshing to see everything grow new again. Spring is the season of rejuvenation and rebirth. It's perhaps the tritest symbol in English literature. But there's good reason for it - in a time so conducive to dreaminess for students, there's no better way to revitalize than making little, unprecedented changes in your routine.
Or do you?
To conquer the everyday grind, you've got to stick to your schedule. Persevere.
Each of us has a personal comfort zone in which our desires to accomplish an end goal often keep us trapped. For many students, it's the drive to finish the semester or lock down that summer internship. And while these are valiant objectives to work toward, I want to suggest that it's easier to keep your mind clear and focused on such ambitions by acting a little out of the ordinary.
It doesn't have to be anything major, and in fact, probably shouldn't be. But taking small risks and augmenting your notion of what's acceptable is a great way to develop creativity and openness to experience. Be bold, edgy and unabashedly certain in trying something new.
For me, a rejuvenated mindset came principally in the form of a pair of pants. Pink pants, specifically, on the shelf in a department store. They were pants to which I never would have given a second thought had a friend not thrown them at me and told me to try them on. Hesitantly, I did. Even more hesitantly, I bought them. To my initial horror,
I started wearing them in public.
The resulting feeling was undoubtedly stressful, at first. I felt ridiculous and utterly beside myself. But eventually, as I began receiving compliments for them, a strange sort of confidence came over me. I felt like I could wear anything I wanted, even things that never would have fit into my imagined personal sense of style.
I'll be the first to admit this is a silly example. Deciding on a pair of pants to wear is assumedly one of the most trivial parts of the day. But the sentiments associated with doing something different, even the accompanying stress, were beneficial (University of California researchers even say a healthy dose of stress can make you feel pumped, the way exercise would).
Feeling uncomfortable and moving beyond your comfort zone are productive experiments. It's important to put yourself in foreign situations, especially considering such moments happen frequently in the real world. As of 2012, the average employee stayed in one job for only 4.4 years. With such quick turnover, it's expected that you be able to adjust to new and sometimes frightening environments.
Spring is the season of rejuvenation and rebirth."
Here's my advice: wear the pink pants. Dye your hair. Take a swing dancing class. It doesn't matter what you do so long as it's subtly boisterous. Be visible and unapologetic. It's good practice for the future and perfect for refocusing a distressing present. Very few of the minute details in life are permanent, and there's no better time to try something unusual.
Matthew Clough is a junior from Wichita studying English and journalism.
- Edited by G.J. Melia
"There's something in the air"