With students juggling class, mid-term cram sessions, part-timejobs, plans for summer internships and a social life, sparing anhour to go to the gym and work out might become too much to ask ofsome students.
But there is an alternative – calisthenics, exercises designedto develop muscular tone and promote physical well-being whileusing minimal resources.
With enough space in a dorm or living room and the help of achair and perhaps a milk jug or backpack, students with busyschedules can perform a full-body workout in less than an hour.
According to John Darce, the personal trainer coordinator forthe Spectrum Fitness Club, and Emily Schlumbrecht, a fitnessgraduate assistant at the University Rec Center, you can either dotraditional military style calisthenics or the increasingly popularyoga and pilates. Both styles will increase body tone andflexibility and are the best exercises someone can do in a limitedspace.
“Free weights are the best way to gain muscle,” Darce said.”Calisthenics will help you tone up and even lose weight dependingon how much [of a workout is done].”
Schlumbrecht suggests that everyone do some sort of calisthenicsbecause they will increase your strength and endurance, build upyour self-esteem, relieve stress and prevent injury.
Yoga and pilates can be a good way to limber up and increaseflexibility, but Schlumbrecht recommends that beginners attend aclass to learn how to properly do the exercises so as not toinflict personal injury. Traditional pushups, crunches, lunges,etc. can be done by all beginners without any prerequisites.
Both instructors suggest that either style should be craftedaccording to the individual, but they should last about 30 to 45minutes.
Schlumbrecht suggests that no workout should be done more thanan hour or else your body will start to “detrain”.
“To burn fat, exercise when you wake up, and on an emptystomach,” Darce said. “You can burn fat 300 percent faster.”
Darce says that the workout sessions should be done about threetimes a week, but no more than five because the body needs time torest.
To accompany the workout, the instructors suggest doing sometype of cardio — either running up apartment complex stairs orjogging — for at least 30 minutes.
But if even an extra half hour can’t be spared, Darce said thatthe traditional exercises can be done in a superset. That is,completing all the exercises without resting in between. This willat least get the heart pumping to the fat burning zone.
Schlumbrecht said that calisthenics such as yoga and pilates canbe a great way to “de-stress” and gain flexibility, strength andendurance, but the trade offs are that people tend to pushthemselves when alone and some might get bored with such a slowexercise.
Darce said that traditional exercises are great because there isno excuse not to do them, nobody’s watching and there is a lowchance of injury. But if people went to a gym they would seegreater fat loss in the same amount of time,because free weightswill yield better muscle gain, trainers are on staff to help.
Doing these exercises for the specified amounts of time willhelp som, but the instructors stressed that muscle gain/tone andweight loss depends heavily on the individual and their diet.
“It’s important to think about adequacy and balance,” saidGeorgianna Tuuri, assistant professor in ecology.