{"id":39975,"date":"2019-11-19T20:42:22","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:42:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=39975"},"modified":"2019-11-19T20:42:22","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:42:22","slug":"staying-active-as-a-student-how-you-can-do-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/11\/19\/staying-active-as-a-student-how-you-can-do-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Staying Active as a Student: How You Can Do It"},"content":{"rendered":"Last week, I conducted a thorough interrogation<\/span> friendly interview of four first-year students who\u2019ve managed to make time for physical activity alongside academics. I noticed that all four of them had stuff in common, stuff that could potentially help anyone who resolved to start exercising (New Year\u2019s is only two months off, you could always get a head start) make a plan and stick with it.\r\n\r\nFirst, they all picked activities they enjoyed doing, whether it was volleyball, dance, taekwondo or Zumba. In other words, it helps if it doesn\u2019t feel like exercise- that is, it doesn\u2019t feel effortful, difficult or unpleasant. (The three words that most aptly describe PE in grade school.) Except that if you\u2019re just starting to get active, almost everything feels that way.\r\n\r\nThis sucks, there\u2019s no getting around it.\r\n\r\n
\"Snow<\/a>
The Trin quad, the first day it snowed.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nBut it might be worthwhile to explore a few different options, and see if there isn\u2019t anything that feels slightly more enjoyable than the rest: MoveU<\/a> has a themed ice skating event every two months or so. (Though if you\u2019re skating for the first time,<\/a> it might be wiser to go to the Varsity Centre\u2019s drop-in skating<\/a>, as the MoveU events are typically super busy and you only get a 20 minute slot to skate. On the other hand, skate rentals are free at the MoveU events, and you pay $3 if you drop in.) KPE has drop-in events for every sport under the sun<\/a>, should you want to play and do not yet have friends who share your newfound enthusiasm for physical activity. But if sports are too close to actual exercise to be fun, I highly recommend trying out the weird. Oddity lurks everywhere, and it\u2019s always interesting to investigate: Hip Hop Yoga<\/a> at Hart House, for instance, or Aquafit<\/a>, which is basically underwater tai chi. (If you don\u2019t know what tai chi is, go make friends with someone over the age of sixty.)\r\n\r\nEven if it\u2019s not mind-blowingly fun the very first time, it might be worth sticking around: the more you do it, the better you\u2019ll get, and it\u2019s always satisfying to witness an improvement. Any type of exercise can also be made more fun by doing it with people whose company you enjoy, or listening to good music while you do it.\r\n\r\nStill, it\u2019s easy to forget about your health when academics become all-consuming, the way they so often do. It helps to set a routine: the same time, on the same days every week. When it becomes a fixed commitment, it gets done, and it becomes habitual. Olivia, Hsin-Ning and Ziyan (from the interview) all had structured activities. Talking to them, I realized that although I feel <\/em>like I\u2019m pretty active (at least on weekends), my physical activity is not as regular than I\u2019d like. Whether it\u2019s a drop-in class, or through a club<\/a> (search for fitness-related ones under Arts\/ Athletics and Recreation), it\u2019s easiest when all you have to do is show up.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nLast week, I conducted a thorough interrogation friendly interview of four first-year students who\u2019ve managed to make time for physical activity alongside academics. I noticed that all four of them had stuff in common, stuff that could potentially help anyone…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Staying Active as a Student: How You Can Do It”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “Staying Active as a Student: How You Can Do It”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":393,"featured_media":39977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1758,7204,65,61,58],"tags":[78,259,475,1733,111,25385,88,9307,27645,15863,25710,1439,9420,27654,1734,706],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39975"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39978,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39975\/revisions\/39978"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}