Exercise helps college students maintain health
By Andy Halperin
Skiff Staff

By the time Crystal Bennett reaches the corner of Stadium and Bellaire, the sun has barely begun to peek its face across the eastern horizon. The grass is still fresh with dew, the temperature has yet to reach 70 degrees and the campus is still very much asleep. After all, it’s only 6:30 a.m.

The senior English major from Pensacola, Fla., bends over and tightens the laces on her Adidas running shoes. As she does, she notices a tightness in her right hamstring and gently begins to stretch.

Pretty soon, another sign of life appears as a car pulls up to the four-way stop. Bennett finishes her stretching and slowly turns to face north. After arching her back, stretching her arms to the sky and letting out a final yawn, she begins to jog, disappearing into the neighborhood bordering the TCU campus.

“I like starting the day off going for a run,” Bennett said. “It energizes me for the rest of the day and helps me clear my mind and relieve stress.”

Like many other members of the TCU community, Bennett has made exercise an integral part of her college experience. She has found it to positively impact her ability to function successfully as a student.

Regular Exercise
The benefits of exercise that students like Bennett claim to experience have been put to the test by researchers and fitness experts for decades. Kelly Slavko, Fitness and Wellness Director for TCU Campus Recreation, said exercise has been proven over and over again to help prevent a person’s likelihood of acquiring many health-related problems.

“Participating in a regular exercise program has been shown to reduce risk for cardiovascular disease and certain cancers, decrease blood pressure and resting heart rate, help a person lose weight, improve the functioning of the immune system, reduce the risk of having a stroke and improve the body’s ability to uptake oxygen and deliver the oxygen to the working muscles,” Slavko said.

If that wasn’t enough, Slavko said exercise also can help improve an individual's self-esteem, help a person relax, alleviate depression, sleep and improve stress levels.

For college students, benefits such as stress relief and improved sleep are two highly sought-after commodities. Between classes, exams, papers, projects, work and social pressures, TCU students make themselves very vulnerable to high stress levels and sleep deprivation.

Just ask Darryn Willoughby, the kinesiology department associate professor of exercise and molecular physiology. Willoughby said students need to make exercise a top priority in order to experience better health now and in the years to come.

“Exercise should be very important to students,” Willoughby said. “Ultimately, it is an investment in their health. Students should be concerned with improving their health and decreasing their risk of disease for later years.”

But students aren’t the only ones at TCU making time to stay active. Willoughby is quick to point out that faculty are already at the stage in life where disease prevention is critical, making their need for exercise even more immediate.

“Faculty and staff should be aware of the same issues at students,” Willoughby said. “But we are later in life, so the time for us to focus on exercise is already at hand.”

Rec Center
The need for exercise has received renewed attention at TCU in the past year with the opening of the new Recreation Center during spring 2003. The facility has provided more opportunities to stay physically active.

“With the opening of the Recreation Center, the exercise climate seems to have improved dramatically,” Willoughby said. “More students, faculty and staff seem to be involved.”

Since the opening of the building, members of the TCU community have been streaming through its doors and reaping the benefits of the state-of-the-art facility. Membership to the center is included in student fees and is extended to TCU faculty, staff and alumni at reasonable rates.

Slavko said the new Recreation Center has greatly aided Campus Recreation in accomplishing its mission, “To provide a broad spectrum of quality sport, recreation and leisure programs and services to the diverse TCU community; to encourage the lifelong pursuit of active, healthy lifestyles and to enhance personal development through participation, employment and leadership opportunities.”

Slavko said both students and faculty are taking advantage of the many opportunities they have been given.

“It seems as though the students are pretty health conscious and enthusiastic about participating in a regular exercise program,” Slavko said. “Faculty and staff have been in support of our Unity program, so that tells me that they are also involved in their health.”

Special Programs
The Unity Program is a 16-week program for faculty, staff and their spouses, involving the Recreation Center and Human Resources Department in conjunction with the Life Center. Participants are required to develop three goals they want to achieve during the program. If they reach all three goals, they receive a free one-year membership to the facility. Participants also receive a free personal training session and nutrition consultation.

The Unity Program is just one of many opportunities Campus Recreation provides members of the TCU community to stay physically active.

“We have personal training, massage therapy and group exercise classes in place right now,” Slavko said. However, Willoughby also cautions against exercising too much.

“Exercising every day on an ongoing, consistent basis with no days of rest is likely too much and can lead to overtraining,” Willoughby said.

In the meantime, Bennett is content to start her days off earlier than most students with a run through the surrounding neighborhood. It’s a habit she has learned to love because of the positive results it provides.

“If I didn’t exercise on a regular basis, I don’t know if I’d be able to handle the daily grind of college life,” Bennett said. “Exercise has definitely been a key part of my experience at TCU. I wouldn’t trade it for anything.”