With winter in full swing and the excitement of the holidays a fading memory, many students seek ways to battle winter boredom and alleviate stress. The UW-Madison Division of Recreational Sports offers students a host of low or no-cost opportunities to do so.
Students attend recreational sports at UW-Madison approximately 1 million times each year.
Recreational Sports offer students not only exercise space and equipment, but also a variety of individual and group strength and fitness programs led by certified instructors.
Director of Recreational Sports Dale Carruthers said the roster of fitness programs changes, like fashion, with yearly fads.
\What's really key for us is that we stay on the edge of that,"" Carruthers said. ""When we start hearing these trends, that very next year that next freshman is going to have seen it.""
Jeremiah Karl, fitness/strength and conditioning coordinator for the Department of Recreational Sports, has developed a program aimed at helping students achieve their personal best.
Karl supervises the new PHYSIQUE personal fitness-training program. Implemented last summer, the program offers students the chance to meet with a certified personal fitness trainer individually or in small groups.
Students pay the comparatively low cost of $15 to $20 per trainer session, depending on the package purchased.
The program has proved a popular one; there are currently more than 60 students on its waiting list.
For students who prefer to exercise in a more social setting, the department also offers a wide variety of group workout programs.
UW-Madison Fitness Director Lori Devine supervises group programming and recruiting in five areas: floor, which includes cardio, step and group strength training; deep and shallow aquatic; spinology or cycling; specialty, which encompasses alternative exercise programs such as belly dancing; and mind/body training which includes Pilates and yoga.
Devine said variety was especially important in keeping students coming back for more.
""Time and boredom are the two reasons people drop out of an exercise program,"" Devine said.
A 27-year veteran of the world of physical training, Devine said students should approach any fitness program with the right frame of mind.
""We live in a world of extremism. I can eat it all, I can't eat at all. I'm gonna work out every day, I'm not gonna work out at all,"" Devine said. ""That's really not what makes a health and wellness lifestyle successful--it's balance.\
