As I mentioned in my previous post, I have started a work out schedule. It’s been quite an adjustment to incorporate that into my weekly schedule. Luckily for me, I don’t have class until 2 p.m. CST Mondays and Wednesdays and I have a three-hour break between classes Tuesdays and Thursdays. And as is usual in the program, I don’t have Friday classes. So as long as I budget my time between classes, study time and working out, I can fit it all in.
I thought this week I should discuss some of the many different ways MPA students can get active and exercise around campus. First there are two main recreation centers on campus: Gregory Gym and the Recreational Sports Center. Both offer full weight rooms, cardio machines, handball/racquetball courts, basketball courts and table tennis. Gregory Gym also offers an indoor jogging track, climbing wall (mainly open for just bouldering), indoor lap pool, indoor leisure pool, heated outdoor lap pool and heated outdoor leisure pool. Gregory Gym is probably the most frequented by MPAs because it is across the street from McCombs.
If you are interested in intramural sports, you have a plethora of choices here at UT. Racquetball, volleyball, soccer, flag football, softball, basketball and billiards are all choices sponsored here at UT. If you don’t have a team, you can even sign up as a free agent. Then if there are spaces on teams, team captains will call you up to join their teams.
And if group exercise classes are your thing, then UT offers more than 100 weekly classes including yoga, Pilates, cycling and dance classes. The only thing that you have to consider with this option is that all these exercise classes are “extras” and require the purchase of a semester pass to participate. I know this caught me off guard because these fitness classes were included in the general student fees for use of the recreational facilities at my undergraduate institution.
There are probably more options I’m forgetting, but I hit the highlights of what our campus has to offer for physical exercise here. If you have specific questions, leave a comment. I’ll research and get back with you.
Keep up the good work. Once you get into a work out schedule the hardest thing is to stick to it.
Billiards
Thanks for the post, it brings back memories. I hope the excellent gym facilities that varsities have are better used than they were in my day.
If we can get in the habit of exercising regularly when young, then this attitude stays with us and a work out routine is not something unusual or “foreign” to our lifestyle. So we have a better chance of keeping in shape physically and also mentally.
This is relevant because believe me when I say it is easy to get out of shape, even enjoyable, but the opposite is a bit of a pain.