Don’t sweat it: New fitness classes have you covered

Want to keep striving to reach your New Year’s exercise goals? Then try taking advantage of the free fitness classes that are offered on campus for MNSU students.

Fitness classes take place in PH102 and HN225, from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. every week day except for Friday. All you need to participate is clean shoes, unless it’s yoga, then you can take your shoes off. Exercise can relieve stress and tension and provides a much needed break from school and work.

Students only need to show up to the class and follow the instructor’s lead, so coming up with your own workout plan is not necessary. The classes also provide an opportunity to meet new people who want to be challenged to strengthen their body and improve their health. If you want to improve your health and well-being, then taking advantage of the free fitness classes would be very beneficial for you.

This semester, two new classes are being offered: Shred & Core class and Barre Yoga class.

According to the group fitness class descriptions on www.mnsu.edu/campusrec/fitness, Barre Yoga “is a high-intensity, endurance-based workout. Class includes brief warm up and cool down with additional core conditioning.” Yoga has been a popular class in the past, so four different yoga classes are now on the schedule this semester: Yoga Barre, Yoga Flow, and Yoga for Strength.
According to Carly Hopper, the program coordinator for the fitness and wellness program, Yoga Sculpt incorporates strength moves into normal yoga. Yoga Sculpt students use free weights with yoga and exercise to energizing music. Yoga Barre is the same class as Barre, but the instructor is adding more yoga components added to it. In Yoga Flow, also known as vinyasa, the poses flow together in smooth transitions. The poses need to be thought out ahead of time by the instructor.

Yoga for Strength, which is taught by Hopper, is a mini power hour at 9 a.m. on Fridays, in PH102. This routine is also a yoga flow, but the poses are held longer and certain poses are done more than a few times. This class is quite popular as 20 to 45 students have come in the past. The popularity of each class depends a lot on people’s class schedules.

Some of the benefits of yoga are relaxation, stress relief, and flexibility. In regards to yoga, Hopper said, “yoga helped me learn to accept my body where it’s at and learn to like myself. It’s an exercise anybody and any body can do.”

Yoga is a time to kick your shoes off and slow down a little bit. It gives busy students a chance to set aside time to release stress and let go.

The end goal of yoga flow is the last pose, Savasana, where you simply lie there, relax, and restore. How many other exercise routines are there where you get to lie down at the end and take deep breaths? Your body deserves that time of relaxation and restoration.