bit-by-bit is the key to being fit

STAY FIT Finding ways to

Finding joy in keeping in shape

The cross country team begins a practice on the stadium track. Enjoying your activity is a key to keeping with an exercise program. Photo by Samantha Castille

Sophomore Keegan Richmond sits on a yoga mat in Ms. Jennifer Denny’s Fitness for Life class. This course focuses on giving students a variety of activities to help keep in shape, but also make the exercise something consistent and manageable for them to do. Photo by Samantha Castille

By Lorelai Finoch

Central Focus Editor-in-Chief

Whether you work the closing shift after school, have younger siblings to take care of, or are drowning in hours of homework, keeping up with physical health isn’t exactly at the top of a busy student’s priority list. According to Ms. Jennifer Denny, Fitness for Life teacher, staying active, even in menial ways, isn’t too hard for people willing to start small and be persistent.

“I think really, they always say you should start gradually, you know, just walking in and get walking and then if you’re wanting to run, break it up, you know, walk for five minutes, jog for a minute … do something like that,” Ms. Denny said.

In Ms. Denny’s Fitness for Life class, she and her students follow YouTube tutorials for accessible at-home workouts, go on regular walks, and find ways they can stay healthy and active even in the busyness of their day-to-day lives.

“I try and do stuff that is accessible for [the students], like they can do on their own at home. Like, we try and walk twice a week. Because you can walk anywhere: you can walk outside, inside … you walk at the mall, things like that,” Ms. Denny said. “Then we do a program called Platform, which is something the school purchased for the athletics program, and we try and do those two fitness activities, or if I don’t do one of those, I do another kind of fitness activity for the other two days. The fourth day, I just try to make it fun. A lot of videos and things, like, we do yoga. It’s all free … you can look up yoga, pilates, you can do so much without having to spend a fortune.”

Ms. Denny also talked about the helpfulness of Coach Andrew Carter’s weightlifting class, as it gives students a chance to learn how to utilize equipment, and it gives them ample opportunity to utilize it. One of such students who developed his love for weight-lifting through Carter’s intro class during his sophomore year was now-junior, Noah Keen.

“I was getting in that weight-training class before I started working out, and I just fell in love with it instantly. The feeling that I got, how good I felt about myself, even though I wasn’t really that, like, in shape, still I just felt so good about myself. And from that point forward, it’s just, like, something clicked in my brain and I loved it. It feels like I could do anything,” Keen said.

From that point on, Keen was enthralled by recreating that feeling, keeping it up outside of school, and, by now, it’s become a regular part of his life, making time between school and work to get into the gym.

“Early challenges really were just, you know, getting into the gym. So really what helped me was, you know, taking a weight training class and then also, like, finding ways to go to the gym like that,” Keen said. “Before I started wrestling every day, after school, I would go [to the gym] in the mornings, which is really hard at first, to wake up. But then once again, as I got into that habit, I would just get up at 4:30 AM and go to the gym before going to school, and it was fine.”

Another junior who has grown incredibly familiar with early-rising for her exercise routine is cross-country runner Laney Parmeley.

“I always feel like morning runs are my favorite things and my friends think it’s crazy because they’re like ‘Why would you wake up at six o’clock in the morning?’” Parmeley said. “It just sets me up for the rest of the day to feel better.”

While it can be hard, and the early tedium can feel like you’re dragging along, the general consensus is all too revealing: a regulated routine not only amplifies your physical health, but it gives a refreshed mindset to those who know their limits, and have found their own ways to keep up with their responsibilities.

“It’s all about consistency … consistently moving up the time you work out, just trying to keep a consistent pattern,” Parmeley said. “Like, it’s gonna be hard to start but then once you get through it, you’re smooth sailing after that.”