By By Amanda DeCamp
As leaves fall from the deciduous trees covering the University’s 240 acres this autumn, students are gradually falling out of shape and into bed. When the temperature drops below 60 degrees and the air begins biting at their noses, most can be found underneath their covers, cuddled in their heated rooms. For many students who are not on athletic teams, stepping outside on a nearly winter day is unbearable.
It does not help that the University’s recreation center has approximately five ellipticals, which are popular exercising machines for both men and women, and on almost any day at least one is out of service. A few treadmills, bikes and steppers complete the gymnasium’s cardiovascular system. Additionally, there are not many high tech machines, but the gym does offer an indoor track that is a rather pleasant break from the oncoming cold air. However, if a runner wants to run a mile on the track, he or she will have to circle it 10 times. One may become dizzy just from the mere thought of doing three miles or more.
“What motivates me is turning on a show like ‘Baywatch’, where every guy has the perfect body,” said frequent track user Peter Morgese. “Idolization is my motivation.” Unfortunately, the stars of this show make running on the sand appear much more appealing than it actually is, and as winter will soon prove, running in the snow is not much more fun.
Junior Erika Fossing, a commuter student from Babylon, finds no time for the gym due to her hectic work schedule, homework and her 45-minute commute to the University. “I just have no time for it, it is never convenient for me to make time to work out,” she said. It might be helpful for someone like Fossing to have a half hour run outside, which she could fit in before work. However, the winter months make excuses not to go outside easier.
If you need some motivation this winter, keep these pointers in mind:
1. Buying yourself a new work-out wardrobe or even just a new pair of track pants might motivate you to actually utilize your new gear. Asking for a new pair of sneakers for the holidays may influence you to actually get them dirty.
2. Although the temperatures seem like they may kill you, they won’t. If the temperature is somewhere above 20 degrees, put on your gloves, hat and scarf and go outside. Staying inside all winter can lead to depression and nothing cures the blizzard blues like fresh air and exercising endorphins.
3. Find yourself an active acquaintance. When your alarm clock is not enough to drag you out of bed, perhaps a friend will be. Working out with a friend makes the time fly by and makes the grueling process of getting into shape a social event.
4. Don’t go crazy, unless you want to. Doing cardio exercise for half an hour a day, five days a week is plenty enough to make it just fine to eat all the cookies and candy canes you want to-guilt-free.
5. Many towns offer “Turkey Trots” and other holiday runs. Sign up your whole family! Not only will you have to train together, but you will be able to enjoy the turkey and mashed potatoes that much more knowing you have burned off all the calories you are about to consume.
Since the Farmer’s Almanac predicts a vicious winter of heavy snow, wind and cold for northeastern United States, it will be quite easy to make excuses and alibis. However, do not allow the frost and frigidness to get the best of you. Instead, take a lesson from Albert Camus: who says, “In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me lay an invincible summer.” You too may find a snowflake is winter’s equivalence to summer’s grain of sand on the beach, but snowflakes are even lovelier – they aren’t itchy and they don’t get stuck in unpleasant places.