Elizabeth Muirhead ’20 | Assistant Sports Editor
Going to the gym can be intimidating. There’s no doubt about it, especially if you don’t have experience with fitness. It’s difficult to structure your own workouts. What’s the right amount of time? What areas are you trying to target? Are you more interested in focusing on strength or cardiovascular health?
If you need a little more guidance and structure, Smith offers lots of gym classes for credit, which can help students learn about health and fitness, providing them with the tools to design their own workouts and lead a healthier lifestyle. Additionally, there are club teams, like Ice Hockey and Frisbee, that accept athletes who have little or no experience. While these are great fitness resources, not all students are looking for that level of commitment or have that much time in their schedule.
A wonderful way to explore fitness, get ideas about how to structure your own workouts and exercise socially are the Get Fit Smith classes. Smith offers plenty of no-commitment, drop-in fitness classes that are open to members of the community. The classes allow you to move at your own pace, making them appropriate for different levels of fitness.
Some of the most intense Get Fit Smith classes are the Spin classes, which are offered Wednesday through Saturday mornings. There are a limited number of bikes available, so you must register for this one online. I have tried spin with a few different instructors, including Kristen and Jo. While styles and routines vary slightly between instructors, the outcome and intensity are always similar. Spin offers an hour of intense cardio. The instructors help to keep the class motivated but allow you to move at your own pace. The structure of a spin class helps the time fly. Smith offers many of their spin classes at 6:00 a.m. on weekdays and 8:30 am on Saturdays, and if you can get yourself up for it, it’s a wonderful way to start the day.
Some of the Get Fit Smith classes are geared less directly towards cardio and more towards strength. Beyond Awesome Abs, offered on Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, provides a tough core workout with light weights for some gentle arm work as well. It’s a shorter class, only taking up half an hour. If you’re looking for something geared more towards strength, this class is wonderful. Even if you’re just looking for ways to vary your ab routines, attending can give you fresh ideas about how to work your core.
Pilates classes offer a slower pace and focus more heavily on strength and flexibility. Last semester, I tried a Pilates Core class; it didn’t leave me sweaty, but it helped me explore my flexibility and range of motion with an emphasis on core strength. If you’re looking for a class that will help you feel flexible and refreshed but won’t leave you exhausted, Pilates might be a great choice.
If you’re looking for something intense that focuses on building muscle and cardiovascular fitness, InSanity classes, offered on Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday, might be for you. They are intense interval workouts that utilize plyometric exercises. The workouts move quickly and offer little break time, which helps to get your heart rate up and keeps you sweating the entire time. While classes like this may sound more intimidating, it’s always alright to stop or slow down as needed. Everyone in the class is welcome to move at their own pace.
Smith offers Zumba classes every day of the week except Friday. Zumba classes are high energy dance classes designed to give you a good cardio workout by raising your heart rate and making you sweat. Get Fit Smith also offers a couple of specialty Zumba classes, including African and Ethiopian Zumba from 6:00 to 7:00 p.m. on Tuesdays and Ethiopian Zumba on Saturdays from 11 a.m. to noon.
With lots of different classes and instructors, Get Fit Smith offers a wide variety of exercises to meet the fitness needs for different members of the community. If you’re looking for a fun, non-committal way to get into fitness and do something social, be sure to check out the Get Fit Smith schedule online.
