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TCU 360

TCU 360

All TCU. All the time.

TCU 360

Students discuss religious topics in a small group. (Photo courtesy of tcuwesley.org)
Wednesday nights at TCU’s Methodist campus ministry provide religious exploration and fellowship
By Boots Giblin, Staff Writer
Published Mar 27, 2024
Students at the Wesley said they found community on Wednesday nights.

    To ‘Insanity’ and Beyond: Students finding ways to exercise outside the Rec Center

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    On warm days, when the bleachers aren’t packed with a thundering crowd and the field isn’t treaded by cleats and clashing players, Lauren Payne heads to Amon G. Carter Stadium to run. 

    Up and down the steps she goes, getting in her workout for the day. Sometimes she tackles the bottom level. Other times, she runs the top.

    For Payne, a senior psychology major, the football stadium is her gym. 

    “I’m not one to just run on the treadmill,” she said. “I think it’s boring.” 

    The chilly weather has forced Payne back inside for now. In this case, she runs on the treadmill in the exercise facility at her apartment complex to avoid being frozen solid. 

    But when the weather is nice, she prefers to go for a run, whether it be at the Carter or simply around the TCU campus. 

    “It’s so pretty here,” she said. “It’s like, why go inside?”

    She could work out at the campus recreation center if she wanted to. With the simple flash of a student ID card, students have access to weights, rock climbing walls and, yes, treadmills among other activities.

    But the rec center isn’t for everyone, and there are many students like Payne who opt for alternative ways to work out, whether it be out of personal preference, hesitancy to work out in front of other people or a desire to be pushed harder than an exercise machine. 

    Senior writing major Laura Lopez said her workout of choice is “Insanity,” a program advertised on its website as “the hardest workout ever put on DVD.” 

    The main thrust of “Insanity” is to push the body to its highest physical limit, followed by a sudden but brief rest, only to pick up to exercising at maximum capacity again. 

    Lopez is following a 60-day challenge using “Insanity.” She’s not taking a class, nor is she working out with a buddy. It’s an entirely solo effort. 

    “You won’t catch me doing ‘Insanity’ out in the Commons,” she said. “I don’t want people staring or judging.” 

    Some people like that attention, though, and use the rec center as a place to showcase their physique, Payne said. 

    For the men, it’s the muscles. For the women, it’s the slim figure. 

    “The way the TCU Rec is, the girls are on the top doing the cardio, and the boys are on the bottom lifting weights,” she said. “And I think it’s more of a show than actually working out.” 

    That’s why Payne likes the seclusion of the empty Carter, or even the facility in her apartment, where there aren’t a lot of people to hog the treadmills. 

    But no matter what one’s workout preference might be, any exercise done at a steady and continued rate can be effective, said professor and chair of kinesiology, Joel Mitchell. 

    Even mundane activities can help burn calories, he said, and one of those activities is something students do every day—walking to class. 

    Vigorous walking or light jogging can burn between 5 to 10 calories per minute in most people, Mitchell said.

    Thus, if a student walks—that is, briskly walks—approximately 10 minutes to three different classes, he or she can burn between 150 to 300 calories in those 30 minutes. 

    Lopez said she tries to make the most of her travel time from class to class, purposefully choosing to walk at a quicker pace and taking the stairs rather than the elevator. 

    “I prefer to walk quicker as opposed to slower,” Lopez said, “unless I’m just really needing time to slow down and take a breath between the busyness of classes and working out and extracurricular activities.”

    Burning calories alone may not be enough, though, if a person wants to experience physical change, Mitchell said.

    If a person wants to improve muscle strength, for example, he or she will need to experience the concept of “overload,” which means to place more stress on the body than it is used to, he said.

    “It’s important, I think, to realize what the objective is,” he said. “If the objective is purely caloric expenditure, then you can do things like taking the stairs, parking your car further from the building, doing all those things that Americans don’t do much, honestly.”

    But finding alternative ways to burn calories can still be beneficial, Mitchell said. 

    For other students, physical effort is just the nature of their daily tasks. 

    Carrying a tuba around Ed Landreth Hall is part of Diego Ramirez’s life as a junior music education major. 

    “I’ll be honest, I pretty much break a sweat every time, especially going up the stairs,” he said.

    When he plays in the marching band, Ramirez said it gets more intense. 

    The band is already marching at a 10:30 a.m. rehearsal for a 2:30 p.m. game. After rehearsal, the band lines up at Frog Alley to play as the football team walks into the stadium. 

    They have some time to get a bite to eat and change into their uniforms before heading to Frog Fountain. From there, they walk into the stadium, followed by a march around the stadium. 

    After playing the pregame show, the band can finally take the stands, but that’s when it gets the hardest, Ramirez said. 

    “Sometimes it’s more exhausting than just doing the show because we’re doing all this horn moves, and then after an hour, the 50-pound instrument starts to get heavy,” he said. “And we’re standing there for four hours. We don’t get to sit down.” 

    And while he doesn’t work out as regularly as he used to, Ramirez said he likens marching band to exercise.

    “It’s hot, you’re in a uniform, you’re sweating, and then you’re doing an exercise,” he said, “and at the same time, you’re pushing air out of your body, too, so it’s pretty exhausting at the end. By the time we’re done marching the whole performance, my legs are sore. My back is sore.” 

    An added weight, such as a 50-pound tuba, and exaggerated marching such as a knee lift burns even more calories than simply walking, Mitchell said. 

    However, the amount of caloric expenditure would depend on the speed someone is walking or marching, he said. 

    But the real secret to seeing results, Mitchell said, is quite simply, discipline. 

    “Regardless of people’s best intentions, probably one of the biggest pitfalls is starting a program and then not staying with it,” he said, “so if you can find something that is never necessarily going to be easy, but easier to do, and you happen to enjoy it, that’s a real plus.” 

    One of the best ways to maintain discipline is by monitoring one’s workout habits and results, Mitchell said.

    That’s something Lopez has done, as she uses calendars and Google Docs to organize her workout. 

    “Keeping track of my progress makes me so much more motivated, so much more excited to continue in the process,” she said. 

    She posts her results on Facebook, listing each exercise and the number of movements she completes. Lopez has been keeping track since day one and seeing steady results. 

    For example, on the first day of the workout, she completed 9.5 cycles of “globe jumps”—an activity that consists of a set of four jumps—in one minute. On Day 50, she completed 16 cycles. Thus, she completed 26 more single jumps than she did on her first day. 

    “I’ve actually been able to see my arms are more toned,” Lopez said. “My thighs are more filled out. And my tummy? I can see my abs coming in so that makes me excited.”

    But whether one does a high-intensity workout like “Insanity,” or a more independent workout like running at the Carter, Lopez said the best way to begin seeing results is simple—just start. 

    “You’re not going to be perfect on the first day,” she said. “Yeah, you have extreme high goals that you want to meet, but you’re not going to meet them on the first day. It’s going to take time. And you have to be able to be patient with yourself to see that progress.” 

    For Payne, her reward is achieved when she reaches the nosebleed section of the Carter. 

    “My favorite thing at the stadium is when you get to the top,” she said. “You can see all over TCU’s campus, and it’s really pretty.”