DSU Exercise is Medicine Club excited to integrate exercise into student life
By Aaron Guillen, Staff Reporter
College students have been known to experience the Freshman 15—a weight gain during their first year at college—due to their lives becoming more sedentary and at ease. Understandably, most students have hectic lives surrounded by worries and deadlines, which allows health to take a backseat. Meanwhile, the leaders at the DSU Exercise is Medicine Club hope to dispel stigma around a routine exercise regimen by providing a variety of sports and group outings that get the blood pumping.
“We want to promote health and get people moving. Clearly, health is a broad spectrum with many dimensions to it. Physical wellness is just one dimension, but a powerful one. Through group activities we are able to reach many more aspects of health and wellness to help students be happier and healthier,” explained a club representative.
According to one of the organizers, the idea of the club started with Kate Milne, an instructor in the Sport Science department. As the owner of Cardea Health Consulting, a health and wellness company, Milne promotes health through physical activity every day. Though the club began less than a year ago, it is excited to recruit and build membership with strong leadership from a president, two co-VPs, and a treasurer.
“To our great surprise and delight, when we first began promoting the club (in January), there were many students eager to join and who enthusiastically wanted to be more physically active. At this point in time, especially with midterms just passed, students seem more preoccupied with relaxing through other means than physical activity,” said a club representative.
Recently, the club led a gentle hike through Lynn Valley Canyon on the North Shore. In the future, the leaders hope to hold several hikes around the Lower Mainland. DSU Exercise is Medicine Club hopes to secure a spot at the College Health Fair, taking place on March 14 in Coquitlam and March 15 in New Westminster, both from 10 a.m.–3 p.m.
The club encourages those considering to join to reach out on the DSU Exercise is Medicine Facebook page and ask for events they find interesting. During Club Days in January, hiking, soccer, dodgeball, and badminton were among the top five choices for group activities outside of school. Bubble soccer, a contact soccer variant where players wear a zorb-like sphere, claimed the top spot, highly favoured by students who stopped by their booth. In the near future, the club plans to organize a bubble soccer event.
“Students who are looking to be more physically active tend to gravitate towards our club. We do not [simply] focus on exercise, since there is a distinct difference between exercise and physical activity, so it is a safe environment for those just wanting to move a little more,” said a club representative.
