Josh Falcone – News Editor
As part of the Week of Welcome, the SCSU Fitness Center offered campus members the opportunity to partake in a spinning class outside the Adanti Student Center.
The RIDE OUTSIDE event, held last Wednesday on the Dunkin Donuts patio, consisted of two spinning sessions open to all members of the Southern community, even those without a Fitness Center membership.
Emily Quail from the Fitness Center who welcomed all that wished to participate in the cycling sessions, said the goal of the event was to advertise the Fitness Center’s wide offerings of workout classes as well as the reduction in membership cost all while offering everyone a chance to take a cycling session.
“You don’t have to be a member to take this class right now, like anyone walking by whether you are a member or not, they can do it for free,” Quail said. “Basically anyone who comes up to the table, we are telling them that membership has been reduced to $45 for the semester as opposed to $60 and our hours are open later.”
The Fitness Center also held a Sunset Yoga event this past Monday in the academic quad, Quail said.
Southern student Elizabeth Brady, took advantage of the second outside cycling class after coming upon it by chance.
“I was going to go to the gym and I saw that they were doing this, so I decided to do it outside, there is a nice breeze,” Brady said.
While spinning hasn’t been her go to workout recently, she said, it is a really great exercise.
“I haven’t done spinning in awhile, I usually do kickboxing but spinning is good,” Brady said. “It is a different kind of workout.”
Fitness Center Graduate Intern Abby DeLise, who led both cycling sessions said that the amount of participants for the event was not as immense as the Fitness Center had hoped, but it was a great success nonetheless.
“The turnout wasn’t as big as we had wanted it to be but the earlier class, we had about seven people, that was good,” DeLise said.
DeLise also echoed the sentiments about doing a cycling session out from under a roof.
“It was nice to be outside here where everybody can see us,” she said. “So we can get more people aware that we have these spinning classes in the Fitness Center almost everyday, Monday through Thursday.”
The Fitness Center offers spinning classes Monday through Thursday at 6:15 pm and also an additional session on Wednesdays at 9:00 am, Delise said.
The Fitness Center also has the Fast Track to 5K Program, a five-week training program that will assist those that wish to run in and finish the Bob Gorda Homecoming 5K on Oct.18, DeLise said.
“We have the Fast Track to 5K training program coming up, leading to the homecoming 5K,” she said. “We will meet five times, once per week and go for runs around campus.”
According to the Fitness Center, the training program will begin Thursday Sept.18 and will meet every Thursday through Oct. 16 from 2:00 – 3:00 pm.
DeLise said that registration for the program ends Sept. 11 or until 25 people sign-up.
Fitness Center Assistant Director Jessica Scibek, said that with numerous classes offered a week and the fact that the Fitness Center is open even longer, will allow people with hectic schedules a chance to get a workout in.
“We do 20 something classes a week and we are open for over one hundred hours,” Scibek said. “So hopefully when people say that they don’t have time to come in now that we are open over 20 more hours a week more than last year, people will have time to fit it in.”
Scibek said with the new programs, additional hours, and reduced price offered by the Fitness Center makes the entire staff feel overjoyed.
“That makes us happy because the more students that are members, the more people we can help,” she said. “We are just excited to have everyone else excited about working out and staying healthy.”
Photo Credit: Josh Falcone