Exercise – just the word can make many of us cringe but having a program tailored specifically for you and your lifestyle could turn that around.
UOW’s Health and Behavioural Sciences students have developed an initiative to take the pain out of fitting exercise into your busy schedule. They can give you tools for improving your physical fitness without having to brave the somewhat daunting gym.
Final year students work with experts such as locally accredited Exercise Physiologist Jenny Wilkie and Dr Herb Groeller from the UOW Exercise Science team. Together they put together programs which show that a little effort can go a long way and by simply making a few changes to your daily routine, you can see great results. They promise you will have a lot more energy and confidence in yourself and best of all – it’s free.
The initiative is not only aimed at improving the fitness of UOW staff and their families but also works to give UOW students practical experience in developing physical activity programs for a diverse range of people.
“This is a great chance for students to interact with real clients and improve their exercise counselling skills,” Dr Groeller said.
“They’ll also learn how to interact with all sorts of different people, something that can only be taught through practical experience.”
Dr Groeller said the program was created in response to a lack of physical activity within the broader community. “The evidence is very clear that for good health we should try to participate in 30 minutes of exercise most days of the week,” he said.
“Unfortunately, it is becoming more and more difficult in our modern community to make physical activity a normal part of our busy daily lives.”
Dr Groeller said one of the program’s goals was to help staff discover ways to incorporate physical activity into their working week.
“Last year, many UOW staff commented after working with our students that they really enjoyed the experience and were more motivated to increase their level of physical activity. Due to the success last year, we are also opening up this free service to friends and partners of UOW staff.” (Kim Twist/University of Wollongong)
