Due to the pandemic, Pepperdine students have changed the way they maintain their personal fitness.
With gyms closed and stress high, many students have found new ways to stay in shape, eat well and remain healthy while taking classes online for hours during the day. It can be an afternoon hike, a morning online yoga class or traditional powerlifting, but in every case, students have had to mold their fitness goals to the pandemic.
“Being active has become a form of therapy in a way,” said Hailey Kawamura, first-year pre-med major. “I feel like if I don’t get it, my mental health is just terrible that day.”
As vaccinations increase and regulations subside, students are deciding whether or not it is safe to conduct their workouts indoors. The pandemic altered many students’ nutritional choices. With students coming back in the fall, the university has also implemented changes to its fitness facilities to better accommodate students.
How students have stayed motivated
Having the motivation to work out at the beginning of the pandemic was especially difficult for many students. Added incentives from fitness companies like a T-shirt or even receiving “kudos” on a popular fitness app called Strava contributed to a rise in fitness through building a sense of community.
“There wasn’t that much incentive to complete it other than a free shirt,” said Iberia Velasquez, junior writing and rhetoric major. “So I was like I got to do it now, I got my shirt and did the 30 classes in 30 days.”
Kawamura also said having access to a plethora of workouts via YouTube has helped her come up with new ways to workout. She believes there’s no excuses when it comes to getting exercise, especially since there is so much more time available being stuck at home.
Most students said they prefer working out in the morning and see the completion of a workout as an early accomplishment to set them on the right path for the day.
The indoor gym debate
While indoor fitness clubs shut down for a year in L.A. County, online classes have skyrocketed.
Yoga makes up 32% of virtual bookings on the Mindbody app with nearly 22,000 bookings per day, Jess Cording wrote in a July 13, 2020 Forbes article.The Forbes article also reported a massive rise in the number of pre-recorded classes being watched.
The availability of online classes has allowed some students to remain consistent with their training without always having to make a trip to a facility. It hasn’t been good news for gyms though.
Last September, around 87% of fitness clubs in the U.S. reopened. Of those clubs, 60% of members still have not returned, Jacqueline Davalos wrote in a Jan. 19 Bloomberg article.
Some 60% of people who attended in-person fitness classes with no masks worn at one facility tested positive for COVID-19 within a month, according to a CDC report.
Three out of four students interviewed said they are in no rush to get back into gyms. They said it would be a while until they think they are safe again.
Malibu Fitness and Zoo Culture are two fitness clubs many Pepperdine students in the area have turned to as a place to workout. Owners at both gyms did not respond to requests for interviews.
How diets have changed
Many students have also established new routines in their nutrition. The 2020 Food & Health survey found that 85% of people have altered their food habits as a result of the pandemic.
“I have this routine where I make my morning Matcha and I cut up all my fruit and I set it out,” Velasquez said. “While my Matcha is cooling down and my fruit is getting to room temp I’ll get my quick little pilates class in.”
Adding healthier options to one’s diet through routine is a great way to improve nutrition but it should not be done all at once.
“If there is a desire to change one’s diet, do so slowly,” said Katherine McCune, registered dietitian-nutritionist for Pepperdine. “Do not worry about being perfect as you make changes.”
McCune said it is normal to crave sweets and crunchy salty/fatty foods because they are comforting. But individuals should also try to see how they can best fit those foods into their meal plan.
“You’re not gonna put 87 in a Ferrari, right?” junior biology major Neek Hadjarpour said. “You’re gonna put 91 or race fuel, and our bodies are like a Ferrari but you only get one Ferrari.”
Hadjarpour said his experience of going vegan for a portion of last year has heavily impacted the way he views nutrition in his life.
“When you eat healthily your body feels so good that you don’t even want unhealthy snacks,” Hadjarpour said. “It ends up feeling like your body is telling you ‘Hey, thanks.’”
How the university has supported students
The largest offering from the university is having personal trainers available to students for free. Students can sign up by filling out a Google form.These trainers can help students set realistic goals and help in any problems or questions they may come across, Knight said.
Just as much of the world’s fitness has transitioned online, Pepperdine has also uploaded exercise videos to YouTube.
Even with an uncertain future of what fitness might look like on campus soon, the university is still working on building a temporary structure outside of Seaside Hall that will have all new fitness equipment, more than is currently available at Firestone Fieldhouse.
“Right now the size of Firestone Fieldhouse is 2,500 square feet,” said Robb Bolton, director of Campus Recreation at Pepperdine. “With the temporary structure, we’ll double that and have 5,000 square feet.”
Bolton said in the future, there is also a plan to massively increase the amount of fitness space, among other improved amenities, through the $250 million construction plan known as the Mountain.
Advice
When it comes to fitness, consistency is king, especially since there are many days students do not always feel motivated.
“People don’t pay enough attention to having a plan,” sophomore accounting major Will McIlroy said. “We should encourage people who have a random spur of fitness to create a plan that can be executed over six to eight weeks.”
McIlroy said having a plan has helped him tremendously in being consistent and in working toward his goal of bench pressing 315 pounds. He is at 275 right now.
“The more you are consistent with it the more you start to reap the benefits of what exercise and eating healthy does for you,” said Amanda Knight, Pepperdine coordinator of Fitness and Wellbeing. “If you continue you will feel the benefits longer.”
Alexander Payne completed the reporting for this story in Jour 241 in Fall 2021 under the supervision of Dr. Christina Littlefield and Dr. Theresa de los Santos. Dr. Littlefield supervised the web version of the story.
