Start breaking a sweat off the treadmill

The stuffy winter months might not have been great on your physique, especially if schoolwork… The stuffy winter months might not have been great on your physique, especially if schoolwork left you without a lot of time to exercise. In college, the same time constraints will still exist, but there is still time to get in shape — and the dreadful treadmill does not have to be the answer.

Non-traditional exercise routines such as yoga, pilates and Zumba are giving students a new way to get out of the weight room and off the treadmill and still enjoy being healthy. Pittsburgh offers the opportunity for students to embrace these workouts, whether they’re just beginning a structured routine or if they’re fitness junkies looking for their next endorphin rush.

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Students can take courses at Pitt to chip away at credits required for graduation, or they can venture outside of Oakland to find something more aligned with their interests.

At the University, students can take these forms of exercise as courses through the Health and Fitness Program. This program offers yoga, pilates and Zumba, along with other, more traditional exercise courses.

This summer, work will begin on a brand new Health and Fitness Program facility. According to Renee Rogers, a coordinator for the program, “approximately 5,000 square feet of cardiovascular and resistance equipment along with two new group exercise studios” will be added to the new facility at Trees Hall. This will give the program the opportunity to provide more classes and options for students and staff.

Students can take fitness classes for one credit. For non-students, courses range in cost from $45-$60.

Many students on Pitt’s campus carry yoga and pilates mats to and from their classes. These trendy workout routines — which health professionals have commended as great exercise regimens — promise a strong core, a long, toned physique and a sound mind. Yoga and pilates are two exercises that many have heard of or attempted.

“Our yoga courses allow staff and students who are working and studying all day to have time for relaxation,” Rogers said.

People can take yoga and pilates together in a single course or separately. The pilates course focuses less on relaxation and more on strength and flexibility.

“The pilates course is more difficult, so a lot of people like it combined with the yoga if they are looking for relaxation and strengthening,” Rogers said.

Breathe in

Yoga gives students many added benefits besides the obvious workout. Laura Greenfield, a Pitt senior, has served as the Yoga Club president for the past two years. As a nursing major, Greenfield found yoga to be a form of relaxation because of its meditative context.

“After the first class, I realized how great it was and how calm I felt,” she said.

Greenfield has done yoga for six years and says she has benefited greatly from the exercises. When she began, she could not touch her toes. Now, her hands touch the ground.

“You gain muscle all over your body. I played soccer and basketball and tennis, but yoga made me feel the best and the strongest,” she said.

If students live off campus or just have the urge to escape Oakland, there are many yoga and pilates studios to choose from. In Shadyside, students can go to Amazing Yoga and Yoga Flow. Both studios offer a form of yoga called power vinyasa flow.

Power vinyasa flow yoga is a form of hot yoga. The heat is turned up in this class to about 85 degrees. Vinyasa is a term in yoga that refers to the breath-synchronized movement that participants use throughout the practice. This means that with every yoga pose, there is an inhale and an exhale that incorporates the movements to form the “flow” part of the exercise.

Power vinyasa flow will leave you feeling refreshed and sweaty. Throughout a power yoga, the body eliminates toxins in the body through sweat. Other benefits of yoga include increased flexibility, a stronger core and an increase in energy and relaxation.

The Shadyside studios show that there is something enticing about vinyasa flow. Amazing Yoga was even voted the best yoga studio in the Pittsburgh City Paper and The Best of the Burgh in the Pittsburgh Magazine in 2011.

But Yoga Club offers courses for beginners. It introduces students to yoga as an exercise in order to spread its popularity across campus. Greenfield finds it to be exceptionally soothing.

“The best thing I find with yoga is how you feel after you have a session. You feel very calm and the next day, you feel sore,” she said.

Dance it out

After sitting at a desk all day studying, relaxation may sound appealing, but jumping around and moving may have more appeal. This is when it might be time for Zumba.

Zumba is becoming more popular as fans of “Dancing with the Stars” get inspired by the salsa and tango sessions that have dancers rocking sleek silhouettes. This latin-inspired dance has been known to be addictive and acts as a workout that has participants unknowingly burning calories. Rogers immediately said that Zumba was “very trendy among students.”

Pitt offers students the chance to participate in the Healthy U Fitness program, a set of classes offered through the Office of Intramurals and Recreation. Zumba is one of the classes that are offered through this program.

When looking for Zumba off-campus, there are a few different places to choose from. There are gyms throughout Shadyside and Squirrel Hill, which offer Zumba classes for members. Zumba’s website — www.Zumba.com — assists in finding classes all over Pittsburgh.

If Zumba inspires you to go out dancing for a night of fun, check out salsa dancing opportunities in Pittsburgh. Mexico City, located Downtown, offers free lessons before a full night of dancing from 10:15-2 a.m. Salsa Pittsburgh has a website full of dancing lessons and salsa socials going on throughout the city. You can explore it at www2.salsapittsburgh.com.

These options will help to reinvent workout strategies, turning the somewhat boring treadmill into a more fun excuse to get to the gym.