The days are getting longer and warmer, and you’re feeling the urge to get moving! But what activity should you choose? You’ll find lots of options when you visit Sports Services at the University of Ottawa.
The facilities at Montpetit Hall and the Health and Lifestyle Centre offer a wide range of activities, including squash, swimming, martial arts and group exercise. You can even call upon the services of a personal trainer to help you plan your program.
“When you’re just getting started, it’s important to set realistic goals,” explains Isabelle Després, who has spent five years as a trainer at Sports Services and who now also works at Motion Matters. “Magazines might make you expect immediate results, but that just isn’t true. In the early stages, you are developing your neurological system, which increases your strength but doesn’t give you big muscles.”
Whatever activity you choose, it’s important that it suit your tastes and interests. If you like the social aspect of sports, you should join a soccer team or dance class, or sign up for training with a group of friends. The more fun you’re having, the better the chance that you’ll keep it up.
Pascale Lafrance, an academic assistant at the Department of Music, visits the training centre at Montpetit Hall with her husband so they can help each other stay motivated. Both have used Després’ services since last October to help establish a varied and appropriate training program. “The first time we went to the centre, even though we had some idea of how to use the machines, we didn’t really know what we were doing,” recalls Lafrance. “Now that Isabelle has shown us how to exercise — and especially how not to exercise — we know that we are doing our bodies good and we aren’t in danger of hurting ourselves.”
Isabelle Després, who also works as a physiotherapist at the Ray Friel Sport Medicine Centre, points out that we must be careful of where we get our information about physical activity, and also that it is the combination of healthy eating and daily exercise that pays dividends. In other words, it is truly a lifestyle choice. “Exercise must be harmoniously integrated into our daily lives,” she states. “If you can spare an hour, that’s great; but if it’s only a half-hour, that’s good too. Parents must realize that their children need exercise as well. It doesn’t have to be a chore. Just getting out and running together is good exercise for everyone.”
It’s true that sticking with physical activity can be difficult, particularly when the results don’t come instantly. But when exercise becomes part of your lifestyle, the beneficial effects will come sooner than you think. “You start to feel really good after just a few weeks of training,” says Pascale Lafrance. “I can already tell my joints are working better. It really makes a difference.”
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