Physical fitness has become a national obsession and the more you look around yourself, the more you’ll agree. Whether it’s your office or a hotel you frequent on business trips – you are more likely than not to find a well-equipped fitness facility on site.
It’s only a reflection of the times we live in that universities and colleges across the country have also started investing heavily in building state-of-the-art fitness centers for their students.
One of the main reasons universities have increased spending on providing health fitness solutions is to enhance the overall experience of college for their students. They want to project college as a place where you go for more than just earning a degree.
Developing a high end student recreation center is part of this image building exercise that universities undertake to attract students.
But the more pressing reason to have fitness solutions for universities is to counter the sometimes adverse impact that college life can have on the health of students.
Health a Major Concern amongst College Students
While physical fitness is important for folks of all age groups and demographic profiles, it’s even more so for college students, especially the new entrants. After all, they are the ones who face the real threat of the “freshman fifteen” – a phenomenon wherein college students pile on 15 pounds in their freshman year due to unhealthy dietary and sleeping habits.
College presents a new way of life for most students. It’s the first time they step out of their cocooned, sheltered lives and taste new found independence. The experience can be heady and stressful at the same time.
On one hand, students enjoy their freedom by partying all night, gorging on fast food, drinking heavily and sometimes even experimenting with drugs and tobacco and on the other hand, they sometimes suffer from extreme anxiety, peer pressure and pangs of loneliness on account of being away from their families.
The end result – mental and physical ill-health and the solution – believe it or not, a good old workout at the gym! It may sound simplistic, but having access to health fitness solutions on campus can help many college students overcome some of these minor health irritants.
Another reason why fitness solutions for universities make sense is to make it easy and convenient for students to get into the discipline of working out because it’s likely that any habit they pick up during college will last a lifetime.
Fitness Solutions for Colleges
Given all these reasons, it should hardly come as a surprise that on campus gymnasiums and fitness centers have become an integral part of modern day colleges and universities.
In fact, a lot of them are outsourcing the development of their gyms and recreation centers to professional health fitness solutions providers that are responsible for planning, designing, as well as maintaining the on campus fitness facilities of many educational institutions
For their part, universities and colleges are pulling out all stops on making sure their student recreational centers are amongst the best, if not the best. From fully-equipped gymnasiums that boast of the latest exercise gear to hit the market to multiple courts for intense sports like tennis, racquetball, and basketball – a university campus is likely to have it all and more!
What’s even more interesting is that a lot of them also facilitate group training sessions like Yoga, Pilates, kickboxing and the like, which are not just more fun than machine-based exercising, but also inculcate team spirit amongst students.
Clearly, the current generation of college goers is completely spoilt for choices when it comes to staying fit!
