So, there are currently hundreds of us here at UW studying the many streams of engineering. For the majority of us, we fall into the category of the “typical” engineering student. We sleep, eat, and breathe all for the sake of studying for our midterms and finals. On the odd occasion, we do enjoy a night out and go to an EngSoc hosted event or to some club in Uptown Waterloo; but let’s be real here, being an engineering student essentially means being a person who is constantly up late, completing those blasted assignments and studying for quizzes, tests and exams.
Along the way, it is not uncommon for the side effects of the engineering student lifestyle – stress and the large amounts of physical inactivity – to arise and cause us to gain more than the “freshman 15” that we were supposed to gain during first year. Think about it: we sit through an average of 5-6 hours of class a day, studying or completing assignments for another 5-6 hours, consuming at least 3 square meals a day (more or less) and snacking in between while going about these daily monotonous and mind-boggling tasks. All of that food we consume can’t possibly just vanish, because all we do is sit around, so where does it go? Well, according to the law conservation of energy, it cannot be created or destroyed, only transformed, and in our case it gets converted into the many extra pounds we have put on throughout these stressful times.
Another thing: remember the times when you were a kid and you were always full of energy? Each day, no matter how much food you ate or sleep you got, was always full of new surprises that you were happy to find and explore. There would be running, laughing and jumping. You would be screaming for joy, and each new day would be just as welcomed as the last one. For some reason though, as time flew by, the days became more of a drag. Longer days would be spend in front of the computer, on Facebook and Twitter or studying. Every new day would be worse than the last: you’d feel more sleepy, tired, and groggy as time flew on and this resulted in sleeping in class (Don’t DENY IT!). No matter what you did, whether you ate more food for energy or slept for longer, each day seemed too long and the nights were too short.
What if I told you that there is a simple solution to these dreaded issues: it’s exercise! Yes, we all have heard the term before. It’s something we used to do as kids: laughing, jumping, skipping and running at the park, in the backyard or even around the house. So the ultimate question is: when’s the last time you had any? I don’t mean just walking from class to class, or from UW campus to your respective residences. I mean exercise that will get your heart pumping, your blood racing, and make you feel alive again. According to Harvard’s School of Public Health, that daily exercise will not only help keep off the weight you would gain by consuming the food you eat every day (This has been preached countless times days in and out by many professionals), but with exercise you also gain more energy. So the mindboggling paradox is: how does using energy during exercise help you gain energy? That sounds absurd! We should be losing energy when you exercise because you need it to move muscles! The answer is actually very scientific; it requires a lot of oxygen delivery/ cardiovascular human body knowledge, but you are not reading this article to be even more mind boggled, but as a reprieve from all those boggling assignments from the professors.
So the question remains, what types of exercises should I be doing, and for how long? Well according to Harvard professionals, a normal person should be getting approximately 2 to 2 1/2 hours of exercise a week. So that is approximately 20 minutes of exercise a day. Now for the type of exercises one should do: it is said that moderate intensity aerobic activity should be done, but what in the blazes is moderate intensity aerobic activity? Well in layman’s terms, it is activity that makes your heart beat faster than normal. So in reality, if you were walking at a brisk pace (speed walking) around campus and to and from campus and it encapsulate around 20-30 minutes worth of time, you have completed your daily exercise quota and man by the end of the first week you should be brimming with energy. From personal experience, I would advise a light 30-minute jog. If you like sports, there are countless of intramurals and drop-in sports schedules that you can go to in order to meet this quota. 20 minutes of exercise a day. That’s all you need to stay healthy and be brimming with energy. How hard could this be? We already spend at least 10-12 hours sitting studying, learning, and increasing our brains information capacity. What’s another 20 minutes a day in order to make sure the rest of our body is functioning properly?
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