Students plan ways to get fit for summer

Editor’s note: This is part one in a three-part series on healthy habits for the summer.

Whether they are doing heavy traveling or staying home in Cache Valley, Aggies are giving thought to what it really takes to maintain a physically fit physique over the summer.

Undeclared freshman Sebastian Lopez said that even though April is a late start in prepping for a summer body, it isn’t too late to get started now with enjoyable activities.

“I don’t like running, but I like soccer so I’ll play that. Before or after soccer, I will go to the field house and do strength training,” Lopez said. “Do something active that you like to do. If it isn’t fun to you, you aren’t going to do it.”

Luc Hardin, a freshman in mechanical engineering, agreed.

“If it’s not something you like, you’re just going to hate it,” Hardin said. “It’s going to be a lot harder to stay with it.”

Both Hardin and Lopez agreed that if people feel it is important to stay fit, they should do it, and one of the best ways to stay committed and follow through with summer fitness plans is to bring along good friends to make it more fun.

“With friends it’s way better because you can help each other out,” Lopez said. “It’s good motivation.”

Hardin agreed that working out with friends is beneficial, not only for reasons of motivation, but for accountability.

“If you’re like, ‘I’m going to go meet this person at the gym,’ you’re not going to bail,” Hardin said. “If you’re just like ‘I should work out today,’ you have no real commitment.”

Since it’s summer and many people are going on vacation, don’t feel too bad if you have other priorities that take precedence over working out, Lopez said. Quality time with family and friends is important too.

Even though working out is an individual choice, finding friends with similar interests or schedules is key, Lopez said.

“I’m not an early morning person so I work out later in the day,” Lopez said. “I know people who start their day by getting up at 4:30 in the morning and are ready to hit the gym by 6. That’s how they start their day.”

Hardin said that motivation to workout doesn’t necessarily have to center around being the best looking person in your group of friends.

“As it starts getting warmer, the body just naturally adjusts and becomes more attractive,” Hardin said. “At least that’s what I like to think.”

Bradley Ferraro, a freshman majoring in computer engineering, agreed.

“It really does,” Ferraro said. “You sweat more, you lose some weight and you get tan. Overall, people look better in the summer.”

Summer fitness activities aren’t strictly limited to running or weight training, Ferraro said. Exercise is about finding something enjoyable and doing it, he said.

Katherine Taylor, a freshman majoring in journalism, argued that media has negatively affected the perception of bodies by representing a limited scale of attractiveness. For her, that scale is more than skin deep.

“It’s never been about being a certain weight or having a certain degree of muscle tone,” Taylor said. “It’s about being able to go out and do things. Like going on a hike and still feeling good at the end of it.”

She said she likes to look at fitness in a more practical way. It’s about feeling good and enjoying exercise, regardless of body type or shape.

“It matters a little bit what you look like, of course it does. It also matters a lot how confident you are and how you carry yourself,” Taylor said. “It’s nice to be in shape and feel that you look good, but I would love to see people acknowledge all the ways that people can look good.”

Taylor recounted seeing an older woman while she was working as a lifeguard.

“There was this lady I saw at the pool,” Taylor said. “She wasn’t really overweight, but she was 60, so it wasn’t as tight as it used to be. It looked like she was having so much fun and she was wearing this red polka dot bikini. I was just like, ‘You go, grandma. Get it.’”

— monica.a.delatorre@gmail.com