President Jo Ann Gora initiated a wellness program for Ball State University employees in early September to increase physical activity and decrease the health care spending for the large percentage of employees and their families who have chronic conditions such as high cholesterol.
This new wellness program is in the Ball State strategic plan and includes new wellness programs like health screenings, Weight Watchers, nutritional counseling and tobacco cessation. I think this is a very important issue to address, and the new programs being offered should give employees many benefits. However, current wellness programs should be rethought.
Irving and Ball gyms offer many group fitness classes for students, faculty and staff taught by trained fitness instructors. The fitness classes include spinning, yoga, step and kickboxing. It has been proven that working out with a group is a huge motivator for many people to increase their physical activity.
People who just start exercising or who bore easily may not be motivated to go to Irving or Ball gyms and run or walk on a treadmill that faces the wall. I wonder if people who feel they have large butts stay off of the treadmills, since that is the main view of people on the treadmills in Irving Gym. Irving and Ball gyms can also be very crowded, and not everyone can go to the gyms during "off-hours" to avoid the crowds.
Group fitness classes are the perfect solution! Group fitness classes decrease boredom, increase physical activity and enjoyment of the activity and give muscles and bones a variety of "good stress," which decreases the risk of overuse injuries. That is common for people who consistently work out on the same equipment over an extended period of time.
Many individuals are not given the opportunity to take these classes because of how expensive they are. Many universities do not charge students or employees to attend these classes. At Ball State, classes are free usually the first and last weeks of the semester, but that does not improve wellness in students and employees throughout the school year. They should be free year round. With tuition students pay a small recreational fee, which gives them full access to Irving and Ball gyms, including the pools. This fee does not cover group fitness classes but they should. Ball State group fitness instructors make very little, so saying that these fees to participate in classes are to cover instructor wages is false.
If Gora want to focus on the change of wellness in her employees, the programs promoting wellness should also be changed for all Ball State students and employees.
Sarah Janicek is a graduate assistant for theFisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology and wrote this 'Your Turn' for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper.
Write to Sarah at sarahjanicek@aol.com
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