Lets paint a picture. You’re in your unflattering lycra and clompy trainers. You have spent a sufficient amount of time forcing yourself out of the house and mentally preparing yourself for exercise. You stride confidently up to a machine (covered in someone else’s sweat), you press a few buttons and act like you know what you’re doing. No one is talking, everyone has their headphones in with their own inspirational music on, and you settle into your own little world of hell. Yes – you’re at the gym!
These days we are pretty gym obsessed. Particularly as University students, we are reeking with guilt of the one too many bevvy’s and the mandatory (I’m not even hungry) takeaway we had last night; we then feel we need to do something about it – to make ourselves feel better. But for many, exercise can be a chore and sweating buckets in a hot stuffy room and feeling sick isn’t anyones idea of heaven. Gyms can be the most depressing and demoralising places. We force ourselves through a rigorous exercise session in a room where twenty people are running (facing a wall), four people are rowing, six people are cycling and three people are on the cross trainer, swinging their arms back and forth in an alternate motion, half running half striding in mid air doing, lets face it, a very weird and awkward looking exercise! All the while it can feel like you’re going nowhere, (literally and physically) it can make you feel stupid and quite honestly, be really boring.
BUT there is a way that exercise can be fun, and instead of counting down the minutes on the treadmill and willing it to be over, you can enjoy a workout which isn’t depressing and can be achieved by anyone! The trim trail is a great, fun way to do exercise away from the sweat filled, depressing aura of the gym. It is a running route on south west campus, which also involves various exercises, including press ups, pull ups, monkey bars and sit ups. You can do it with friends, with sports teams and even on your own. It combines cardio with muscle toning exercises and is a good all round workout which can be enjoyed – promise! Whether its a race with mates or a personal best you want, you can really feel like you’ve achieved something on the trim trail. There’s no intimidation of the gym, you don’t need to be stuck in a room and you can do it any time of day. You and a bunch of friends can be running free with nature doing exercise in a less forced and more natural way. The best thing about it is, its free. If money is tight but you still want to keep fit then hit the trim trail, its open to everyone on campus.
