The LaHaye Recreation & Fitness Center held its annual Fit Fest event at the LaHaye Recreational Courts Oct. 4 from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., hosted by the team of group exercise instructors.
This all-day event allowed students to challenge themselves in group exercise classes as well as push-pull, dead lift and bench press competitions to win prizes and learn more about physical fitness opportunities offered at the gym.
This year, Fit Fest introduced a new partnership with Les Mills. This New Zealand-based fitness company offers Body Pump, Body Balance and Les Mills Core, among other programs. The festival allowed students to try out these new programs with the newly-certified group fitness instructor team at Liberty University.
Assistant Director of Fitness, Josie Hanson, oversees all the group exercise classes and personal training. Hanson shared her excitement for the coming weeks as the Les Mills classes will be available for students to sign up and learn new exercise formats.
“There is going to be a class format that every person will love, and the more class formats that we can offer, the wider audience that we are going to be able to pull in … so that they can fall in love with exercise,” Hanson said.
Hanson’s passion for teaching exercise has continued to grow through her years working at the LaHaye Recreation & Fitness Center, and she said events like this give her and the group exercise team the ability to reach students who may not be familiar with exercise.
“Getting to teach at LaHaye is such a privilege, because there are so many students who don’t have any kind of experience with exercise, and I get to be one of the first people who teach them something that is a life skill. … That’s not something I ever want to take lightly, and that’s why I love it so much,” Hanson said.
Junior Pamela Ferreiro said these classes have made coming to the gym a much better experience.
“It made me realize that I can just come to the gym and take classes, and it’s a way to make working out a lot more fun, and it makes me excited to go work out instead of feeling like I have to do it, like a chore,” Ferreiro said.
She also said she enjoys coming to the gym because of the friends she has made along the way.
“It’s a great way to meet other people who like coming to classes. I think a big part of coming to a workout class is that you get to meet new people and feel like you’re all in it together,” Ferreiro said.
Senior Leticia Gonzaga, who is a nursing student, said she is thankful for the broad range of workout classes she can sign up for around her busy schedule.
“It’s something you can do with people from your classes. For nursing, a lot of people in clinical groups do it together,” Gonzaga said.
Gonzaga said she has become more involved in group exercise as more classes have become available.
“I’ve been coming to workout classes since I transferred here two years ago, and it’s been really fun. I normally come to body pump, step and started trying out boxing,” Gonzaga said.
To sign up for group fitness classes or personal training appointments, visit www.liberty.edu/campusrec/lahaye-rec-and-fitness/group-exercise.
Riden is the on-campus news editor for the Liberty Champion.