Five days a week, Colleen Laurent, a second-year medical student at Ohio University, treks to the gym at 6 a.m., hoping to avoid the sporadic seasonal crowd of students.
OU students who returned from winter break with New Year's resolutions to live a healthier life made Ping Center's attendance numbers nearly double, according to data from the Ping Center.
About 13,000 total students, on average, swiped in per week during Fall Semester. Attendance numbers didn’t hit that number until the week before spring break.
“I knew that everyone would be coming right after the New Year,” Laurent said. “I don’t come during peak times because I know it’s going to be busy.”
Two weeks before spring break, Ping recorded about 20,000 student swipes. The week before break, it recorded about 13,000 swipes.
Students who start their New Year's resolutions often get burnt out by starting off with going to the gym five or six days a week, Laurent said.
“That’s not what they would normally do,” she said.
Meagan Wain, assistant director of campus recreation at Ping, said the peak in attendance after winter break and before spring break is common every year.
Any time a student starts going to the gym, it creates benefits in their lives, she said.
“Grades increase if you’re physically active and more involved on campus,” Wain said. “It just makes your overall college experience kind of whole.”
Laurent said New Year's resolutions are usually an outlet for students to lose weight, but working out can benefit a student’s mental state, as well.
New Year's resolutions, Laurent said, unfortunately are more focused on losing weight and not being a well-rounded, healthier person.
“There are chemical signals that are released when you exercise, so that helps with stress,” Laurent said. “It helps with depression, and it also helps you stay healthy.”
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She said her typical workout is a mix of cardio exercising and weightlifting, but competing with New Year's resolutioners has made it hard to find space to do so.
“The couple times that I have come in the afternoon it’s been extremely busy ... there’s no cardio machines,” Laurent said.
Last academic year, Laurent said she noticed the gym attendance decreasing around March.
Gabriella Bowman, a senior studying marketing, started going to the gym because there were fewer people.
When the attendance numbers started to drop three weeks before spring break, Bowman took the opportunity to start going to the gym more.
“I’m not trying to lose a ton of weight or get really fit,” Bowman said. “I’m just trying to be a normal person who cares about themselves.”
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