The Rec Well Wire

The Department of Recreation and Wellness has a new, yet familiar, face among the staff.  Karyn Smith started as the new Health Educator with the department this past October.

 Though she started her new position at BGSU this fall, she is not completely new to the campus. Smith received her Master’s in Public Health through the Northwest Ohio Consortium for Public Health and was a Graduate Assistant at the Student Recreation Center.

 Before coming to Bowling Green, Smith grew up in an Ohio small town called Hamler where she graduated from Patrick Henry High School. Upon graduation, Smith attended Northern Kentucky University where she majored in Exercise Science with a Health minor, played basketball all four years and was a personal trainer.

 Once she graduated from NKU and received her MPH, she was hired at Owens Corning as the Program Manager, where she worked on employee fitness. She was in charge of personal training, group exercise and nutrition programming. After a year and a half, Smith came back to BGSU this fall as the Health Educator.

 Smith is in charge of the WellAware Program, which promotes employee wellness. She also supervises the Group-X and personal trainers, while working with the Peer Educators at BGSU.

Karyn Smith has been a personal trainer for four years.

 Smith said she enjoys her new job, the environment and the people she works with.

 “The Wellness Connection is very upbeat,” Smith said. “All of us have the same passion.”

 Besides her new job, Smith enjoys working out, being outside and running. Smith also enjoys flipping houses with her husband Ryan and friend.

 While she flips houses with her husband, she also flips her fellow employee’s fitness.

 Smith’s passion is fitness and she has embraced that passion by sharing her knowledge and creating a new program.

 “It’s a fun holiday challenge for faculty and staff,” Smith said.

 The program is called “Maintain don’t Gain,” which is available to all BGSU faculty and staff for free. Participants receive practical tips, recipes and other information to help them successfully navigate through the holiday season. Participants also receive activity logs and food diaries to track progress. All those who either maintain or lose weight during the season win a prize.

 “Research has shown that the average person consumes an extra 600 calories per day between Thanksgiving and Christmas,” Smith said.

 Smith said she wants to create an environment where healthy choices are easier choices.

 As a certified personal trainer for the past four years, Smith also enjoys working with clients, preferably the ones that most personal trainers would not look forward to.

 “My favorite clients are the ones that absolutely hate exercising,” Smith said. “

 Smith likes being creative and finding fun ways to help these clients live active lifestyles and find a physical activity that they learn to love.  

 Smith has goals for her new position as Health Educator. She wants to revamp the personal training program, create new and exciting Group-X classes, provide employees with the tools and resources to help them and help the Student Wellness Network and Peer Educators continue to grow and increase programs and awareness on campus.

 “BG will be the healthiest campus of them all,” Smith said.

Are you looking for an on-campus internship or practicum for the spring semester? Look no further, Recreation and Wellness is now accepting applications for next semester from a wide variety of majors.

The internships and practicums are open to all majors including recreation and tourism, sport management, marketing and journalism.

“We base the jobs on what the academic credentials are of the student,” Lona Leck, Assistant Director of the Department of Recreation and Wellness, said.

Students can apply to the various departments within Recreation and Wellness including the Ice Arena, Intramurals and Sport Clubs, Youth and Family, advertising, Forrest Creason Golf Course, Perry Field House, Student Recreation Center and Wellness Connection.

Leck believes having interns and practicums within the department helps the staff and broadens the knowledge of the department overall.

“We want to get those new ideas from students,” Leck said. “You know what our programs are lacking more than we do.”

Leck also said the department sometimes gets lucky enough to find an intern or practicum student who they hire full-time.

Not only does interning or having a practicum with Recreation and Wellness benefit the department, but also the students.

“It’s a great experience to put on a resume,” Leck said.

Chris McDaniel, a senior Tourism and Event Planning major, interns with Recreation and Wellness and works on marketing in the Perry Field House. McDaniel said he feels he is gaining a lot of valuable knowledge that is going to help him in his future career.

Carolyn Deas, Senior Sports Management major also enjoys having her practicum at the with the Department of Recreation and Wellness.

“As a practicum student, you learn how to plan an event from the very beginning, from contract to execution,” Deas said. “And it’s rewarding to see it progress over time.”

Leck also said working with the department gives students a “taste of what the work in Recreation is really like.”

Students can  only gain valuable resume-worthy experience and enjoy where they work.

We’re really laid back, but we get our work done,” Deas said. “But that doesn’t stop us from taking a few minutes out of our lunch break to fly a kite, which we’ve done.”

While there are multiple internship and practicum opportunities available within the department, students are encouraged to apply early for positions and not wait until the start of the semester.

Leck also recommends students follow the instructions on the web site.

“We’re most impressed with students who follow instructions,” Leck said.

For those interested in applying for a spring internship, follow the link to learn more about the positions offered and apply now. http://www.bgsu.edu/offices/sa/recwell/page32775.html

Exercise is a key way to de-stress such as lifting weights, going for a run or taking a brisk walk around campus. One exercise that only few students are in on the secret of stress relieving and relaxation is Tai Chi.

According to the Mayo Clinic, “Tai Chi, also called tai chi chuan, is a noncompetitive, self-paced system of gentle physical exercise and stretching. To do tai chi, you perform a series of postures or movements in a slow, graceful manner.”

Ashley Miller, senior Dietetics major, is the expert Tai Chi Group-X instructor and believes the class is great exercise and is a stress reliever. She has been doing Tai Chi for three years now and fell in love with it when she took a class at the YMCA in Sandusky.

“I think it’s fun and interesting,” Miller said. “Everyone should try it at least once.”

The average number of participants in her class ranges from two to six. Though Miller is enthusiastic about her consistent regulars in Tai Chi, there is still room for more participants and encourages more to sign up to enjoy a fun, relaxing and comforting.

“It’s not like the spinning or abs classes with hundreds of people,” Miller said.

One reason Miller pointed to the lack of attendance could be the change in time. Another cause for the low attendance could be a misunderstanding of the ancient exercise.

Miller said the benefits of Tai Chi include relaxation, body awareness, balance and blood circulation. It also helps with arthritis and joint pain. Better posture, a boost of immunity, an increase in mental awareness and clarity are also among the benefits.

Tai Chi is not for everyone though. Miller said it takes time to see the benefits and the first time may be boring for some people and then they choose not to return. However, Miller supports Tai Chi.

“It’s a real thing if you just stick with it; I actually broke a board,” Miller said. “Tai Chi helped me kind of relax and understand body awareness and special awareness.”

Miller teaches Tai Chi every Wednesday from 4:30 to 5:15 p.m. in the Student Recreation Center. There is still time to purchase a Group-X pass to join and enjoy the benefits of Tai Chi.

Students and faculty can find personal trainers every Monday night and Wednesday morning sitting at a table behind the Front Desk at the Student Recreation Center eagerly waiting conduct body composition assessments, free of charge.

The method the personal trainers at the Student Recreation Center use for the body fat testing is called Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA). The trainer enters individual information into a calibrator including height, weight and age. Then the person holds onto the caliber for about five to ten seconds while a low-level electrical current passes through the body.

“Fat is an insulator so it sends a weak electrical signal through the body, so you can’t feel it,” Adam Levine, personal trainer at the Student Recreation Center said.

Personal trainer, Adam Levine

Before Levine checks participants’ body fat percentage he checks their Body Mass Index (BMI), which is a height to weight ratio; however, it is not as detailed as the body fat percentage results

“[BMI] doesn’t take lean body mass into account; it doesn’t take gender into account,” Levine said “A body-builder would appear obese on a BMI chart. And body fat percentage is the amount of fat relevant to the other tissues in the body.”

Sabreena Woods, freshman, tries to go to the Recreation Center at least four times a week and has utilized the body composition assessment twice so far this year.

“I was just curious as to what it was,” Woods said.

Matt McCarroll, sophomore, got his assessment for the first time with Levine Monday night because his friend had it done before and because he was interested in his own results.

“I’m pretty sure I’ll utilize it again,” McCarroll said.

Some students are so motivated that they try to get it checked every week; however it is not what Levine recommends.

“Sometimes I think it’s a little bit redundant because you can just do it on a scale or you can do it with your waist circumference to measure it,” Levine said. “I would say maybe once a month.”

Levine also said there are certain sources of error with the method of body fat testing such as hydration.

“Since it sends an electrical signal through your body and measures resistance, if you were to take the test when you’re dehydrated you would get certain results than if you were to chug a bunch of water and come back and take the test 10 minutes later,” Levine said. “You would actually appear leaner because the amount of conductors in your body would now be bigger than before in relation to insulators.”

Regardless of the error, Levine said he receives around 20 to 30 people in his two-hour shift of Monday nights, which he said depends on the trainer’s ability to greet and be friendly to patrons.

No matter what a person’s height or weight, anyone can come to the Student Recreation Center to have their body composition assessment on Mondays between 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. and Wednesday mornings between 10 a.m. and 12 p.m.

“It’s important to stay as fit as you can when you’re young because body fat increases with age and you to set yourself up for success and make it easier on yourself,” Levine said.

From students hanging from trees to handing out free condoms, the Department of Recreation and Wellness was well represented at this year’s Campus Fest. There were multiple tables representing each aspect of the Department such as the Wellness Connection, Outdoor Program and the Student Recreation Center.

While walking past the Department of Recreation and Wellness section students received an ear-full from Dan Mattina, Student Supervisor for the Outdoor Program, as he yelled out while hanging from a tree to lure students in.

“It’s self-promotion for free climbing at the Wall,” Mattina said.

Mattina, treasurer of the Outdoor Adventure Club, represented his organization to earn more members while also distributing approximately 150 informational flyers on the Outdoor Program to students. He promoted the new General Physical Education course; white water rafting.

Next to the guy shouting from the tree, a popular table each year at Campus Fest, was the Student Wellness Network, a student-run healthy life-styles organization known for passing out condom beads to students for free.

“We had a line of like 89 million people backed up all the way to the snow cones for condom beads.” Mindy Radabaugh, Vice President of the Student Wellness Network, said. “It was fantastic.”

The Student Wellness Network covers all types of wellness topics such as body image, sexual health, mental health, fitness, nutrition, tobacco and alcohol.

Representing all areas of recreation and wellness was Amy Sheldrick, the Administrative Secretary of the Wellness Connection.

Sheldrick said her table handed out multiple flyers on the various services and information. Sheldrick also helped conduct a fitness survey to see what group exercise classes students would be interested for the spring semester and what times they prefer to work out.

Sheldrick’s main message to students as they walk by: “Check out Recreation and Wellness; we have something to offer everyone.”