Category Archives: WellAware

Recreational Sports and Fitness Week February 22 – February 27

BGSU Recreation and Wellness is participating in the annual NIRSA Recreational Sports and Fitness Day by celebrating what we do all week long! A featured activity of the week is to capture exactly what recreation means to BGSU by showcasing it through photography. Be a part of the excitement by participating in the Photo Journal Project. See your work possibly featured on the Recreation and Wellness website, in social media, entered into NIRSA contests, or possibly displayed at the Student Recreation Center.

Rules:

  • Open to any BGSU student, faculty, or staff member 18 years of age and up.
  • Open to any Student Recreation Center Member or Recreation and Wellness program participant 18 years of age and up.
  • Before taking the photo, permission must be granted. Photos must be taken on the BGSU campus between Monday, February 22 and Saturday, February 27, 2016 depicting themes related to recreation, sport or wellness.
  • Photos may be used on any BGSU website, social media, blog, online photo album, on display at the SRC, entered in the NIRSA Creative Excellence contest, or be chosen as a feature in a photo book.

Photo Ideas/Themes:

  • Working out at the SRC or anywhere on campus
  • Walking, running, jogging
  • Lifting weights or using exercise equipment
  • Swimming
  • Falcon Fitness
  • Climbing the Wall
  • Attending a Wellness Event
  • Your sport club or team
  • Intramural sports
  • Showing how you, friends, or family live a healthy lifestyle
  • Healthy eating
  • You and your swolemate
  • Recreation Facilities including the SRC, Field House, Golf Course, or other related areas on campus

Submission Instructions:

  • Take a photo of what recreation at BGSU means to you
  • Submit the photo by Sunday, February 28 at 5 PM
  • Multiple submissions per person are permitted

View a complete schedule of events for the week here.

Sandy Wiechman’s Story

 Sandy Wiechman, Safe Communities Coordinator – BGSU Recreation and Wellness
Personal Training Client (2015)

It has been hard to break the “no pain, no gain” mentality I learned in the 80’s, but the trainers are very patient and helpful. 
Having been in a sedentary working environment for over 30 years, I had become lazy and didn’t do any form of regular exercise. I would walk, but never push myself to be any better. A prior place I lived had an indoor pool and an exercise area – for free!! Did I use it – heck no!

Having the opportunity to work with the Department of Recreation and Wellness at BGSU was frightening at first, but it has been the BEST thing that has ever happened to me! Everyone is so supportive and encouraging every step of the way on my journey to becoming the “best Sandy I can be”. This has included (includes) healthy eating programs, re-programming my brain to stop every hour and stretch or walk away from my desk, and to ENJOY exercise! Exercise has never been enjoyable for me. It has been hard to break the “no pain, no gain” mentality I learned in the 80’s, but the trainers are very patient and helpful. It is great to be instructed on new techniques to get the most benefit from my workout, and I look forward to hopping on a bike, elliptical, or my favorite, to jump in Andrews Pool with my floatation belt and water weights. Getting to the age where your muscles and joints don’t always agree with how you intend to move, I’ve avoided weight bearing exercises as, let’s face it, it just hurts and doesn’t move that way! Learning about different ways to stretch and target muscle areas with exercise bands for the most benefit has been exciting and produces great results.

The best compliment I can give to Jade and the other trainers at the SRC, is a quote from my doctors, “Sandy WHAT are you doing?? You look great and your numbers are amazing!” There is NO better feeling than that!

I’ve got a long way to go, but I know with Jade’s encouragement and education, I will be the best Sandy I can be!!

LEARN MORE ABOUT PERSONAL TRAINING

PersonalTraining_2015-44 copy
PersonalTraining_2015-24 copy
PersonalTraining_2015-31 copy

Thanksgiving Traffic Safety

Safe Communities of Wood County is joining in a national effort to reach out to all Thanksgiving travelers with one important message: buckle up. Historically, Thanksgiving is the busiest travel time of the year, putting more people on the road, and unfortunately increasing the likelihood of crashes. Each year in our country, tens of thousands of passenger vehicle occupants die in motor vehicle crashes. In 2013, more than 300 people were killed in crashes on Thanksgiving weekend alone. It’s a sad statistic, but even sadder is that many of those deaths could have been prevented with one simple click of a seat belt.

The United States Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that proper seat belt use reduces the risk of fatal injury to front seat passengers by 45 percent, and the risk of moderate to serious injury by 50 percent. In 2013, approximately 12,584 people survived crashes because they were buckled up. If everyone involved in crashes that year had worn their seat belts, an additional 2,800 lives may have been saved.

“More than half the drivers and passengers being killed in crashes aren’t wearing seat belts. That’s a major problem,” said Sandy Wiechman, Safe Communities Coordinator. In 2013, a total of 21,132 passenger vehicle occupants were killed in crashes, and almost half (49%) of those occupants were not buckled up. During Thanksgiving weekend in 2013 (6 p.m. Wednesday, November 27, to 5:59 a.m. Monday, December 2), a disturbing 58 percent (6 out of 10) of the passenger vehicle occupants killed in crashes were not wearing seat belts. At night, the statistic was even worse; 64 percent of the occupants killed at night were unbuckled.

Younger drivers are the most likely to be unbuckled in a fatal crash. In 2013, among passenger vehicle occupant fatalities where restraint use was known, the age groups 21 to 24 and 25 to 34 had the highest percentage (55%) of occupants killed who were un-restrained.

NHTSA data also reveals that males are more likely to be unbuckled than females in a fatal crash. Fifty-four percent of the males killed in crashes in 2013 were not buckled up, as compared to 41 percent for females. Right now, the overall seat belt use rate in the United States is 87 percent, which is a major increase over the 79-percent use rate in 2003, but there is still room for further gains.

“For those people who already buckle up every time: Thank you,” said Ms. Wiechman “For them, this campaign serves as a reminder. But for those people who still don’t buckle up for whatever reason, I want to say this: buckling your seat belt is one of the simplest, safest things you’ll ever do.”

This Thanksgiving, and every day of the year, make sure your seat belt is buckled before you start any road trip—whether it’s one mile or a thousand.

For More Information:

  • Traveling safely during Thanksgiving, please visit www.nhtsa.gov.
  • Jerrod Savidge, 419-352-2481
  • Safe Communities Coordinator, Sandy Wiechman

419-372-9353 or swiechm@bgsu.edu

Truth Campaign To Put Out More Than Just Cigarettes

The American Legacy Foundation has launched another Truth campaign to combat Big Tobacco in the United States. According to the Wall Street Journal, “The anti-smoking youth campaign is for the first time tackling social smoking, hookahs and flavored cigarillos in its marketing efforts as smoking habits among young adults shift away from traditional cigarettes.”  The campaign debuted a new spot called “It’s A Trap” during MTV’s Video Music Awards and also released another advertisement called “Finishers 2.0″, which can be seen below, during the Teen Choice Awards in April.

According to Wall Street Journal, the campaign “leverages social media star power and popular memes to highlight the dangers of light or intermittent smoking — say smoking a cigarette or two only during parties. A study published earlier this year in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, found that 25% of adolescents believe smoking on an intermittent basis poses little to no harm.”

The advertisement below is one of four that is being shown around on Bowling Green State University’s campus. With the Clean-Air Policy in place at BGSU since 2012, this will be another step in the right direction to end it with tobacco.

http://blogs.wsj.com/cmo/2015/08/27/truth-campaign-targets-social-smoking-hookahs-as-cigarette-use-declines/

Maintain Don’t Gain is Back!

Worried the holidays will weigh you down? Join the ‘‘Maintain, Don’t Gain’’ Challenge and receive accountability and motivation to avoid holiday weight gain and have a healthy and happy holiday season!

This FREE program is available to all BGSU faculty, staff and students! Here’s how the holiday challenge works:

  • Participate individually or create a team. The more the merrier! There is not a limit to the number of teammates you can have.
  • Register by attending a pre-holiday weigh-in. Weights are kept confidential.
  • Receive practical tips, recipes, physical activity suggestions and other information to help you engage in healthier behaviors throughout the holiday season.
  • Receive great workouts and opportunities to participate in free instructor led classes
  • Attend a post-holiday ‘‘weigh-out’’ during the week of January 11. All teams or individuals who maintain or lose weight during the holiday season qualify for select raffle prizes!

Download the Flyer (PDF) for complete details. Registration begins November 16.

Questions? Contact Karyn Smith
419-372-9309
karync@bgsu.edu
www.bgsu.edu/wellaware