NAIT provides many unique ways for students to stay active and get away from their desks, one of which is Fitness on Demand.
Carole Holt is the Manager of Wellbeing at NAIT. She encourages students to use this program while it is available to them.
“All NAIT students who have already paid the Recreation Athletic fee for the winter semester have access to it. [Fitness on Demand] is an unlimited access to fitness classes that are in a virtual format,” said Holt.
Many classes can be done whenever and wherever is most convenient for students, with a select few being live classes.
“There are hundreds of fitness classes people can choose from, that they can do from their phone or computer. We are also scheduling some live classes. We have a couple of fitness instructors who are delivering those, and that’s being done via teams,” said Holt.
Last year changed the way fitness can be delivered. Everything went quickly from face-to-face to virtual learning. The program had to shift, and luckily Fitness on Demand was an excellent option to turn to.
“We had already been looking into it as an option, so when we went online last March, we had actually transitioned to this program really quick because we had been talking to them,” said Holt.
“We were able to get that up and running right away, but this is the first academic year that we’ve been using this. We’ve seen quite a lot of change from the start of this semester in September to now.”
This program has grown exponentially over the past seven months, from 150 classes being signed up for in September to 459 classes this past January. The program itself offers a variety of different classes to students, which allows those who are not entirely certain if this is for them a chance to open their eyes to what fitness can look like.
“You don’t have to do an hour-long class. You can do a ten-minute stretching class, or a twenty-minute body-weight class, or an hour-long yoga class. There’s a whole bunch of variety and [you can] fit it in where you can. If you’ve got a break between classes, there’s something in there for you to try,” said Holt.
“We know that when students are more physically active on a regular basis, it supports their mental health, but it also helps them back in the classroom. There’s research that shows moderate to vigorous physical activity stimulates your brain. It helps you retain information better, focus better, concentrate better. So when you go back to studying or go into your next class, it’s going to help your learning process […] That’s one strategy to help your success as a student.”
Fitness on Demand offers students the opportunity to do workouts from home with limited resources. Most of the classes don’t require students to use any equipment, but NAIT still provides the Student Equipment Loan Program if there’s a desire to make the workouts a bit more challenging.
“As long as you have a valid student ID then you’ll be able to sign out equipment,” said Holt.
This program ends at the end of the winter term in April. Learn more about Fitness on Demand and other fitness programs NAIT offers here.
