The swell of students jam-packed into a small weight room can be intimidating for any person. A group of “gym bros” paired alongside athletic Lululemon-clad girls is enough for anyone to turn around and head back to their dorm. While the Campus Recreation Center is a great, and free, place for any student to workout, it can come with a handful of anxiety-inducing downsides.
There are more options to explore than fighting for a rack everytime a student wants to exercise. The Rec Center offers a variety of group fitness classes that occur every day for any student. Although these classes aren’t free, students can purchase a semester fitness pass for only $20, or can opt for a single pass for $5.
Along with these affordable prices comes with a great faculty who enhances the experience for everyone. Sydney Beck, a sophomore business management major, is one of the many student instructors that run the offered classes. After participating in classes her freshman year, Beck decided to take the leap and become an instructor herself.
“In high school, I was a dancer so I was always working out in groups of people and working out in a positive environment,” Beck said.
After attending a fitness studio in her hometown after graduating from dancing, Beck decided to give the Rec Center’s classes a try her freshman year. After finding a passion for the classes she tried out, Beck decided to become an instructor herself, with the help of Hattie Roberts, the group fitness coordinator.
Roberts oversees all of the fitness classes the Rec Center offers, along with instructing classes as well.
“What I love about my job is that some days I might have catch-up days where I can be on the computer and, you know, handling more administrative things, but then other days I might have where I’m teaching twice in a day,” Roberts said.
Roberts has been a part of the Rec Center’s faculty since 2018, when she was a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and began teaching her first classes. After climbing the ladder of command throughout the years, Roberts now works to create new and exciting programs for all students to enjoy.
“I like to find ways to partner with different programs within the Rec and then also different departments on campus to do a collaboration with,” Roberts said.
Through these collaborations, Roberts has been able to bring exciting classes to the Rec: pilates and lattes, paddleboard yoga, sculpt and smoothies and more.
Every class can look different depending on the form of exercise and the instructor’s preference. As a pilates instructor, Beck likes to keep her classes consistent.
“I typically stick to a similar format, which is just a warm up and then five to six strength series,” Beck said. “So like focusing on different parts of the body, and then a cool down. I just keep that outline, and then plug in different (muscle areas).”
All classes are split into four categories, those being strength, cardio, mind and body and fusion. The Rec Center offers 40-50 classes a week, all ranging in these different categories, and will throw in a “special” class: a class that is already offered but is altered to have a theme, such as reduce reuse and cycle, every couple of weeks.
Although these classes are made for the benefit of students, instructors have found their experience teaching to be just as rewarding.
“What I expected to enjoy was just like the music and just like grooving out to that,” Beck said. “And then something that was kind of unexpected was having people return to my classes and having the same people every week. It is just so fun because it’s rewarding to me to see that people are enjoying my class and are wanting to come back.”
Not only are these classes a great way to exercise, the classes offer a chance to find a community and meet new people, as well as giving students a time to focus on themselves.
“Group fitness is a really great way for people to build community and also find some sort of schedule or like an organized time where they are committing to themselves,” Roberts said. “We have a huge variety of classes that we offer, and I strongly think that people can find something that really is their thing or their type of workout that they’re looking for.”