By: Paulina Prazmo

 

You walk into the Pulse and head straight up to the cardio section of the gym. That’s where all the other girls are anyways, running on the treadmills or ellipticals. You think to yourself, “Well, cardio is important; I’ll just run on the treadmill for 30mins!” Now, since I’m no fitness guru, I took the time to talk to the amazing and very helpful personal trainers on campus here at the Pulse. Imagine my surprise to find out that a successful workout doesn’t just consist of running and focusing on one body part. (This must be what most MAC girls believe - just take a glance up on the cardio deck.) Here’s what four McMaster trainers had to say about what women’s workouts are really missing.

Brandon Sferrazza, a personal trainer director at the Pulse says that the importance of achieving that well rounded workout actually consists of weight training. That’s right ladies, time to step off that treadmill and head on downstairs to the weight area. Sferrazza encourages female students to come down onto the main floor despite how intimidating it might seem. There is a common misconception that women are going to turn into a female version of the hulk if they include weight training in their workouts. However, all the personal trainers informed me that this is not the case.

“Women are afraid they’re going to get big and bulky and it just doesn’t happen. One percent of women fit that description and they’re all on the national bobsled team so there’s not much to worry about. Spending hours and hours on cardio isn’t really going to help much because you won’t have that muscle mass to burn the calories,” said Sferrazza.

The personal trainers at the Pulse are constantly trying to encourage the female student population that there is nothing scary about lifting some weights. And if you are unsure and need some assistance there is always a trainer on-call, ready and eager to answer any questions and help you get that workout you strive for.

Even a female personal trainer like Eni Kadar was once afraid of lifting weights. She tells me that many girls are guilty of missing out on weights. “They stick to cardio because that is the easiest way to workout and are too focused on achieving one specific body type,” she said. Other areas that are missed in the workouts of girls are core trainings, along with flexibility, stability and full body weight exercises.

Keith Medeiros, a former Pulse trainer says that the best way to start working out is by doing push-ups, chin-ups, bridges, planks, squats and lunges. In his opinion, these exercises require little weight but train the muscles and work on the target areas for fat loss. The workout of a female differs from a male workout at the Pulse because of that split between the two floors.

“I don’t think you are working out if you can read a book at the same time. The structure of a girl’s workout is misguided. If they can push themselves and get out of the cardio deck into the weights or even in the aerobic studio to do other things, it would be more beneficial,” said strength and conditioning trainer Rob Morton.

Pulse trainers recommend getting yourself familiarized and educated with the machines. If there are machines that you haven’t got a clue how to use, ask the trainer on duty to give you a hand. Group classes are also highly recommended. “It’s something that gets you motivated with a good atmosphere and everyone is very supportive. It’s also great when you’re not keen on making your own workout,” Kadar explained.

Or, you can grab your girlfriend and head down to the weight area together where both of you are able to influence one another and not worry about everyone staring at you. “Chances are the guys in the weight area don’t even know what they’re doing and are just surprised to see a girl lifting weights,” Kadar said with a laugh.

All trainers agreed that a typical workout should last no more than an hour and a half and that it is crucial to make time to head down to the Pulse. Whether it’s two days a week for beginners, or four to five times a week for the experienced, it is very important to schedule the workout time. So in the future when I head down to the Pulse for my weekly workout I’ll be looking for all of you MAC girls pumping that iron. Because the last time I checked, girl power should still be alive - especially in the gym.

 

 

On September 5, Maclean’s magazine released an article entitled “The Broken Generation,” giving an in-depth look into what they called a “crisis” affecting students across North America.
In this age of high-stress schooling, coupled with high unemployment after graduation, more and more university students are struggling with mental illness, the report claimed. McMaster is no exception to this trend.

Dr. Debbie Nifakis, Associate Director of Counselling at the Student Wellness Centre, says there is definitely a trend of more mental health issues coming to light.

“I’ve been working in the field for a very long time and definitely the number of people coming in to access services has increased over the years,” she said.

This can be attributed both to the increase in the number of post-secondary students, and increased awareness of mental health conditions, she explained.

“A lot of people are coming with a lot of awareness and less sense of stigma… I think there’s a lot of talk about mental health issues now.”

One person keen to promote the talk about mental health issues is Huzaifa Saeed, Vice President of Education for the MSU.

“Mental health was something that when I came to McMaster, in 2008, wasn’t a big deal on campus. But in the last year or two… things have ramped up a bit.”

As MSU External Affairs Commissioner last year, Saeed worked with other student leaders from the Ontario Undergraduate Student Alliance (OUSA) to write a paper on student health issues, with a focus on mental health.

This project, combined with his experience as a Welcome Week rep, inspired his “pink elephant in the room” campaign, which offered mental health training to all 1100 of this year’s reps. The response, he says, has been very positive.

“I’ve done a lot of campaigns for the MSU, and I don’t think any particular one of them has been this successful.”

The goal of the initiative is to make Mac a “stigma-free campus,” and to increase awareness of the much-needed support the university offers to its students.
And students need that kind of support more and more, as it’s not always something that they find on their own.

“People are losing the small school connection,” he said of McMaster. “If you’re sitting in a 600-person, MDCL 1305 lecture, you’re not really going to have anyone to lean on if you run into problems.”

Reports have shown that students are generally more stressed and more prone to mental health issues than before. According to the campaign’s website, about 5700 of McMaster’s undergraduate and graduate students will have “a mental health concern.”

A National College Health Assessment done at McMaster in 2009 reported that half of students surveyed “felt overwhelming anxiety,” while 56 percent “felt things were hopeless.”

But although mental health issues may present themselves to a significant portion of students, only about ten percent of the student body takes advantage of the Student Wellness Centre’s counseling services, Dr. Nifakis says.

With nine full-time counselors during the academic year, the Wellness Centre is comfortable with its availability of service.

“There is sometimes a wait time,” Dr. Nifakis said, noting that most complaints come when students may have to wait a few weeks for follow-up appointments. But this wouldn’t necessarily be remedied by increasing the number of counselors.

“I think that you could increase your number of counselors to the nth degree and you would still not meet the demand in the way people sometimes come to expect counseling to be.”

The Student Wellness Centre and the MSU have teamed up to continue promoting the “pink elephant in the room” campaign and further increase awareness about available services for students.

“We’re not counselors,” Saeed said of the MSU, “but what we can do is let people know that these [counselors at the Student Wellness Centre] exist.”

Both organizations will benefit from this partnership as they plan to offer recommendations to the university in a Mental Health Strategy Document later this year.

Memory retention is a lot like water retention, save for the fact that you do not want your memory being expelled from your body anytime soon.

When studying, researching or attempting to scrounge the details of a hazy Friday night, it is always beneficial to have an effective memory and be able to recall details that may be helpful in completing a test or assignment or recollecting drunken festivities among other school-related activities.

If you are looking to improve your memory skills, here are a few ingredients to look for when grocery shopping that will help keep your mind running smoothly.

Flavonoids

Not only is this word fun to say, the flavonoid compound has been proven to improve memory, learning and general cognitive function, decision making, verbal comprehension and numerical ability. So, calculus and communications students alike, take note: foods rich in flavonoids can help retain vital information and up the ante of your presentations and pop quizzes.

Add to your grocery list: blueberries, apples, cabbage, tomatoes; (look for labels with Quercetin and Anthocyanins, two common types of flavonoids)

Omega-3 Fatty Acids

Hearing the term “fatty acids” might turn you off from picking up an item with this ingredient, but Omega-3s are an essential part of human health and help with brain function and normal growth and development. When lacking in Omega-3s, common side effects include poor memory, fatigue, mood swings and depression. So keep up your levels of this fatty acid and reap the benefits of on the ball work habits. BONUS: it also helps reduce your risk of heart disease and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis.

Add to your grocery list: flax seeds, walnuts, salmon, tofu, shrimp and soy beans

B Vitamins

Vitamins B6, B9 and B12 have two things in common - they’re all divisible by three and they have all been noted to help improve memory and brain function. Vitamin B helps with the communication between the nervous system and the brain by forming and releasing neurotransmitters. These neurotransmitters help with concentration, awareness and mental clarity.

Add to your grocery list: yogurt, almonds, potatoes, mushrooms and whole grain cereals

Maryann Ashley

SHEC Media

At the end of last semester, when all of my final papers were due and the impending doom of exams was pressing down upon me, I had a pleasant and unexpected surprise in one of my classes. My professor finished our class a little bit early and offered to teach some relaxation exercises to anyone who wanted to stick around.

Only a few of us ended up staying behind. I’m really glad I did though, because not only was it educational, but it was also nice to see a professor taking an interest in the wellbeing of her students.

One of the main things we talked about that day was the importance of breathing. It should be pretty obvious to all of us just how important breathing is – we need to breathe to be able to live. Simple. Without food or water we can survive for days; without oxygen we die within minutes.

Our breathing can do a lot for our bodies besides just keeping us alive. It’s a natural process that eliminates waste products and toxins from our bodies while also filtering in the good stuff.

Even though breathing is so important, many of us are walking around doing it wrong. That’s right, although it is a natural process that happens automatically, there are still proper and improper ways of breathing. If you’ve ever taken any yoga or Pilates classes then you know how important the focus on breathing is to our health. Sadly, we need that reminder, because in today’s society we tend to use a smaller percentage of our lung capacity and our entire bodies can suffer for it.

Do you ever slouch, lean forward, draw your arms together, bend your head down or focus so hard on something that your body becomes really tense? This sounds like every typical student to me, and all of these postures restrict our inhalation and exhalation process.

This ultimately leads to a lesser amount of oxygen being present in our blood stream, which means that our organs aren’t getting as much as they could. It also means we are not sufficiently eliminating carbon dioxide. In our fast-paced lives, our breaths are too quick and too shallow. We literally need to just stop and take a moment to smell the roses.

There are a lot of benefits to be had from simply breathing properly. First of all, if you breathe through your nose then you are simultaneously protecting yourself from unwanted particles in the air (there’s hair in there for a reason) while warming the air before it enters the rest of your body.

Oxygen also energizes the body, rejuvenates the skin, improves brain function, has a calming effect, improves sleep and relaxation, and helps to regulate your body temperature.

My professor also told us about how we don’t breathe through our nostrils equally all of the time; you alternate between favouring the left nostril or the right nostril throughout the day. Your right side is associated with energy, while your left side is associated with relaxation and calming (this is the side you want to be breathing from when you’re trying to fall asleep). With this in mind she gave us two different exercises we could do.

If you’re feeling sleepy and it’s only the middle of the day and you still have four chapters to read, two meetings to attend and a paper to write, try this one: stand up.

Take three quick breathes in while swinging your arms with the breaths, once to the front, then out to your sides, and back to the front. Then bend your knees and swing your arms downward and exhale all the air out of your lungs through your mouth. Repeat.

If you’ve had five cups of coffee throughout the day, and you’re pacing the floors because you don’t know what to do with yourself and you have to wake up in only a few hours because you have early morning class but you can’t fall asleep, then try this one: sit straight up, feet on the floor.

Keep your shoulders down and really open up your chest (we spend so many hours sitting at desks all day with terrible posture). Rest your hands on your knees directly in front of you, palms up.

Focus on your breathing. Eventually inhale through your nose then hold your breath then exhale and pause again before inhaling again. Just focus on your breathing and try to feel it rejuvenating and relaxing your body.

Breathing properly really does benefit your body in so many different ways. So the next time you’re hanging out with someone and they sigh really loudly, don’t just ask them, “What’s wrong?” Maybe you should give them props for taking in a bit of extra oxygen.