Ohio University students and other members of Ping Center can get a glimpse at wellness in all forms during the Spring Wellness Series hosted by Ping Center Fitness and Campus Recreation.
The series, which hosts about two events each month throughout Spring Semester, is free to students, faculty, staff and other members of the recreation center. Each workshop features a speaker who examines one of the six dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, occupational, spiritual, intellectual and social.
The next workshop in the series will take place Wednesday. Representatives from the Career and Leadership Development Center will give a presentation on social wellness beginning at 5 p.m.
Joe Schillero, assistant director of campus recreation, fitness and wellness, organized the series for the first time last year. When he first started working at OU about three years ago, the vast majority of what Campus Recreation organized was very much centered on basic fitness, he said. The Wellness Series is meant to go beyond physical fitness to touch on other important components of wellbeing.
“I think everyone, even outside of this university, is appreciating holistic wellness,” Schillero said. “People are broadening outside of just working out. I wanted to start creating more opportunities for students to get plugged into that.”
Schillero said he also hopes the series will help students who may be hesitant to come to Ping become more aware of the programs and opportunities Campus Recreation has beyond working out.
“I wanted to do (the series) so students would come in and be able to get an idea of recreation as more than just lifting weights,” he said.
Selena Baker, a nutrition counselor at WellWorks, led the second workshop in the series last month. She had given presentations at Ping before and knew much of the audience would be students involved in club sports. She decided to structure her part of the Wellness Series with that in mind and discussed nutrition tips to help athletes perform and feel better.
In her presentation, Baker gave information on adequate fueling for an active lifestyle, guidelines for eating an adequate amount of protein, tips for hydration and suggestions for healthy snacks. She found participants were most interested in the snack suggestions, which included carbohydrate and protein-heavy foods in specific caloric amounts.
Though athletes typically have the benefit of professional guidance for training and workout programs, Baker said nutrition is a subject often neglected. It’s important for athletes to eat correctly not only to perform their best, but to prevent injury.
“I always say if you want to run like a Ferrari, you’ve got to get high octane gasoline,” she said. “You don’t want to run on an empty tank or put really junky fuel in your car.”
Baker said healthy eating tips are applicable to more than just athletes. Proper nutrition should be important to all students, no matter how active their lifestyles may be.
“I think that when you’re in that student space, a lot of times you’re juggling things timewise, and a lot of us are kind of financially on a budget,” she said. “So you have this time budget and a financial budget that you’re trying to stick to, and I think performance can be better — whether you’re just a weekend warrior or a recreational athlete or a professional athlete — with good nutrition.”
Baker praised Schillero’s efforts to include all the dimensions of wellness in the workshop. Sometimes good sleeping habits or a healthy social life can take the back seat in the lives of busy college students, and attending to all kinds of health should be a priority.
“I think it’s wonderful that they’ve developed this broad approach,” she said. “It’s very much about all the dimensions if you’re looking to be at your best as a student and as an athlete.”
