How sports can ease your midterm season
Sean Finan (Any) // Crew Writer
Kyla Seguiban (she/her) // Illustrator
Everyone has a relationship with exercise. Some love it, some don’t. Some do it obsessively, while others haven’t done it for years out of fear of embarrassment. It comes with the territory of having a body, which (breaking news!) every person has. One day humans may transcend these mortal flesh suits and expand into a limitless vastness–but until then there is a lot of thinking, about how we are to move our bodies on a daily basis, to do.
Way back in hunter/gatherer societies, exercise used to be something we didn’t have to think about, it came with living. Now we can get our food delivered with the tap of an app, so we have to simulate these activities, which might mean paying for Peloton, the gym or simply going on a run outside.
Plus, students must not only think about their bodies but their brains as well, which suffer the consequences of how the body is treated. It can become very easy to ignore the body’s needs. Week-long study sessions can be a great excuse to be stagnant. That is not productive: a study conducted by the “International Journal of Exercise Science” argues otherwise. The researchers aimed to find out if exercise could improve one’s ability to recall words 24 hours after the exercise had been completed.
They found that “simultaneous memorization and exercise produced a greater ability to recall words than memorization after or without exercise,” meaning that the group that incorporated exercise into their study session had a better outcome than those who did not.
An investigation into the exercise habits of two Capilano University (CapU) student-athletes also enlightened the necessity for exercise—particularly outdoor exercise—when school becomes too stressful.
Marco Proverbs, the shooting guard for the Capilano Blues Men’s Basketball Team, is setting the bar in athletics, while also being a “student who prioritizes academics.” When Proverbs finds himself “spending hours behind a desk,” he finds that “being able to dedicate time to exercise is crucial [to his] well-being.” Proverbs notes that any kind of physical activity is a good outlet for balancing workload and exam pressure. He finds joy in both the weightlifting and run club because they are “great ways to interact with like-minded peers while enjoying your desired exercises.”
Nick Krawczyk is a third-year MOPA student, a lacrosse player for the North Shore Indians and proud owner of one of the largest sets of biceps on campus.
Even though Krawczyk practices heavy training constantly, he finds that “even just going for a walk really helps.” He likes to put things in perspective when he is overwhelmed by schoolwork.
“If you’re just constantly studying or doing work, and then you go home and you sleep, you’re probably still, while you’re sleeping, thinking about school, right?” Krawczyk says. Instead, he suggests to try and do other activities and distract the mind during the day.
Krawczyk was rushing to complete two different assignments one day and was left feeling stressed out, “but then I stopped for a bit and went to the gym, and I got such a deadly chest pump out of it.” Once he got back home, his batteries were recharged and he managed to get the work done.
Krawczyk prefers weight lifting to cardio to clear his mind. It seems like a no-brainer that getting blood flowing to the noggin is a necessary facet of living a healthy lifestyle as a student; however, when you’re in the muck of midterm molasses, the mental picture of moving can seem meshuga.
Prioritizing movement in your life does not mean that you have to be a star athlete, but rather find what works for you and what makes you feel healthy and happy. Working out is one way to clear out all of the junk that has piled up from hours of cramming. It’s important to remember that our brains are remote workers that live inside of our bodies, and we want to give them the cleanest home possible to work in.
