UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State Campus Recreation, a unit of Student Affairs, is now offering fitness programs online. Over the last few weeks, the unit has developed a schedule of live fitness classes available for streaming through the department’s Instagram and Facebook accounts. In addition, the staff have compiled pre-recorded fitness videos on the Penn State Student Affairs YouTube account, which are available to everyone.
Jill Garrigan, assistant director of fitness and wellness, worked with both full-time and student staff in her unit and with others around Student Affairs to make virtual fitness classes a possibility for Penn State students, faculty, staff and Campus Recreation members.
“When the University switched to remote learning and remote work, we learned quickly how much our patrons relied on daily opportunities not only to move, but to connect with their Penn State fitness and wellness community,” said Garrigan.
The fitness classes are primarily taught by Campus Recreation’s certified student fitness instructors. Classes range from yoga to meditation to kickboxing and HIIT workouts. Classes that fit a variety of fitness levels are available, and viewers can select from 5-minute workouts to 30-minute classes.
Live classes bring a wide range of participants with some class participation numbers as high as 100 people.
“Ultimately, the community we’ve developed and the impact we have on our patrons is something we wanted to find a way to continue during this time,” Garrigan said. “It was important from the start that we needed to quickly build a library of resources and then continue to work with our instructors to get regularly scheduled, live classes ready for everyone to access.”
For additional information on virtual fitness opportunities and resources through Campus Recreation, visit studentaffairs.psu.edu/campusrec/fitness-wellness. To access a library of free fitness videos, visit the Penn State Student Affairs YouTube account.