Kimberly Borden, a first-year biochemistry student, runs every weekday down Bruin Walk among the freshly-washed faces of an 8 a.m. crowd.
She wakes up at 6 a.m. for this aerobic ritual five times a week, in addition to three excursions to the John Wooden Center and two personal training sessions. Like many others, Borden made herself a promise on Jan. 1 that she would change her lifestyle into a healthier, more active one.
Unlike many others, she said she has kept it to this day.
Every year, students begin their winter quarter with New Year’s resolution still in mind. For many, it is to get into shape.
“When you exercise your heart, you make it stronger, which helps your heart pump blood to every part of your body and reduce the chances of forming any blood clots,” Joshua Bornstein, a physical fitness trainer for the John Wooden Center, said.
But between midterms and labs, exercise often becomes a disposable commodity.
Borden said having a personal trainer helps maintain her exercise routine.
“It’s not the same when someone is there waiting for you. You can’t just blow them off,” she said.
Vincent Frias, a first-year business economics student, started off his year with ambition similar to Borden’s.
“I just wanted to get buff,” Frias said, as he rolled up his black Ed Hardy-esque T-shirt to show off the faint outline of a bicep muscle.
His progress was cut short after pressure from midterms made exercise harder to pencil in.
“I used to go the gym every other day, but then schoolwork got in the way,” Frias said. He said he is currently enrolled in 16 units.
“When faced with the decision of choosing over good fitness or good grades, most students will choose to save their grades,” Frias said.
Now, he says he goes to the gym once or twice a week.
“Midterms ruin my life,” Frias said. “I become a recluse, and I can’t do anything but study.”
With four classes filling up his schedule, Frias said he finds it too time-consuming to go exercise at the John Wooden Center, each outing occupying a total of two and a half hours between changing into his gym clothes and getting out of the shower ready to reinstate his homework activities.
Indeed, midterm season takes its toll on students’ stress, and it is understandable why many discard prior commitments in order to devote their full attention to these weeks.
Borden has a different outlook.
“People say they don’t have time, but really they’re just on Facebook or iChat,” Borden said about her peers. “I just choose to go to the gym during my three-hour gap between classes.”
During a recent week, Borden faced a six-page general education cluster paper, a chemistry pre-lab and post-lab and a multivariable calculus midterm, all while keeping up with her exercise routine.
“Students generally come (to the UCLA counseling center) because of academic anxiety,” said Kim Huff, a psychologist for the UCLA emergency crisis center.
Huff recommends arranging class schedules with health in mind. And scheduling time to exercise is not enough.
“Students tell me about skipping breakfast because they wake up too late. Their meals when studying consist of vending machine snacks,” Huff said.
Bornstein suggests making small changes to a daily diet in order to promote overall health.
He said when in the dining halls, it is better to choose brown rice over white or fried rice, and pick a fruit or a mini-muffin for dessert instead of an ice cream cone every day.
Bornstein says he always adds the grilled chicken in his salads to add a little bit of protein.
“For breakfast, you can always ask for boiled eggs in the door next to the cereal bar in De Neve instead of scrambled eggs, which are cooked in margarine,” Bornstein said. “Margarine has a lot of trans fats,” he said.
“In the end,” Borden said, “it’s all up to you. If you really want something, you will find the time to do it, no matter how packed your schedule seems to be.”