Students shape up for Pac-10 Challenge

Ericka Carlos, a third-year political science student, is going to work out at the Wooden Center this week for a cause greater than her own personal satisfaction.

Carlos is going to the Wooden Center to participate in the second annual Pac-10 Fitness Challenge.

The challenge ““ for students, faculty, staff and alumni of each of the Pac-10 schools ““ is to log the most minutes spent exercising from Oct. 27 to 31.

The Pac-10 is an athletic conference including UCLA, Cal, USC and seven other schools.

“I think the competition with other schools is fun,” Carlos said. “It allows students to compete even if they aren’t an athlete. A lot of the time you get to watch the competition, but you don’t have the athletic talent to compete. The challenge allows students to have that competitive edge.”

This year, UCLA is looking to beat its fourth-place showing last year and unseat Stanford from its first-place position.

UCLA fitness and health promotions coordinator Nicole Keller said she is hoping to beat the competition’s 2007 student turnout of over 2,000 students, as well as getting more students to come out to the Wooden Center not just for the week, but for the rest of their time at UCLA.

Keller is hopeful that a change in the way the winner is calculated, from the total number of miles run to the total number of minutes exercised, will encourage more participation in the challenge as well.

She said students should take a leading role toward healthier lifestyles in which exercise plays an integral role.

“All we are trying to do is make people active,” Keller said. “Our goal is to log as many minutes as possible. Looking towards the future, being healthy is about how many minutes someone exercises in any given day, week or month.”

The message of the Pac-10 Fitness Challenge seems to be resonating around campus with students like Meaghan Neary, a first-year biology student, who will participate.

Neary, along with students who frequently visit the Wooden Center, are logging their minutes, while other students who do not necessarily exercise regularly are doubling their efforts in an attempt to help UCLA gain the upper edge in the competition

“I think it is a great idea to allow students to experience the competitive side of physical activity,” Neary said.

“It may encourage more people to come out and be active. The competition motivated me to go to the gym this week, hopefully that motivation will continue on into the future.”

To encourage support for the competition and get the message out around campus, participants will be given shirts and bracelets throughout the week for the effort they put into the challenge.

Anyone interested in logging their minutes can do so online through the Pac-10 Fitness Challenge Web site or in the Wooden Center.

Running totals of how many minutes of exercise each school has accumulated can be found on the Web site.

The final score, which takes into account school size and ultimately decides the outcome of the competition, can also be found on the Pac-10 Fitness Challenge Web site.

The competition runs through Oct. 31 and allows participants to enter up to 120 minutes of exercise a day. The winning campus must have the most minutes of all 10 campuses, once school size has been taken into account. Keller said the winners will receive bragging rights to the annual competition.

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