Darren Leggett’s legs had never been so sore.
“I played varsity basketball in high school,” the second-year business economics student said. “But I took a class at Wooden, and I’ve never lunged so much in one hour. I honestly couldn’t climb stairs the next day.”
Before taking the Wooden Center’s Bottom Line group exercise class, Leggett joined about 2,500 other Bruin students, faculty, alumni and community members and registered for the Pac-10 Best of the West Fitness Challenge, a friendly contest among Pac-10 universities.
From Oct. 25 to 29, participants logged their daily workouts online ““ from walking to class to riding stationary bikes ““ with a goal of accruing the most total exercise minutes for their school.
The university with the most minutes logged at the week’s end won bragging rights in a contest solely focused on encouraging Pac-10 fitness.
UCLA, with 761,815 collective minutes, placed third behind Arizona State University’s 822,534 minutes and Stanford University’s 798,179 minutes.
The Bruins’ involvement jumped by nearly 1,000 participants this year, and about 65 percent of students who registered for the challenge logged their hours online, said William Aberbuch, marketing services manager at the Wooden Center. This increase in registration and commitment of registered participants contributed to UCLA’s first triumph over Washington State University since the program’s launch in 2007.
UCLA has historically finished in third place in the challenge, with Stanford consistently in the top two, Aberbuch said.
Aberbuch said the most critical part of the fitness challenge is ensuring that students log their workout minutes. Morale-boosting events throughout the week were crucial to UCLA’s success, which included victory over USC.
“I’ve wanted to be one of those rock climbers at the gym for so long,” said second-year civil engineering student Kara Leary, who scaled the Wooden Center’s rock wall during the cost-free climbing challenge on Oct. 25. “The events during the challenge week were so fun because they gave me a chance to take advantage of activities I’ve always wanted to do.”
The happenings kicked off with Fit Fest, an afternoon of stamina challenges and T-shirt giveaways. Two registered participants won iPods and flip phones in daily drawings, and group exercise classes were offered for free on Oct. 27.
According to Aberbuch, the Wooden Center saw a substantial increase in Fitness Pass sign-ups and group exercise class attendance during the Fitness Challenge, which was sponsored by Bank of the West.
Despite the program’s impact in the Wooden Center, Aberbuch said the most important influence on the Bruin community was a renewed focus on simple ways to get exercise outside of the gym.
“Logging minutes taught everyone to be mindful of what they do all day,” Aberbuch said. “Students walking up the stairs from Hedrick (Summit) to Murphy (Hall) get a workout. … You can be active anywhere.”