Listen Here
By Victoria Hansen
hansenv@findlay.edu
University of Findlay students gathered in the Koehler Fitness and Recreation Complex on Nov. 17 for an evening of badminton, pickleball, and games for a stress-buster event with Findlay Mayor Christina Muryn.
“We reached out to her (Muryn) to see if she would want to do an event with our department,” said Tina M. Fournier, associate professor of teaching in wellness and health promotion. “We kind of worked together with the mayor’s office to work the stress buster in.”
This program is part of the national Move With the Mayor initiative from the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention.
“We go around and we do stuff with the schools, we do stuff at 50 North, a senior center, we do downtown walks,” Muryn said. “We try to do at least four a year. During the summer, we do a couple of more walks around town.”
The program aims to get members of communities active and involved in healthy activities together.
“It could be anything from 10 minutes a day, just getting up and walking around your office, it could be going and running a marathon,” Muryn said. “You don’t have to go to work out for an hour to get the health benefits of just getting up and moving.”
A 2014 study found that people who exercise at least once a week had a lower heart rate (indicating lower stress) and reported feeling less stressed when put in a stressful situation. According to the Mayo Clinic, aerobic exercise releases endorphins, which increase feelings of happiness and boosts mood.
The UF Anatomy, Neuroscience, and Health Sciences department sponsored the program as a school-wide stress buster event for the end of the semester.
“We did the stress-buster part so that students would come and just relax, have fun, and play games,” Fournier said. “Some people in our department brought board games, and we decided on pizza because it’s easy and college students love pizza.”
Along with the pizza and board games, the ANHS department set up two badminton nets and two pickleball courts in the FRC basketball court for students. All four courts were full throughout the event.
“We are all about health and fitness, strength and conditioning, exercise science, and wellness, so we just thought that this worked well with our department,” Fournier said.
Fournier’s goals for the event were to offer a space for students to connect with people both at UF and from the community, and to provide a much-needed break for students to de-stress before the end of the semester.
