Staying "In The Pink" while on the go

Amy Rubin Contributing Editor

Whether it’s a spiritual session of yoga or an intense boxing lesson taught by a former world champion boxer, chances are you can find it at the Walker Athletics Field House. On any given week between 60 to 70 classes are offered to all of the Vassar commnity. While some classes carry a nominal entrance fee—never more than 30 dollars—most classes are free of charge and average between twelve to fourteen participants.

While the most popular classes tend to be pilates and kickboxing, there are a number of lesser known offerings taught by highly trained and experienced professionals. For instance, a former New York City ballet dancer taught an aerobic-centered ballet workshop last year. In addition to professionally run workshops, often times professors conduct some of the classes, such as the Economic department’s Sean Flynn, who has taught the marshal art of Akito in previous years.

One of the most popular classes offered is Erin Schulman’s yoga class. Schulman became interested in yoga when she was living in New York City in the 1970s and hippie and alternative lifestyles were becoming popular. It was during this time that she developed an understanding of youga as “a journey to divine awareness and cosmic consciousness.”

Schulman tries to apply this concept in her yoga classes by combining three levels of the physcial-postures, relaxation, and mindful breathing. When these three elements are combined and working together in unison she believes one can reach a pychiscal, emotional, and spiritual sense of depth where “we can tap into a universal undercurrent and find our self-healer.”

If it’s not emotional and spiritual depth you’re looking for, there are wide variety of other aerobic, strength and skill building classes offered. The styles in which these courses are taught is als impressivlly diverse considering the force behind the program that offers these classes is largely dependent on one man.

In 1970, Professor of Physical Education Roman Czula started an activity-based athletic program called “In the pink.” Over the last 34 years this program has evolved and developed enormously. Czula’s intentions in starting this program were to make it easier for people, especially the non-athletes, to be active and healthy.

While he believes that the statistics about health and inactivity are not usually quite as bad as they appear, he also understands that most students that do not play a sport are not going to go run or exercise on their own.

The program offers fun and organized alternatives to working out and as Czula argues “the popularity and success of the program proves that most people want to be active and healthy.” The essence of the program is based on this belief that if the opportunities are available, people will take advantage of them because most people, especially young college students, want to either lose weight, tone up, or build strength but they also need encouragement to get to the gym.

Czula also understands that the gym can sometimes be an intimidating atmosphere, especially for the non-athlete, In an effort to combat this stigma, he offers private instruction. In addition to the required introductory course students must take in order to use the fitness center, personal trainers are available to work with students one-on-one.

For anyone who feels uncomfortable in one of the classes, or would like some pointers for their workout, Czula will schedule an appointment, free of charge. Additionally, because some students may not feel comfortable being in the fitness center at all, and in order to make healthy living more accessible, Czula also offers private consultations and will loan out some of the smaller weights so students can do exercises in the privacy of their own room.

Although these types of services are somewhat less popular, or publicized than the wide range of classes that are offered, Czula still receives numerous emails and phone calls from students requesting a personal trainer or asking to borrow weights for individual workouts.

Even with all fitness opportunities available to students there are still too many people who, according to Czula, “get all psyched to start working-out, go to the gym everyday for about a week, and then burnout, and stop altogether.” He nsists that this is one of the most common mistakes first time gym-goers tend to make.

“If you ignore your body for 15 years, you need to go slow. You need to work up to the point where you feel worse on days where you miss a workout as opposed to feeling worse after a workout, and that takes time.”

Yoga instructor Erin Schulman reiterates this understanding of a genuinely healthy lifestyle. Although she has been studying and teaching yoga for the last 30 years she is still studying with a private yoga and zen instructor and continues to consider herself a student even while teching others throughout the community.

When starting out for the first time, whether on you’re on your own at the fitness center, taking classes, or with a personal trainer, Czula recommends that you are active at least 3 times a week for at least an hour. He also debunked the myth that the best time to exercise is mid-morning, or that you should avoid working out within 4 hours of your bedtime and instead insists that the best time to workout is whenever you can.

This insistency about being active whenever and however you can in the hopes of making exercise a life-long, and enjoyable, habit is the defining factor behind the numerous opportunities available through “In the Pink.”