College is a time in a person’s life where there are so many opportunities and utilities provided to students at little to no cost while they’re earning their education. It only makes sense to take advantage of all these offers before the real world comes crashing down.
At NMU the Student Recreation Fee is automatically bundled in to tuition prices. Students take advantage of that by using the Physical Education Instructional Facility and the Fit Zone, but several different kinds of fitness classes are also available to students.
The Fit Zone is convenient to on campus students because it’s connected to the residence halls behind the Woods.
Lynne Mestnik is one of five instructors that teach at the Fitzone, she specializes in Yoga Flow and Power 50.
“It’s one hour that your giving without your phone, without other distractions and you’re just totally concentrated on yourself and I think in this day and age everybody needs that,” Mestnik said.
Each of her classes work on building strength over time and aim at working into class schedules based on the times they’re offered and the length.
“It’s a class anyone can do, I had a girl that came the first year we offered it and she was a sophomore, she could only do the empty bar, she couldn’t even put two and a half pounds on it,” Mestnik said. “The next year she put two and a half pounds on it and by the time she graduated she was doing 10 pounds on each side.”
The Yoga Flow class offers a lot of the basics of yoga and is a very instructional atmosphere for any level of yogi.
“We incorporate general yoga moves, sun salutations, strength moves, balance moves and they all gently flow with the music,” Mestnik said. “I allow the kids to pick some of the music if they choose, they can give it to me and I’ll choreograph something to it.”
Mestnik caters the exercises to the students at each session and always offers options to the participants by saying, “If I do anything you don’t like, don’t do it.”
“I always look at my audience. If it’s a group that’s never done it before I know we need to move it slower,” Mestnik said. “That’s really important.”
The Yoga Flow class always ends with a guided meditation unique to each day which always ends the session with a sense of serenity.
“I appreciate the positive energy she gives the class every Tuesday, it’s become this thing in my routine that I can look forward to and a discipline that helps me grow both mentally and physically,” sophomore psychology major Nicola Falco said.
With busy schedules it can be tough to find time to workout and the right exercises for each person.
“If you can get them to walk through the door they’re going to come back and the first thing they’re worried about is everybody’s going to watch them and nobody watches them because everybody’s just trying to stay alive.”
Sophomore environmental science majors Caitlin Sternberg and Natalie Nesburg frequent Mestnik’s Power 50 class on Wednesday evenings which is done with a bar and barbell weights and they focus on a holistic body workout.
“I think the class really challenges you because it works every muscle group so it’s a really nice workout in only 50 minutes she does a good job going through every muscle group so it’s full body,” Nesburg said.
Mestnik choreographs each fitness class with music that flows with the workout and offers her students to request songs to incorporate for future classes.
“She’s such an energetic person and she really pushes you to work harder and it’s nice to see the progress,” Sternberg said.
Classes are held Monday through Thursday and have a participant limit of 20 people and 10 for Power 50 workouts. The other classes offered during the first session of fall are PiYo, Zumba, Release & Restore Yoga and Yoga for emotional wellness. Class times can be found on the Fit Zone page of NMU’s website.
