After entering college, it can become complicated trying to stay fit. Endless studying, nights out with friends and poor diet are just a few examples of things that can keep students away from staying in shape. This week The Scoop met with Jordan Devenney, an athletic trainer for Drury University for some advice on staying healthy.
Thank you for giving us some of your time, can you please begin by introducing yourself ?
My name is Jordan Devenney, I am the Athletic Trainer for the Men’s and Women’s Tennis teams and Track and Field teams. I am a graduate student at Missouri State University, getting my masters of Science and Athletic training. I am originally from Michigan and I did my undergrad at Northern Michigan University.
What advice could you give to people wanting to lose weight?
In my opinion, the first thing you have to do is to get rid of your bad habits. If you don’t sleep regularly or eat, drink regularly, if you snack at random times, you have to start heading a routine with everything so that your body and its metabolism can know what is happening and can work efficiently. If you can get on a regular eating and exercise routine, going to bed and waking up at some good hours, it will definitely start to help. For exercise specifically, you have to work within a sixty-five to seventy percent target heart rate, so not being super out of breath, but you can do this with swimming, biking, running, any kind of exercise class.
For many years, there has been a battle between free weights and machine weights. What is your opinion about it?
So when you go to the gym, sometimes there is only machine weights or only free weights. The difference is kind of how you use them. Machine mainly work at isolated singular muscle groups. With machine weights like biceps curl machine or triceps push down, you do not really have to focus on any other muscle but with free weights, you have to be aware of your body more, such as your posture. You also have to control the weight yourself.
After talking about workouts, it is important to talk about the number of sessions someone should have per week. How often should someone workout or exercise?
American Heart Association (AHA) says that thirty minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity (exercises that stimulate and strength the heart and lungs) at least five days per week for a hundred and fifty minutes total or twenty-five of vigorous heart activity three days per week for a total of seventy-five minutes. Another option is a sort of combination of the two activities, high-intensity muscle strength activity at least two days. So anyways, between two and four days. It also depends of what you wanna do, if you only have time for two times a week, then you only have time for two days, but if you have four available days that’s great.
Related to this previous questions, when is the best time to workout ?
It is hard to say because if you are not a morning person and you wake up in the morning in a mood where you just want to get it out of the way, you are not really motivated to do the workout. You are just going through the movements and you will not see the results or the gains you want to see. If you are not a morning person, do not go in the morning. Some people argue that morning is better because it will build the muscle mass but there is not a free search to prove this. It is whatever you will be most motivated to do.
