Diary of a Fit Patriot: Try Something New
Posted: March 9, 2016 at 1:32 pm, Last Updated: March 9, 2016 at 1:33 pm
By: Alison M. Hall
When is the last time you tried a new fitness activity? Did you try bubble soccer when Mason Rec had it on the RAC field? Have you tried the tread climber at Skyline yet? What about open climb at the EDGE at Mason on the Science and Technology campus? Stand-up paddleboarding? Backpacking? Intramurals? Parkour? Racquetball? I could go on and on. I dare you to try something new!
I have done several of the above: climbing at the EDGE at Mason, stand-up paddleboarding, parkour, and racquetball. I was pretty scared trying all of them, but here I am living to tell the tale. They all were outside of my comfort zone. I climbed at the EDGE at Mason as part of a class project I had to do about a fitness activity I knew little about. I thought stand-up paddleboarding looked cool, so when I had the chance, I gave it a try (with my extended family watching me fall in the river a few times). My dad convinced me to play racquetball with him. A friend convinced me to try parkour because she loves it 
so much. There are many reasons to try something new.
My challenge to you is to find something at Mason Rec to try for the first time. It can be something that doesn’t take much planning like your first Zumba, Cycle, or Boot Camp class. They’re FREE to full-time students and Mason Rec members. Another option is take the plunge and pay for one of our martial arts or self-defense classes such as Capoeira or Krav Maga. It’s only $8 drop in to give it a go, or unlimited classes are half-price now. If you are a planner, sign up for an Outdoor Adventures trip this spring. There are many to choose from. You also could commit to playing on an intramural team. If you don’t have a whole team together, Mason Rec lets you sign up as a free agent, where you can either request to join a team or a team can find you.
Bringing it back to Mason Fitness, if you see a piece of equipment at the gym that looks interesting to you but you don’t know how to use it, you can sign up for a free equipment orientation. We will teach you how to use any piece of fitness equipment in our buildings for free. If you want g
uidance on how to put that equipment in a workout, sign up to work with a personal trainer.
You won’t regret trying something new. Even if you really don’t like it, now you know, and you can move on to trying something else. I promise, I will try something new too before the end of the semester.