Gym

University life is often stereotyped as being an excuse to consume copious amounts of take-aways and alcohol.  This is to a larger extent quite accurate.  Which is great!   Honestly, its very liberating being away from the 'my house, my rules' mantra that in the family home may have enforced:

• a 'reasonable' curfew on your nocturnal shenanigans,
• an insistence on eating the soggy green thing that was always slopped next to the good bit on your dinner plate,
• and, a restriction on the amount of alcohol you could consume...

Note, this last point was very cunningly orchestrated, usually by something covert like your parents inviting the family over on the very day after your big night out happened to be planned for, or  anything generally that you would suffer dealing with under the cloud of a hangover.  Indeed, except for that time on your 16th and 17th birthday where you staggered home with a kebab stuck to the side of your face declaring that you love, well, anything which is infront of you at the time, "I love you tree" – you know who you are – before screaming that you are certainly not drunk whilst proceeding to throw up on the cat, your parents have probably never outwardly prescribed the limit on your alcohol intake!  No, instead, they have their artfully crafted way of saying, just as you are on your way out, "Don't go mad tonight Ok, remember, Gran and your Auntie Pam are coming over tomorrow around 11".  Groan.

Naturally then, once away from the confines of 'My house.."  syndrome and into the freedom of University halls, it is expected that we will have a bit of a blow out:

 I ate very badly for about two months, and idiotically drank so much in the first two weeks that my hands shook and my eyes were bloodshot for the whole of the third week. Bad Times.

While it did calm down after that initial period, my new friends and I restricted ourselves to drinking much more sensibly, and eating well balanced meals.  In truth, this restriction meant only heavily drinking four times a week, and a balanced meal was anything that did not unbalance the fragile equilibrium of the post freshers week stomach.

I'm sure you can see where I'm going with this.  Something would have to break.  And it did.  Yes, by the second month I was a wreck, physically I was drained, mentally, I was not prepared for my lectures, and I had a cold that would not fully clear until January!

I was not fit.

Although before moving to Birmingham I had had big nights out, I had been pretty physically fit, playing football thrice weekly, heading to the gym a few times as well.  However, once I moved to Birmingham this initially stopped.  Of course there are university sports clubs you can join.  Yes I thought, I'm going to play footy for my Uni.  However, on my way to the first set of trials for the team, some of the lads already playing on the astro-turf kicked the ball over the fence.  Naturally, as it landed next to where I was walking, I picked it up with the intention of kicking it back for them.  However, as my foot made contact with the ball, my face, once wearing a purposefully nonchalant expression- as if this was 'so easy for me'- contorted with horror as it skewed off the edge of my trainer and flew straight and true onto the roof of the biology labs some 60feet up to the left.  

Here lies the pride of G. Curtis.
R.I.P. University Footballing career.

I couldn't get the ball back.  80 odd football trial attendees roared with laughter.  I never made it to trials.  I went to the pub instead.

You see, a vicious cycle had ignited, and by the time I went home to my little town in Wales for the Christmas break, my slight frame was carrying a one and a half stone beer keg where my waist had been.  As I waddled around my old home, my mother was shocked, old lady's hit me with handbags and children ran crying into their mothers on sight of my gargantuan gut...

Ok so it wasn't that bad, but to me, who had always been fairly fit and dare I say athletic, it felt bad, very bad indeed.  So as many of us do, come January, I made a new years resolution to get more active, spend less time and money in the pub, and more actually doing things!

And if you are into doing things, Birmingham is the place to be.  Of course, each of the three Unis have fitness facilities.  The University of Birmingham has a large and impressive sports complex, including studios, a gym, pool as well as pitches and tennis courts, and if swimming is your thing, you only pay around £80 for unlimited swim throughout the academic year.  Similarly The University Gyms are subsidized; both Aston and Birmingham charge only around £170 for a year of all the cardio and weights sessions you can put yourself through.  Which if you compare to your local club is probably pretty good!  A gym I went to in Bristol prior to Uni cost me that much for 3.5 months!

Birmingham City University (BCU) is in the process of developing a new state of the art £7million sports centre near its Perry Bar Campus due for completion between sometime during 2009, so, shortly BCU students will have no excuses either!  

Personally, I joined my gym at Aston, and found it great, the trainers were helpful, there was a good atmosphere around the place, there were classes to attend that improved my overall fitness quite quickly, and, it was without doubt a bargain!  However, if you fancy joining a gym, but with more of a leisure club feel, you know, not just machines, but saunas, steam rooms, Jacuzzi, massage...mmm... Birmingham has plenty of these as well!  Virgin Active (www.virginactive.co.uk) and LA Fitness (www.lafitness.co.uk) do great student deals, and have facilities near all the University main campuses, and clubs in the centre of town.  Bannatynes (www.bannatyne.co.uk/fitness) also have a couple of clubs in the centre, one near trendy Brindley Place, and the other just off major shopping concourse, Corporation Street.  Bannatynes don't do student deals unfortunately, but they do have various membership options that may work out to be spot on for you.  

If you think you might be interested in having a look at these clubs, keep an eye out for free trial days, for instance, Virgin Active offer a free day in their club through the student survival website www.studentbeans.com.   Also, several of the clubs have special 'non-contracted' deals for us student types too, which give us more flexibility to cancel if we are not going to be going for a while (holidays or exams etc), which you won't get through University Sports Centre schemes.  You may also find that there are smaller non-chain owned gyms near campus's and residences which are usually reasonable and student friendly, so shop around.  Whether it's a tough stack shifting workout your after, lots of fancy treadmills and bikes with telly's on them, yoga classes, aqua fit or just somewhere to kick back in some bubbles, I guarantee that you will find it in Birmingham!

Of course there are other, arguably more fun ways to get active that Birmingham can offer.  No matter what sport you're into, and whether you've never played it before or are a national champion, Birmingham has got the diversity to cater for you.  

The best place to start with anything like this is your University.  Each University has an Athletic Union part of its Guild or Student Union set up, and these support the University clubs and teams.  Of course you will quickly find that there's you're your standard Football, Cricket, Rugby, Netball, Hockey clubs that you can join, but there are also some less obvious examples if you fancy something a bit different!:

How about American football?  Ski and Snowboard?  Windsurfing?  Ultimate Frisbee? Dodgeball? Jitsu? Fencing? Break Dancing?!!

Birmingham's Universities are a great place to experience something new!  And instrumental in the success these clubs is that they have impressive social events, both individually (I went on tour to Rimini, Italy this year with the Frisbee team!! Awesome, simply awesome!), and as an Athletic Union whole (award evening's, the 'AU' Ball), so they offer a great chance to meet like minded people, and have a laugh!  Also, being part of these clubs can add to your CV in terms of interests, skills and 'Colours' Awards which employers look for to differentiate between Graduate candidates for jobs.  

Your AU is also the best place to find out about local, non university run clubs, as I'm sure you can imagine there are a whole host of other clubs leagues and competitions out there in Brum!

If you do fancy getting away from Uni for a while, there are plenty of other ways to keep active.  For example, swinging a driver is your thing, there is nearby Harborne golf club (www.harbornegolfclub.org.uk), or Edgbaston golf Club (www.edgbastongc.co.uk).  If it's a bit wet, and you don't fancy the course, at the end of the Birmingham's  main bar strip, Broad Street, there is an area called Broadway Plaza, where you can pop into Living Golf (www.livinggolf.co.uk), and hit a round indoors!  They have a state of the art set up which allows you to play on some of the best courses in the world with the fanciest set of Irons going, all from the comfort of your contemporary booth...with a beer!!  - If you check out the student beans website mentioned earlier, you get to try Living Golf for a fiver, bargain!

Perhaps you like a nice sociable game of bowling?  Yes?  With cheap student offers for bowling and Quasar games, heading to Star City near Erdington, or the Bowlplex at Broadway Plaza can be a great day out on a budget, and I promise you that if you take a camera you will bring back some very funny pictures....(we have had naked bowling, and a host of other shameful games!)

The best bit about the stuff you can get involved with in Birmingham is that it is near limitless there is so much more that I couldn't possibly hope to cover it all!

But you get the point there's lots you can do to stay active!  And from personal experience, I can tell you that you need to stay active to stay healthy at Uni in the midst of all the alcohol and take-aways to make lectures, and not become a tank, and generally to stay firmly planted on the mortal coil!

Oh, and when you do go for a drink, don't be like the me of 1st year 1st term: don't sit at the bar, or plonk yourself on a sofa and grow a gut!  Go somewhere you can have a dance, you'll be loving it, active, getting some great memories (and some Baaaad photos), and who knows, you might even pull fitty!...Much better than an hour on a static bike!

Places to go throw some shapes covered next time!...maybe...If someone else hasn't covered this off!

Now, shouldn't you be tidying your room?!  Aren't Gran and Auntie Pam coming soon?!!

See you next time!

GC

p.s for those of you that are interested in I shed my 1.5 stone beer keg, yes Happily, the Birmingham activity set up worked for me, I am now rippling six pack man...hmm, ish..!!
..Maybe its time to try out for the footy team again..... No? Ok, or maybe not..!