Get your money’s worth
Making use of what you already pay for this semester
As we continue to thrive in a world where being active has many definitions, the University of Regina’s (U of R) Fitness and Lifestyle Centre (FLC) offers many ways to stay active.
The U of R’s pool and gym facilities support the health and fitness of students’ lives, contributing to a holistic education. Included in the tuition fee, U of R students pay a Sports and Recreation Fee every Fall semester, giving them access to these services as members. The FLC, more commonly referred to as “the gym,” is located on the second floor of the Centre for Kinesiology, Health & Sport building, above Gym 3.
Delving deeper into the services and the experience of staff and students, we spoke to Jessica Yang, a 3rd-year K-5 Education student. She shared her insights from working at the gym as an FLC desk assistant.
“What we do is facilitate the gym, [and] be here for anyone who has questions. We are also supposed to walk around and observe, [and] make sure that if anyone has any questions, we are there to answer them. […] We also, at the desk, scan cards [Student IDs] so that they can get in the gym,” said Yang. Besides this, desk assistants are also responsible for picking up equipment that is lying around on the floor so that it looks nice and tidy for everyone who works out at the gym.
“The time that is the busiest is probably from 11:30 [a.m.] to 1:30 [p.m.], so kind of like the lunch-hour period, and then it also gets super busy around 5 o’clock,” Yang continued, noting that the gym is then busy until around 7 p.m. Yang has used the fitness center since her first year, and said that the busy hours in the gym are “pretty consistent.”
Besides the gym, where the school’s equipment and workout machines are, Yang talked about Gym 1 & 2’s “open gym times.” Yang said, “When they are not booked [by the university], you can go there. Again, you have to bring your student ID card, […] scan that and you can book it and play basketball, badminton.” This is yet another option for students to make the most of the sports and recreation fees that students pay while they study with the U of R.
In the gym itself, there is a variety of equipment members are free to use. “There is a whole range,” Yang said, “There is equipment if you want to work out your legs or arms. […] There are treadmills if you want to run, [a] leg press if you want to do legs.” Yang also said that the gym has many dumbbells and kettlebells, as well as many machines that have instruction stickers to help new users.
New users may find the gym intimidating if there are a lot of people and they are not used to using public gym services. “Honestly, don’t be nervous. There are so many people in here [and] there are so many exercises that you can try. […] You can just do basics with kettlebells [and] dumbbells.” Yang suggested. “I know it is kind of scary sometimes. There are so many people and it’s kind of a big facility.”
Yang’s advice was that “it’s easy to get used to [going to the gym], so just try it out. Give it a go. If you don’t like it, there are other things you could do.” While the gym can feel intimidating with everyone focused on their routines, Yang mentioned that there is always support around and it is always okay if your workout doesn’t work out the way you intended it to.
“You can book a trainer for the first time you work out,” Yang continued. “Send an email to flc.trainers@uregina.ca, and it’s free. You receive [a] fitness assessment, fitness program, and assistance for one week.”
Given the variety of support and assistance from the gym, non-staff students also have had positive experiences. Akshat Sharma, in the first year of his thesis-based Master’s of Computer Science, said, “To be very honest, I haven’t seen many problems with the gym. If there is a machine that gets broken down or something, it’s fixed the very next day. […] Services are really good.”
Sharma has had a variety of experiences with the Fitness and Lifestyle Centre’s facilities. “So, for the Fitness and Lifestyle Centre, you are basically paying for the gym as well as the swimming pool. So, you can use the swimming pool, do some cardio over there, get to the sauna, [and] burn some calories. That is all included in the fees that you are paying,” Sharma explained.
“To be honest, it’s not really crowded over there [in the gym. …] I come from India and I find gyms really crowded over there. So, seeing one-fifth of the people over here and people still thinking that it is crowded, I do not think that is a problem for me,” said Sharma.
To improve the gym facilities, Sharma said, “I do not have a lot of changes [they could] do. They can add a few more machines.” However, Sharma suggested that the pool could have life tubes for non-swimming students to use to swim in the deeper side of the pool without worry. The CKHS pool is an indoor pool staffed by certified lifeguards. Sharma mentioned that since it is an indoor pool with supervising lifeguards on deck, swimmers can feel reassured about their safety while swimming.
Students have had primarily positive experiences with the facilities provided by the Fitness and Lifestyle Centre at the University of Regina. Opportunities to make use of the included tuition fee are not just limited to using equipment at the gym but also booking the CKHS Gym 1 & 2 spaces to spend some time with friends doing indoor activities like badminton, basketball, volleyball, and more. Make use of the university facilities to stay active and justify that included fee in your tuition.
