At Tech, we strive to develop students with superior minds and cognitive ability. Students who, after four or more years of challenging educational rigor, are mentally prepared for any challenge they may face throughout life. Yet, for all of the intellectual training that we undergo, we lack the same drive for a different and just as important type of conditioning: physical fitness.
Ultimately, living a healthier lifestyle is something that falls upon the individual.
There are a number of factors that contribute to this problem. For some, finding the time to go to the gym or join a sports club doesn’t exist. Tech takes up too much of their time to allow for a mental escape into a physically active world. For others, trouble finding alternate forms of exercise or healthy nutrition present a challenge. Tech must not neglect these challenges that many students face for the sole aspect of academic success.
Besides staying healthy, physical fitness provides a major outlet for students to blow off the steam from numerous stresses that come with the daily grind of Tech life.
There are a number of ways to encourage this kind of physical involvement from the student body. Tech must focus on giving the student body an excuse for staying healthy, whether it is through the inclusion of an option for choosing a physical education class over the current introduction to health classes or through the chance for students to get active through alternative means such as Dance Dance Revolution and Wii Fit. This effort must extend to dining services. Tech does a great job providing the nutritional tools for students to be healthy, but they must be more vocal in order to compete with the ease and attraction that come with on campus restaurants such as Taco Bell and Chick-fil-a.
Ultimately, living a healthier lifestyle is something that falls upon the individual. Tech cannot force any one student to become more physically active because we share the responsibility of shaping not just our minds, but also our bodies.