Witness the Fitness | Natalie Montanez

March has been dreary and rainy with no sign of Spring. These past weeks have been filled with Nor'easters and I honestly couldn't take it anymore. I longed for the season of flowers, warm weather, and a cool breeze, but all I've gotten is rain. However, to my surprise, there was a small glimmer of hope on Monday in State College. It was about 50℃, the sun was shining, and it felt like Spring was finally here. I decided to take advantage of this small gift from mother nature and go running outside for the first time in months. Picture of Spring from Google After my classes, I jetted home. It was that weird temperature so I opted for leggings and a short-sleeved shirt. I got my headphones and started off on my run across campus. A Picture Childhood's Gate  I had no plan of attack. I didn't know how long I wanted to run or where I wanted to go. So I took a few chances. For the first time, I listened to the Hamilton  soundtrack while running. If you've ...

This week, I decided that I wanted to do something completely out of my comfort zone. Unlike last week, where I focused on the strengthening of my legs and arms, I wanted to find a new way to strengthen my core. I was scrolling through the White Building's fitness class schedule to try and find something that would be challenging, but still fun. I remembered my friend in math class gushing about how much she loved going to pilates once a week. Picture if woman doing pilates from Google Pilates utilizes a person's body weight in order to strengthen the core by doing simple, yet extremely difficult moves. It is performed on a matt and can sometimes take advantage of different equipment, such as a Pilates mat or Pilates ball. I got my best friend Caitlin to try the class with me, and we even booked the class ahead of time. Usually, we will say we are going to a class, but end up napping instead.  When we walked into the class, there was a bunch of women all dresse...

Please raise your hand if you have ever felt personally victimized by your workout . This week, I recruited my girl squad to come to the gym with me and try something new. Squatting . It's when you put a giant bar on your back that's stacked with 100-pound weights on each side and bend down, bearing all the weight on your calves. Picture of Man Squatting from Google RJ and Jed: The Squat Masters Because my friends and I have never squatted before, we recruited two gym regulars to assist us in our squatting endeavors; RJ and Jed. Both guys are very distinct characters. RJ is always doing something to make someone else laugh, while Jed has the voice of an animated Disney character. While at Penn State, they have gotten really serious about working out; they go to the gym almost every day. Matter of fact, RJ and Jed's max squat weights are 250 and 205 pounds respectively. So, I figured they were experienced enough to teach beginners like my group of friends ...