Unisport: A place to warm the winter up

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Unisport at the Opening carnival. Photo Veikko Somerpuro / UH.

As a student in University of Helsinki, one can enjoy countless discounts and benefits such as meals, accommodation, transportation, flexible-study opportunities…

However, the one that I have enjoyed most so far, is doing sports. And Unisport is just the place. It offers students wide range of services including group training and gym, individual services, court and gym reservations, courses and ball sport with very favorable prices. But the quality and facility are by no mean discounted. It operates in all campuses thus greatly facilitates the students’ needs. The free Sauna is another big plus.

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An oversized gym-ball is used in fitball class. Photo: Linda Tammisto / UH.

Among all the services, I highly recommend the group training. With less than 100 euros yearly membership fee, students can choose from 39 different fitness classes including different kinds of yoga, dances, steps to fitness, indoor cycling, strength and power training, stretching and body care and so on.  The classes I am most in favor of are BODYCOMBAT and BODYPUMP. They are very intensive and effective trainings.

BODYCOMBAT is an intensive music-driven training programme based on defensive martial arts, with influences from karate, boxing, taekwondo, tai chi and muay thai. Averagely one burns more than 700 calories in the one hour class. BODYPUMP is one of the world most effective muscle-endurance trainings as it challenges all the major muscle groups while you squat, press, lift and curl. One performs 70-100 repetitions per body part totaling up to 800 repetitions in a single workout.

Last winter when I firstly started to take these 2 courses, I was greatly challenged from both body and mind. The class lasted 1 hour but I was already totally exhausted at the first fifteen minutes. It was the combat between body and mind that drove me to the final destination. Every time when I wanted to give up, I saw the passion from the coaches, the tenacity from other classmates, which reinforced my mind. Gradually my body got stronger and stronger. I kept on doing it after one year till this winter and my body is so used to it that once I stop doing sports for 2 or 3 days, I start to feel uncomfortable. That’s how I know that I am deeply in love with these sports and with Unisports.

WMA Qianinter is here; it’s time to go to Unisport to warm it up!

Text: MA Qian “Jane”, international Student Ambassador