Student life can be stressful, and staying on top of personal health and fitness can often add to that stress. According to the Post University Blog, staying physically active can help improve academic performance. To get some more expert insight, the Review sat down with Jenessa Curtis, a self-employed personal trainer, to see if she could offer some advice for college students wanting to work on their health.
“Pick one habit to work on once a week. If you take it all on at once you’ll set yourself up for failure,” Coach Jenessa said. Jenessa states that people tend to overwhelm themselves with trying to achieve all of the different aspects of living a healthy life and all of the ways they are lacking in a way that discourages them from even starting a healthy journey. The goal is not perfect health instantly, but rather “getting one percent better every week,” as Jenessa puts it.
“Don’t consume yourself in the big picture. Pick one thing to work on at a time,” Jenessa stated.
According to Jenessa, one of the many diet misunderstandings that people fall for, according to Jenessa, is “If I just eat less, then I’ll burn fat and be more fit.” But Jenessa tells the Review that there’s more to a healthy diet than just calories in and calories out. Coach Jenessa says, “Eating more but more of the right things and having balance in your diet,” is a better approach.
Another often overlooked aspect of health and fitness is working on proper movement form. Jenessa says that it can be easy to want to throw on a large amount of weight to your lifts and just throw it up in the air, but taking the time to work on proper form and movement allows a progression that’s better for your body. “You have to build the foundation from the bottom up. Then you build the strength off of that.” Coach Curtis said.
