Being back on campus, it can be difficult for students to balance taking care of their health and their studies. Therefore, PDBY has come up with ways for students to optimise their time on campus and burn off those calories while doing so. Thuto-Stairs At Thuto, everyone can do the following exercise: Climb up to the top of the stairs and come back down. It may seem pointless on paper but a study by Jerry M. Burger and Martin Shelton found that when more people use the stairs, others will follow. They did a study on university students and how taking the stairs had a positive impact on them both mentally and physically. If you already have classes at Thuto, PDBY recommends that you take the stairs instead of the elevator. Walk/Run trail There is a trail on the Hatfield Campus, marked by footprints in different colours on the ground. These footprints are coloured differently according to the PDBY article Tuks fitness guide: Avoid first-year spread. The red prints are the 3.8 km trail, the blue ones are 2.3 km, and the yellow ones are 2.1 km. This is an exercise that can only be done during your break because it requires following the different trails around campus and this might take some time. Aula grass The one thing that many students missed on campus during lockdown was the Aula grass. A lush bed of green grass that one can sit on and enjoy their lunch. Most people sit on the outskirts of the Aula grass as the large middle area is exposed to the infamous Pretoria un. This opens a space for students who want to play around and get their bodies moving in between their breaks. Furthermore, it is a great way to meet new people and to get to know them. Food The Piazza is a great place to get food because it has a few restaurants conveniently placed near each other. However, The Piazza being in the centre of campus limits the distance students have to walk to get to it. While this is great for convenience, it is not so great for getting your steps in. Maybe once or twice a week, just to increase the amount of steps a student walks on campus, try some places that are a little further off. Good examples that are still on campus are the second Vida E Caffe that is situated by the Visual Arts building, which you can walk to from Thuto for that maximum distance. The other is
10zzz’s which is near the Akanyang building. If you are by the Engineering building this is also a long but beneficial distance to walk. PDBY urges students to try one of these activities, even if it is for one day, just to see how different their mind and body feels when thye are not just sitting in one spot everyday and moving from class to class mindlessly.
