Fitness

How to get your fitness fix without leaving campus

Published

1 year ago

August 1, 2024

How to get your fitness fix without leaving campus

The Recreation and Physical Activity Center, or RPAC, is located at 337 Annie and John Glenn Ave, next to Ohio Stadium. Credit: Samantha Harden | Arts and Life Editor

Among an endless sea of worries for first-year students, concerns about staying active can get lost in the shuffle.

At first glance, it can feel intimidating to walk around campus, searching for the perfect spot to lift weights or go for a run. Fortunately, several on-campus fitness resources can help students stay in shape in almost any way they choose.

Here’s an in-depth look at some of the physical wellness resources Ohio State provides.

Carmen Swain, a clinical associate professor in the College of Education and Human Ecology, said while Ohio State possesses various fitness-oriented facilities, the Recreation and Physical Activity Center — or RPAC — is the main hub.

“We have amazing machine weights,” Swain said. “We also have amazing free weights. You can run the indoor track, you can swim. We have a leisure pool, we have a hot tub, we have a sauna, we have golf simulators.”

Swain said the RPAC also houses many sports courts, from basketball to racquetball to squash.

Though the RPAC is the epicenter of on-campus fitness equipment, Swain said branch gyms have been built across campus to complement its core presence.

Rick Petosa, a professor of kinesiology in the Department of Health Sciences, said these branch gyms — such as the North Recreation Center , Jesse Owens North and Jesse Owens South — have become extremely popular with students despite not being as sprawling as the RPAC. This is because they afford a greater level of privacy, he said.

“RPAC is a very open space,” Petosa said. “And so the weight room, for example, it’s a very large number of square feet, [a] large number of people in there. And some people don’t like to be watched or the fear of being recorded, and so the [branches] of the RPAC are really handy in that regard.”

Swain said another reason students love the branch facilities is simple: convenience.

“People like the satellites because of the ease of access,” Swain said. “I can exercise right when I wake up at a location right by where I live.”

Most of the branch gyms can be found in campus’ North and South areas, but the Adventure Recreation Center — or ARC — is a major facility found in the Western portion of campus, Swain said.

Swain said the ARC provides a somewhat alternative fitness experience, with its turf fields and a rock-climbing wall being among the main offerings.

Aside from gym spaces, Petosa and Swain both said joining a team of time kind, whether at the intramural or club levels, is a great way to establish one’s fitness endeavors at Ohio State.

“Campus Rec offers an extensive range of intramural programs so people can join team sports and other things,” Petosa said. “Football leagues, baseball and just about anything, and so the idea is that exercise for a lot of people is a social activity. Intramural sports offer the opportunity to play with your friends and make new friends.”

Swain also said a wide range of group fitness classes are offered at different facilities across campus on a weekly basis.

“There’s always yoga or pilates — or spinning got really hot for a while — and so they flux depending upon what’s hot right now,” Swain said. “You can just sign up for these classes, and oftentimes they can be free or minimal cost to students.”

Swain said she believes group fitness classes offer students a congenial atmosphere and prime opportunities to make new friends.

“There’s low judgment, anybody can sign up and it’s like, come try a new thing and see if you like it,” Swain said.

Students looking to incorporate fitness directly into their course schedules can do so via the Sport Health and Fitness Program, Petosa said.

“Students can formally enroll, and it covers a whole range of physical activity programs,” Petosa said. “It’s great if someone wants to learn something new about a new sport. If they want to learn about tennis, for example, they’ll get formal [training]. And if they want to learn details about diet and exercise training, they can learn it in those classes as well.”

For students seeking out an easygoing, accessible fitness experience that leads them off-campus, Petosa said the Olentangy River Trail is just the place for them.

“The bike trail goes right along the river, right through campus and then goes right downtown to the bars and goes north of town,” Petosa said.

Overall, Petosa and Swain said Ohio State offers vivid, personalized fitness options for almost every type of Buckeye. They said students should do their best to integrate fitness into their daily lifestyles, especially considering college’s innate stressors.

“We’re looking out for students, and we give students lots of opportunities to be physically active so that it can help promote their physical and mental health so that they have a good time while they’re on campus, but also just helping them to shape their future lives,” Swain said.

For more information regarding fitness on-campus, visit the Office of Student Life’s Recreational Sports website.

This story was updated July 31 at 10:05 p.m. to correct the misspelling of a source’s name in its corresponding print edition, Buckeye Bound 2024.

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Fitness

King Charles reveals his unusually rigorous exercise regime at 77

Published

18 minutes ago

November 15, 2025

Press Room

King Charles reveals his unusually rigorous exercise regime at 77

King Charles III celebrated his 77th birthday on Friday, 14 November by carrying out a series of engagements in South Wales, refusing to be put off by the chaotic rain of Storm Claudia, much like his niece, Zara Tindall, over in Cheltenham. Alongside his wife, Queen Camilla, he kicked off the day at Cyfarthfa Castle in Merthyr Tydfil, one of the most significant buildings in the country that also celebrated its 200th anniversary this year. During his visit, he had a conversation with people working their patronages, including The King’s Trust and Royal Osteoporosis Society, sharing with the public an insight into how he manages to keep fit at 77.

The King spoke to various Welsh celebrities and media personalities, including TikTok creator Lewis Leigh, Gavin and Stacey star Ruth Jones, and Liam Reardon, the reality TV star who shot to fame after winning the 2021 series of ITV’s hit dating programme Love Island. In conversation with Liam, he revealed his rigorous fitness routine.

Queen Camilla and King Charles wave as they depart from a visit to Cyfarthfa Castle

Speaking to the father of Prince William and Prince Harry, Liam said: “I’m opening a gym next week, so if you ever fancy a little session, let me know, we’ll have a session together.” In response, the King laughed and said: “I try to do my exercise… twice a day.”

Later talking about the interaction, the Love Island winner said: “He mentioned going to the gym… He said, ‘You’re opening a gym are you?’ I said, ‘Yeah. Look, if you’re ever in the area again and you fancy a session, I’ll put you through your paces’… He said, ‘Oh yeah, I’d love to’. I said, ‘You look fit anyway’, he said, ‘I train twice a day’, I said, ‘I can tell’.”

Recommended videoYou may also likeWATCH: King Charles’ health over the years

At his age, and with such a busy schedule, getting in two workouts a day is quite the task, but for someone who is constantly out and about, as well as a continuously public-facing figurehead of the country, it’s especially vital that he is physically and mentally fit enough to handle the image side of his responsibilities.

The King’s birthday celebrations in the Castle

At the community reception, there were also representatives from the King and Queen’s respective patronages, as well as local businesses such as Coco’s Coffee and Candles, and Enaid Wellness. People from the King’s Trust, Royal Osteoporosis Society, and domestic violence charity Safer Merthyr Tydfil were also present.

King Charles was then presented with a coin to mark the Trust’s upcoming 50th anniversary next year, which was designed by King’s Trust alumna Jessica Gregorio and produced at the Royal Mint in Llantrisant.

The guests then sang happy birthday to the King before he cut his cake, which was a replica of Cyfarthfa Castle made out of a vanilla sponge with jam and buttercream. After the celebration, King Charles left to officially open the South Wales Metro Depot in Taff’s Well, just outside of Cardiff, while the Queen visited Cyfarthfa Primary School in Merthyr Tydfil to mark World Poetry Day.

Fitness

Does life have to be a never-ending workout?

Published

18 hours ago

November 14, 2025

Press Room

The claims: The midlife woman’s new accessory, weighted vests are promoted as a muscle-building, bone-boosting, fat-loss life hack. Wear it around the house, while exercising or walking, they say, to get stronger and fitter and to improve your bone health.

Fitness

Back or Knee Pain? Uh-Oh, You May Have ‘Dead Butt Syndrome’

Published

2 days ago

November 14, 2025

Press Room

Back or Knee Pain? Uh-Oh, You May Have ‘Dead Butt Syndrome’

Nov. 13, 2025 – You won’t find any support groups for dead butt syndrome, aka gluteal amnesia, sleepy glutes, flabby butt, longback, or, for King of the Hill fans, diminished gluteal syndrome.

“They all mean sort of the same thing: weak gluteal muscles,” said Dean Somerset, a clinical exercise physiologist based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and co-author of Rock Solid Resilience.

If you guessed that small, weak, and poorly functioning glutes are often the result of too much sitting and too little exercise, you wouldn’t be wrong, according to Somerset.

Meanwhile, Los Angeles-based physical therapist Chad Waterbury, DPT, has seen it in healthy, fit, active clients, including a few professional athletes. “When we do exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges, it’s very easy for other muscles to do the work you want the glutes to do,” Waterbury said

In both populations, the glutes stop doing what they should, and that can lead to serious problems up and down the movement chain.

If misfiring glutes force the lower-back muscles to take on loads they’re not meant to handle, the result can be years of back pain. And if the glutes fail to perform their stabilizing role in exercise and sports, you could be looking at chronically sore knees, or perhaps even an ACL injury.

That means the Venn diagram of dead butt sufferers includes people who sit a lot, active people, those with back pain, and those with knee pain. All those people, all that overlap, all those butts.

Is your butt among them?

Putting a Name to the Pain

Stuart McGill, PhD, coined the term “gluteal amnesia” to describe what happens when pain causes people to change how they move.

“In people with longer-term pain, the pattern of nerve pulses distributed to the muscles can become corrupted,” he explained. “The pain kicks off an inhibition pathway, so the brain finds a different way to do the same basic thing.”

That, in turn, changes the way muscles like the hamstrings contribute to the movement.

“But even when the pain has gone away, the brain often remembers the painful pattern,” McGill said. Which means it also forgets how to use the muscles appropriately and efficiently.

McGill, a distinguished professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo and author of Back Mechanic, showed how the process works in a 2013 study. In that paper, he and his co-authors used “gluteal amnesia” and “gluteal inhibition” interchangeably.

The latter term is probably more appropriate, given that some people hear the former and think it implies gluteal dementia, as if the misplaced movement patterns can never be restored.

Fortunately for the gluteally deficient among us, they can. Just not in the way most of us would assume.

Hips, Femur, Knees, and Woes

While McGill was teasing out the connection between gluteal amnesia and back pain, Christopher Powers, PT, PhD, was looking at how abnormal glute activation patterns could lead to knee problems.

“The gluteal muscles control the femur,” he explained. “The femur’s half the knee joint. So by definition, the gluteal muscles control half the knee.”

Powers is associate chair of the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California, where he studies the root causes of the lower-body injuries. And he addresses a lot of them with the athletes and patients he sees at the Movement Performance Institute in Los Angeles, which he founded and owns.

His research has shown that a key function of the gluteal muscles is to prevent the femur from rolling inward during sports, exercise, or everyday physical activities.

“Once you stop using the muscle, the brain kind of forgets about it,” Powers said. “You lose the neural connectivity.”

And if the brain forgets how to stabilize the femur, just about anything you do, from walking to landing after a jump, will put stress on your knee joints.

How to Know if Your Butt is Dead or Dying

Remember, given that sedentary and active people have this issue, aside from chronic knee or back pain, you may not be able to tell if your glutes are firing properly or improperly.

Waterbury recommends this self-test: the single-leg glute bridge.

Lie on your back with one leg lifted out straight and the other leg bent at a 45-degree angle with the foot flat on the floor. Your thighs should be parallel. Raise your butt so your thighs and torso form a straight line.

Hold that position for 20 seconds (or as long as you can up to 20), while paying close attention to which muscles you feel are working the hardest. Lower your hips and repeat with the other leg.

If you felt the strongest contraction in your hamstrings or lower back, instead of your glutes, you need to improve your gluteal activation. Also, muscle imbalances are common, so it’s also not unusual for you to feel weaker in one glute or the other.

Two of Powers’s studies offer encouraging news for those whose glutes have lost their way.

The first, published in 2016, found that a week of glute-activation exercises increased neural drive to the muscles.

A follow-up, published in 2022, found that the same exercise protocol made the muscles more able to stabilize the femur.

So let’s take a look at the program.

Wake Up, Dead Butt

Powers’s program includes just three exercises, all of which may look familiar: clamshell, side-lying hip abduction, and fire hydrant.

Even if you haven’t used the exercises in your own routines, you’ve probably seen other people doing variations of them.

Here’s the catch: To do the program correctly, you have to forget what you’ve done or seen.

Instead of doing sets and reps, you’ll hold each position for up to a minute at a time. And you’ll need to do the program almost every day.

“When you do reps – up and down, up and down – the focus tends to be on the movement,” Powers said. Isometric holds like these require something else: intense concentration on squeezing the muscle in one continuous position.

That extended muscle activation allows the brain to reopen its channels of communication. If you follow the isometric holds with exercises that use the glutes, like squats or step-ups, you reinforce those neural signals.

To get the most out of the exercises, you’ll want to use a miniband positioned around your thighs, just above your knees. When you can hold a position for a full minute, use a more challenging band the next time.

Here’s a closer look at each exercise.

Clamshell

Lie on your side with your legs together and your hips and knees bent 45 degrees.

Lift your top knee straight up while keeping your feet in contact with each other.

Feel the squeeze in your glutes and hold for up to a minute. Switch sides and repeat.

Side-Lying Hip Abduction

Lie on your side with your top leg straight and bottom leg bent at the knee about 45 degrees.

Lift your top leg up and slightly back.

Feel the squeeze in your glutes and hold for up to a minute. Switch sides and repeat.

Fire Hydrant

To Powers, the fire hydrant is the best of the activation exercises. “If I were to pick one, I’d take it over the other two,” he said.

But it’s also the trickiest one to get right, since you’re asking your glutes to perform three functions, as you’ll see:

Kneel on all fours with your hips parallel to the floor and your hands shoulder-width apart.

Without shifting your hips, lift one leg up (hip abduction) and back (hip extension). Position your thigh so it’s neither perpendicular to your torso (straight out to the side) nor aligned with it (straight back), but instead about halfway between those two points. (It’s called “fire hydrant” because you’re mimicking a dog doing what a dog does to a fire hydrant.)

Now turn your thigh outward (external rotation) until you feel tension in the band.

The goal isn’t to achieve any particular range of motion. It’s to reach a position you can hold while keeping your hips level with the floor.

Hold for up to a minute, switch sides, and repeat.

Restoring Your Seat of Power

People in Powers’s studies did three isometric holds of each exercise, with each leg, twice a day for seven consecutive days.

But Waterbury, who studied under Powers at USC, uses a streamlined version of the program with clients, athletes, and patients.

Start with these exercises:

Clamshell, 30 seconds per side
Side-lying hip abduction, 30 seconds per side
Fire hydrant, 30 seconds per side

Do the exercises six days a week for four weeks, either on their own or as part of a warmup before a workout. “That’s plenty to get the glutes activated,” Waterbury said.

After four weeks, do the exercises three times a week, preferably before a strength workout that includes squats, deadlifts, lunges, or other movements that use your glutes in coordinated action with other lower-body muscles.

You can also do more advanced versions of the exercises, as Waterbury demonstrated in this video.

What matters most, he emphasized, is that you make these isometric holds a permanent part of your fitness routine.

“Too many things we do throughout the day make your glutes want to shut down again,” he said.

Ultimately – and this is pretty good life wisdom – it’s a lot easier to keep your butt alive and well than it is to bring it back from the dead.