Walk it Out: Exercise is Medicine Wellness Walks Gets UWG Moving

Every Thursday, students, faculty and staff of UWG can join the Exercise is Medicine (EIM) Wellness Walks that are held at the University Community Center (UCC). For 30 minutes, these one-mile walks are highly encouraged to incorporate physical and social wellness and are appropriate for all fitness levels.

Chrissy Knoll, the Exercise is Medicine on-Campus Coordinator and faculty member in the Health and Community Wellness Degree Program started off the wellness walks as a class project for the students under the Health and Community Wellness program. This class project then became an all-inclusive, collective event that is meant to get students and faculty engaged and active during the day while they are on campus. EIM Wellness walks are an easy way to avoid potential diseases, tiredness and midday slump.         

“As part of the Exercise is Medicine on-Campus program, one of the things that we are required to do is offer opportunities for physical activity”, says Knoll. “A wellness walk is a really good way to do that and enables us to reach a wide audience, a lot of the campus community and it was a program and a service that we thought we could offer everyone on campus.”

The EIM walks allows participants to meet up with their favorite colleagues, professors or even classmates, while also meeting new faces and networking.

“My goal is to make this an event that people look forward to each week and to say, ‘Alright, I get to go outside and meet up with different people on campus and be social while I am active,’” says Knoll. “The main goal is to provide exercise but also have people get the chance to network. With the walk, people can have the social and physical wellness of the walks.”

Exercising can be a challenge while doing it by yourself and the EIM walks make it easier by allowing participants to be social while they walk. Being socially active keeps the mind distracted, allowing participants to forget all about their day-to-day stresses and are actively present in their workouts being just as important as physical wellness.

“We encourage people to find something that allows them to be active during the day,” says Knoll. “The message that we would like to send with the wellness walks is to move throughout the day. Get up and try to incorporate activity and with the wellness walks, it gives everyone a really quick and easy way to do just that.”

            In case of weather restrictions, participants can stay updated by texting @uwgwe to 81010 to stay current with location updates and weather inclinations; an indoor alternative is also available for those walkers that would still like to get active.