Bournemouth University offers sports facilities and activities that cater for all abilities and interests. Whether you opt to purchase a gym membership, attend a fitness class, participate in a social sport, or join their intensive varsity programme (for those who take sport that little bit more seriously), there is something at Sport BU for you!
Being more of a dancer and of late a runner, I always purchase myself a yearly gym membership. You can buy a termly or weekly membership, but the cheapest
option if you know you’ll be attending the gym at least three times a week is the annual membership (around £190). The membership allows access to the gym at any time during its opening hours, with full use of all its equipment. It also includes free use of all fitness classes throughout the week.
I tend to use the gym around 4-5 times a week. I will start my routine on the running machine. These are very easy to use and are all equipped with screens to track your progress, create a running/walking routine and watch some television. What better way to work out! The gym offers other exercise machines, such as bikes, the cross trainer and the hill climber. There are also two workout mats and weight machines located within one section of the gym. Personal trainers and members of staff are always on hand to answer any questions or deal with any queries that you may have.
Sometimes to mix up my exercise routine I attend one of the fitness classes. I cannot possibly list them all, but I can tell you a few of my favourites. If you want to see what else is on offer then follow this link. As a dancer, Zumba has to be one of my all-time favourite fitness classes. I usually attend the class at 5:30pm on a Monday, although other Zumba classes are run on different days. The class mixes the raunchy hip movements of salsa with the energy of a cardio workout to produce a fun full body workout. For those of you whose hips really can’t lie and prefer something a little less ‘dancey,’ I would recommend trim and tone, or pump. And for those who want to stretch and relax a little, Pilates or Yoga would be most suitable.
Although not a massive sport player myself, for those of you who are interested in playing sport at a competitive level, the BU Varsity programme is well worth a research. Varsity trials are held at the beginning of the academic year and the successful receive full training from professional coaches, competing in the British Universities and Colleges Sports competition against 165 universities across England and Wales. For more info on this, visit the SportBU website.
The BU Varsity programme also offers a BU and EXCEL Scholarship for those who ‘excel’ in their field. If this is something you’re interested in, you can find out more here.
Sport BU doesn’t just offer facilities on campus, they also have partnerships with external facilities, such as the Littledown Centre swimming pool, athletics at Kings Park Athletic Stadium and tennis at Bournemouth Gardens. So if you’re becoming part of the Bournemouth University student team as of September, or looking to get so much more out of BU, then why not sign up and make use of some of these amazing facilities and activities that Sport BU has to offer?
By Jessica Alexander
