I swore to myself over winter vacation that as soon as school was back in session, I would resume my workout routine. Though I was cut off from the Sanderson Center during my vacation, I would return to the gym just as soon as I was settled back in the routine of my new classes. My studies began, and I was easily assimilated back into college life. My workout routine, however, was not as quick to find its way back into my day-to-day routine. I gave myself the first week back to school off from any type of physical exercise – for the sake of classes, of course! Then the next week came, “Just one more week off.”
The following weeks were marred with school work and an ocean of good excuses for not visiting the Sanderson Center: readings for English Lit., writing assignments for Marriage and Family, counting the tiles on the kitchen floor, etc. What little evidence I had showing that I had ever stepped inside the Sanderson Center slowly deteriorated, and I became not only pale from the long winter, but doughy and physically unkempt as well. I stopped making the ridiculous oaths to myself and succumbed to complete hedonism known so well throughout college life.
This self-proclaimed hedonism came to its zenith during Spring Break. Though I worked every day, this did not stop me from spending the other 19 hours of the day eating honey buns and watching Tom and Jerry. Though hedonism is a terrific way to live, cake becomes too sweet if you have it for breakfast and dinner.
I came back from Spring Break determined to take better care of myself physically, which in turn, I hoped, would ripple into the other spheres of my life. Somehow the idea of swimming jumped to the front of the line of exercise options, so I purchased a bathing suit, grabbed a towel and headed to the Sanderson Center. From the first moment my feet touched the wet lime green tiles of the natatorium, I was in absolute rapture. Hardly anyone was there. This mammoth of a room was completely empty save for Caribbean-blue chlorine water and a lifeguard or two. I stepped to edge of the swimming pool and dove in. Forty-five minutes of cool, refreshing exercise followed. Needless to say, this was my first but certainly not last visit to the Sanderson Center Natatorium.
After a few weeks of dedicated swimming, I began to notice something strange – the sport that I enjoyed greatly was enjoyed by very few others on campus. At night, I saw few swimmers other than myself. Of course, the Starkville Shockwaves, the Starkvile club team, used the pool and other teams as well, but outside the realm of organized sports, a microscopic minority of MSU students actually using the swimming pool. This came as somewhat of a shock after seeing the firsthand benefits of swimming. Not only was I exercising and gaining the massive benefits from that alone, but I was also enjoying what swimming alone holds over all other sports offered at the Sanderson Center: water! The pool water works as a type of ultra-stress reliever, a chlorine morphine of sorts. Every time my body dips below the surface, I leave a world of oxygen and problems behind. Completely submerged in in a sea of lukewarm solitude and stillness, everything from the schoolday bubbles to the surface of the water and pops.
I skimmed over to CNN’s Web site and found an article on the benefits of swimming,.The writer said, “I’ve always found the main benefits of swimming to be psychological. Whilst underwater, you are away from all the noise and distraction of life on land.” On the physical benefits of swimming, the author said, “Swimming works your whole body, improving cardiovascular conditioning, muscle, strength, endurance, posture, and flexibility all at the same time.”
One of Mississippi State University’s own, Corey Holt, a chemical engineering major and former member of Shockwaves, said, “I swim because it’s an amazingly effective exercise. You can’t get a better workout. It’s also a low impact sport so you don’t have to worry about injuring yourself like in other sports.”
From my own experience with the sport, I can testify to the amazing benefits this sport gives back to you. Churning through the water and skimming the surface of the pool is as relaxing as it is physically rewarding, and it washes away the stress college life can place on you. Pulling yourself forward, weightless and empty, with nothing but a line of buoys on either side of you and a row of blue porcelain tiles below you to guide you frees the mind. So, grab your swimsuit, goggles, and a fresh towel and make a trip to the Sanderson Center Natatorium. I promise you will not be disappointed with the mental and physical effects that swimming will produce for you!
Joshua Bryant is a freshman majoring in political science. He can be contacted at [email protected].