Trends Keeping Students Active

Paige Hess | The Harbinger Online

Fusion Fitness is known by its members as Kansas City’s ultimate body changing workout, offering up to 30 classes each week. This is due to its unique style of exercises incorporating cardio, ballet and strength training. Fusion’s classes are totally different from traditional exercise classes, which focus on building major muscle groups. Instead, the instructors focus on strengthening all the  muscles in the body and incorporate ballet moves with weights, medicine balls, etc.

“Everything comes back to your core,” Fusion member sophomore Maddie Hise said. “You switch from arms to legs but all of it kind of has to do with your core, which they work a lot.”

Fusion has been successful due to the reputation it upholds as the most challenging fitness classes in the Midwest. According to Hise, her body is in complete shock after each class and can hardly move the morning after.

“The next mornings, my whole body is shaking,” Hise said. “I can’t walk up stairs without breaking a sweat. I feel really accomplished after, because I worked so hard and everyone in the class is pushing themselves as hard as they can.”

Fusion’s bright lights, bumpin’ tunes and energetic instructors create the ultimate exercise atmosphere. This atmosphere has been brought to their videos as well.

“For spring break they made DVDs so you can work out while on vacation,” Hise said. “It is still really hard, and you feel like you are in the class with the really loud music and instructors pushing you.”

Paige Hess | The Harbinger Online

Instead of lugging around a heavy bag of clubs, junior Michael Mansfield and his friends have decided to try a more laid-back version of golf: disc golf. This sport is similar to regular golf because the object is to complete each hole in the fewest number of strokes, but in this case, throws.

“My favorite part is that you don’t have to be that good to play,” Mansfield said. “Basically anyone could be pretty good at it. Just keep going back to the park and playing more.”

There are two main courses in the Kansas City area that participants may go to: Rosedale Park and Wyandotte County Park.

The trees, shrubs and terrain change with each hole. The fairways provide challenging obstacles for the golfer. A disc is thrown from a tee area to a target which is the “hole.” For junior Sarah Colburn, this was a difficult sport to adjust to.

“I played it at camp for the first time,” Colburn said. “It was really hard to get the discs to go straight. They aren’t normal frisbees, so it was hard to get used to and not hit trees.”

Disc golf shares the same joys and frustrations of traditional golf, whether it’s sinking a long putt or hitting a tree halfway down the fairway. Although there are also 18 holes, there are few differences. Disc golf rarely requires a greens fee, you probably won’t need to rent a cart, and you never get stuck with a bad “tee time.” It is designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages.

“I think it would be fun to be on a team,” Mansfield said, “but it is more of just hanging out right now.”