The myth. The legend. The freshmen 15.
With unlimited dining hall food, stress, and those waffles on Saturday mornings, the dreaded added weight is almost inevitable to come. Personally, for me, it came full force and I found it hard to maintain a healthy lifestyle in my time-packed schedule. As a collegiette, it can be hard to stay healthy with such a busy lifestyle, and finding time within a busy day to workout can seem impossible.
CHAARG, which stands for Changing Health Attitudes and Actions to Recreate Girls, is a health and fitness organization aimed at liberating girls from the elliptical. Showing girls everywhere that fitness can and should be fun! CHAARG aims to help all women in college ‘find their fit’ with working out and learning how to live healthy and positive lifestyles.
Sarah Clem, the Director of Expansion for CHAARG explains how the group got it beginning, “CHAARG began as a student group at the Ohio State University in 2012 by Elisabeth Tavierne while she was an undergraduate student and saw a divide within the rec center on OSU’s campus — girls on the cardio machines and boys in the weight room. She wanted to break this divide and empower women to try other things than just the elliptical.”
“The club soon grew to 300+ members, and other girls at universities began reaching to start CHAARG chapters at their university [including myself when I was an undergrad student at the University of Cincinnati]! I was able to meet up with Elisabeth and tell her why I wanted to start a CHAARG chapter at my school and we decided to go for it. Now, we are at 24 universities across the nation and still growing!”
One of the main goals for CHAARG is for collegiate women to “find their fit.” Clem explained, “We know that not everyone loves to do the same thing — not everyone loves running or weight lifting or Zumba or boxing, but we want to help girls explore those options and learn what workouts they DO love! We want girls to know that there are thousands of different ways to sweat and that there is bound to be a workout that they actually enjoy doing!”
After hearing all about CHAARG, you are probably wondering how to get involved. Lucky for you, CHAARG is hoping to grace George Mason’s Campus!
Rachel Baker, a freshman at George Mason, gave her insight to the struggle of living healthy within her first couple months on campus, “’Anytime dining’ allows students to eat literally whatever they want, whenever they want. And with a busy class schedule and different organizations I’m involved in, finding the time to exercise can be very difficult.”
If a CHAARG chapter came to George Mason, it would involve piloxing, Crossfit, Zumba, yoga, aerial silks, barre, and even salsa dancing! Clem said, “I think George Mason is an amazing university and has a lot of women who would be interested in CHAARG, our message, and what we have to offer!” CHAARG is hoping to change the way girl’s view health and fitness, and hope to empower women to make working out fun while getting outside of their comfort zone to explore the gym!
Courtney Sadler, a sophomore at GMU and fitness enthusiast says, “My first year of school, working out served as a way to relieve stress and easy any nerves/emotions I may have had about classes.”
Courtney also offers some advice, “Some advice I would give to freshmen would be to make fitness a social, fun event! Working out doesn’t always shave to be a drag, and having friends around definitely helps keep you motivated!” Sadler truly represents what CHAARG is trying to portray; a fun way to incorporate fitness into a busy, collegiate routine!
If a girl is interested in becoming a CHAARG ambassador and starting a chapter at George Mason she can contact Sarah Clem at chapters@chaarg.com!
Clem went on to elaborate, “I think that the biggest problem college women face is feeling restricted with their workouts. A lot of college women are intimidated to try new things [especially in a gym-setting] and that limits their workouts and makes them become mundane and boring! Fitness is so much more fun when you find what makes you happy and what you have fun doing!”
Maintaining a healthy lifestyle in college can be difficult, but with CHAARG, collegiate women could expect a refreshing way to live a healthy college lifestyle.
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