Half Acre is a state-of-the-art facility on the University of Wyoming campus. It offers a wide variety of activities and classes to help the UW community meet its fitness goals.
As students roll through the halls, still full from the Turkey Day feast, fears of weight gain may start creeping in. For those worried about what this holiday season might do to their waistline, Half Acre has a staff that is ready and willing to help.
While Half Acre is gearing up for major renovations and the remodel that will begin in the summer of 2013, it is already a state-of-the-art fitness facility. It offers a variety of fitness and recreational activities and trained staff to help the University of Wyoming community reach its fitness goals.
Students pay for access to the facility in their student fees at the beginning of each semester. Those fees also pay for two free sessions with a personal trainer, spokesperson for Half Acre, Jason Simmer said.
Students can use one session to talk to a trainer and discuss their fitness goals and how to achieve them, group fitness graduate assistant and personal trainer Jenny Shufelt said. In the second session the trainer explains how to properly use the equipment and can help set up a basic program the student can do on their own.
Setting up a personal training session is easy, Shufelt said. There is a link on the campus recreation website where students, staff, and faculty can request a trainer, or the front desk staff has paper request forms.
“Most of the trainers are kinesiology majors and nationally certified,” Shufelt said. They go through a five-to-six month training program to earn their national certification, which Shufelt said is typical of any trainer. They also do in-house shadowing at Half Acre for a semester as part of their training.
Half Acre offers different fitness opportunities for people who are not interested in lifting weights or using cardio equipment. There are numerous group activities and classes available that are taught by UW students certified with the American Council on Exercise. Training for the ACE Group Fitness Instructor exam usually takes four to six months, Shufelt said.
In addition to the ACE training, students may wish to specialize in a particular activity, which requires separate training and instruction, Shufelt said.
“Students typically teach about two or three classes per week,” Shufelt said, “and also have opportunities to do various outreach events on campus.”
For more information about the programs offered at Half Acre or to sign up for any of the activities and programs offered through campus recreation, go to www.uwyo.edu/rec.
