Courtesy of Mary Chestang
The Beta Nu chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc. partnered with popular Tallahassee fitness instructor, Splack Williams, for the BN Shape fitness event held at the Hansel E. Tooke Recreational Center on Tuesday.
“We wanted to get the campus to come out and focus on having a better lifestyle and being more physically active,” Sam Burges, the host of the event, said. “We as African-Americans slack and still have high blood pressure and cholesterol, especially being on FAMU’s campus where there’s a lot of fast food restaurants. We wanted something to counteract that.”
This event included snippets of Splack’s common workout routines such as dancing, abdominal exercises, upper-body workouts and more. Each workout segment lasted 5-10 minutes with a one-minute water break.
Kandice Asbury, a fourth-year political science student from Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., said that she is determined to get back in shape.
“Williams contributed greatly to the event,” Asbury said. “It was great to work out with a bunch of females who have a common goal as mine. I’m extremely tired, my thighs are burning, (and) my legs hurt. This was an all-around great event.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, adults need two hours and 30 minutes of exercise each week and managing stress levels will decrease the risk of an unhealthy lifestyle. Splack expounded on the importance of students staying active.
“It’s very important for African-American students to stay active,” Williams said. “I tell all of my company members now if I knew the importance of healthy eating and daily exercise back when I was in college, I would’ve been a whole lot healthier and I wouldn’t have gone day to day with being labeled as obese.”
Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity said that they will be holding several other fitness events to ensure that the students of Florida A&M University stay on the right track to a healthy lifestyle.