Go with the flow
CampusSport is the sports service for students and staff at UTU. You have to be a member to participate, but students can sign up for €75 per year, making it much more friendly towards a student budget than a private gym membership (which typically start from €20 per month in Turku). There are five gyms and four sports halls across the city, so there are no excuses not to get involved!
Since signing up to CampusSport I’ve mainly been playing futsal on Friday evenings and hitting the gym with Kristaps (blog coming soon!). However, there is a full weekly schedule of different sports, exercise classes and other group activities. I’ve always wanted to try these out, but was too afraid to go on my own… Therefore, I persuaded the other bloggers to keep me company.
It took us a while to find a class we were all interested in (I had to veto Zumba. Several times.). Eventually we settled on ‘Flow Harmony’ – described as “a body and mind class that helps in concentration and relaxation”. As I’ve been quite stressed with impending essay deadlines recently, this sounded like the class for me. I don’t have much experience with either yoga or Pilates, so I was hoping for some light stretching and a bit of meditation (i.e. lying down on the floor as much as possible).
CampusSport class ‘Flow Harmony’
The class started at 19:00, and this being Finland it really does mean 19:00. Kristaps & I casually sauntered into the sports hall at 18:59, everyone else was already in position and looking at us disappointedly… So my first recommendation is to arrive at least five minutes early! My second recommendation is to try and learn some basic Finnish terms, such as the names for body parts. The instructor did repeat some instructions in English, but often I had to look over to check what she was doing, which can be quite difficult when you are meant to be in the ‘downward dog’ position.
Flow Harmony was actually a lot more intense than I was expecting. However, that probably says more about my lack of flexibility than the class itself. My final piece of advice is to warm up a little first. My hamstrings were definitely not prepared to stretch that far, and I’m sure I felt my shoulder pop out towards the end. Still, the class was fun and did take my mind off my assignments!
I don’t think I’ll be attending Flow Harmony every wee. However, it was nice to try something new and I’m excited to experience more from CampusSport. Are you interested in signing up?
Last update 8 August 2022
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