At BYU-Hawaii, it is a general education requirement to take a physical education class, which BYUH students say they think it is important to maintain personal health habits. Coach Anthony Clah, the fitness center coordinator from New Mexico and one of the current instructors of the EXS 177 class, said, “Life is full of challenges: mental, emotional, spiritual, and physical. Someone who keeps themselves in a certain level of physical wellness and well-being is able to handle those stresses in their life and to recover from it. No matter where the stress comes from, it always has an effect on the body. This helps us to manage the other parts of our life easier.”Clah said the purpose of the EXS 177 class is to teach students how to take control of their personal habits. “I want them to learn how to develop those positive healthy habits and fitness principles that they can use the rest of their lives,” he said. “Besides just telling them what to do, we teach them so they can design a program on their own, and perhaps even help someone else along the way.” In the EXS 177 class, students are graded on becoming familiar with the fitness center, participating in discussions on Canvas, quizzes, fitness appraisals, and keeping a fitness journal.Nainoa Biggs, a freshman in computer science from New Mexico, is currently enrolled in the class and said that in addition to taking the class because it is required, he enjoyed physical education classes in high school.“It’s fun,” said Biggs. “We get to play games, but at the same time we are receiving exercise. And the class teaches us the right way to exercise so we don’t injure ourselves. We’re not just focusing on one thing but rather our overall body fitness.”Biggs said he has learned about different aspects of overall fitness and wellness, including cardiovascular endurance, muscular flexibility, muscular strength, and muscular endurance.“In order for you to get a good grade, you have to be exercising and keeping a journal log,” said Biggs. “That in itself gets people exercising which increases their physical and spiritual health, as well as your capacity to learn. Your secular education grows as well. Overall, it gets us going and teaches us how to do it right.”Clah said managing fitness lifestyles and principles of health wellness fits into the gospel. “We want students to learn how to integrate spiritual and secular learning and wellness,” he said.Libbey said she plans to take the EXS 177 class next semester, but she is still maintaining personal health habits now. She said, “I eat pretty well. I try to have a pretty solid breakfast, a really big lunch, and eat a light dinner so I don’t sit on it while I’m sleeping.” According to Libbey, the only way to make exercise a habit is by planning it into your day.Sage Libbey, a sophomore in exercise science from California, said, “I think this class is required because of the spiritual aspect. It is a commandment. The Word of Wisdom says we maintain good health and we take care of ourselves so that our spirits can be well too.”Libbey continued, “So a class that gives you all the guidelines to a healthy life, guides you to maintain your exercise, and making that a habit is a way that God has provided for us to take care of our spirits also.”As an EXS major, she said taking this class will help her future career because it will give her the habits she needs to maintain good health so she can be productive for her work.Coach Clah said he wants students to leave this class having learned “the physical part of our lives and the spiritual part of our lives are not necessarily separate from each other but are things that go hand-in-hand. One affects the other. It goes back and forth.”He continued, “If we do that, we can provide great opportunities for ourselves. We can live a happier and healthier life and prevent a lot of cardiovascular disease that exists in our cultures.”
Writer: Leslie Owusu
