"Compensate for lack of exercise" - Free online courses from the Allgemeiner Hochschulsport (General University Sports Center)

Mr. Heyer, normally courses are also offered in the halls at the institute during the semester break. Of course, that's not possible at Corona times. What is the current situation at the General University Sports Center at the University of Kassel?

On Friday, the 13th, the call came and we just had to close. In sports, contact is inevitable, whether it's soccer or dancing, so we had to close. But we started thinking quite early on as a team what we could do instead. We thought: if we can't get people into the hall or outside, then we'll just bring the sport to their homes. First, we tested Zoom internally, but then switched to an app from the German Research Network. Last week we ran the test run of the online sports program and this week we have already started with the #stayhome and #stayfit.

And what exactly is the #stayhome and #stayfit?

At the moment, we offer 27 courses. The focus is on fitness, for example fitness and functional gymnastics or Tabata. However, we are constantly working on the online offering and want to integrate courses with games and balls in the near future, if possible. For example, a training course for Roundnet would be included here. An interactive nutrition course is also planned.

Several sports physicians warn that people don't exercise enough in the home office and perhaps don't eat particularly well in addition. With the #stayhome and #stayfit program, we want to counteract this, bring exercise into your own four walls and boost your circulation. With the nutrition course, we also want to make people aware of the topic of proper nutrition in conjunction with sports.

Great ideas! And how has the first week gone so far?

We're still improvising a lot and, of course, there are sometimes technical errors, but we're getting a lot of encouragement and positive feedback from all sides. That's motivating. We have to thank the trainers for this. They do a great job, have fun and are willing to give the course via webcam from home.

Our classes are different than an app, YouTube video or podcast. You see each other and do the sport together after all. And you can take your phone or tablet out onto the balcony or terrace and do sports outside.

You can still imagine doing gymnastics in your living room. But what does running training look like?

Here, it's mainly about strengthening and stabilization exercises, from the center of the body. You strengthen and train the body for real running.

Looking to the future: How are you currently preparing General University Sports for the summer semester?

The planning for the summer semester has already been completed. We were prepared for that before. So when we are allowed back in the halls and outside, there will be the planned summer program of university sports. Now our goal is to make the best of the current situation, to compensate for the lack of exercise and, above all, to give the participants a change from everyday life.

Mr. Heyer, thank you very much for the interview.

The free #stayhome and #stayfit courses can be viewed at https://www.uni-kassel.de/einrichtung/hochschulsport-kassel/startseite/. Here you can register and get more information about the process. External software is not necessary to participate, just a PC or laptop with a webcam.

Interview: Kristina Weissbecker