With Asbury’s deep commitment to spiritual, physical and mental wellness, the Center
for Wholeness and Wellness has decided to create more opportunities for students to
reach physical fitness. The university provides opportunities for spiritual wellness
through the Office of Spiritual life and mental wellness through the Counseling Center.
Now, senior and exercise science major Freddie Thacker is offering a new route to
physical wellness in the form of an exercise bootcamp class for students.
“The goal is to offer affordable personal training for students, faculty and staff,” said
Thacker.“So, we kind of just started off by starting a class in on campus, kind of an
overall fitness class once a week.”
The class starts out with prayer and then moves into a 10-15-minute cardio session.
Although the course is called “bootcamp,” it is more of a High Intensity Interval Training
(HIIT) class.
“Generally, we have 10 exercises,” Thacker said, “and we move through those through
reps sometimes, and at the end, you get like a two-minute break, and we try and see
how many times we can move through a circuit. And sometimes it involves running on
the track, sometimes it involves other things. So, our goal is to keep get your heart rate
up, get it elevated for 30 minutes.”
These hour-long bootcamp classes are every Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. at the Luce Center
on the racquetball courts. Thacker is a certified trainer and leads the sessions.
Last semester, Thacker became certified through the American Counselor Exercise as
a personal trainer. He contacted Kevin Bellew for opportunities to lead group exercising
classes and started by teaching courses at the Asbury Theological Seminary this
summer. In August, he began teaching on Asbury’s campus.
Thacker hopes to incorporate more exercise science majors into the program so they
can gain experience before graduating, which will help when applying for jobs post-
undergrad.
Along with the bootcamp class, there are a few other organized exercise groups on
Asbury’s campus. Every Wednesday at 5:30 p.m. there are Zumba classes in the Glide-
Crawford gym (women only). Group Power takes place every Monday from 6-7 p.m.
and every Thursday from 6-7 a.m. at the Asbury Theological Seminary Student Center
for $2.
To get more information about the bootcamp and other opportunities you can contact
Kevin Bellew, Freddie Thacker or the Center for Wholeness and Wellness. You can also
find them on Instagram at “asburyuniversitywellness,” where they post different health
tips surrounding mental and physical health.
