McDaniel staffers Susan Duke and Cynthia Zimmerman walk fast. So fast, in fact, it’s hard to keep up with them as they speed through three miles every day during lunchtime.

“When you go back to work after a workout, you feel invigorated and don’t get the afternoon slump,” says Duke, outreach manager for Alumni Relations and Annual Giving. “We would also love to use the equipment in the fitness center, but we don’t know how the machines work.”

That’s where students in Assistant Professor of Exercise Science and Physical Education Andria Hoffman’s “Contemporary Health Issues” course come in. They created a website to help staff and faculty build exercise routines.

“We want to see what we can do to improve the health of members of the campus community and tie it into the new Leroy Merritt Fitness Center,” says Hoffman.

The site instructs people how to use the weight and cardio equipment at the fitness center, provides a wellness survey, and offers a food journal as well as routes for walking around Westminster. Duke and Zimmerman said they enjoyed trekking the 2.6-mile King’s Park walk suggested on the site.

“I think lots of people who work at the College would take advantage of this,” says Zimmerman, administrative secretary for Conference and Auxiliary Services. “People want to stay active and healthy, or lose weight.”

Anyone on a diet would benefit from links to resources that create personalized food pyramids and show how to read food labels.

“People get stuck on health kicks,” says Adam Safley ’08, who designed the nutrition section of the site. “Nutrition is an underlying issue. Even if you work out, you still can’t eat a Big Mac and a diet Coke.”

The site is a first step toward facilitating improved community fitness, says Hoffman. Next, students plan to provide personal training services to faculty and staff as part of independently created internships. Football player Michael Weick ’10 says he hopes to help people design their own weight-lifting plan.

“Weight lifting is a time when you can get away for a while and get lost in something that helps you stay healthy,” he says.

The Merritt Fitness Center is equipped with weight-training machines, free weights and dumbbells. Its cardio equipment includes treadmills, elliptical trainers, arc trainers and exercise bikes.

“We have this great facility, so people should take advantage of it,” added Exercise Science major Brian Amenta ’08.  “We want to show them how.”

Check out the Wellness on the Hill site by clicking here. http://www2.mcdaniel.edu/wellness/