Armed with a checklist, anyone can visit the stalls in the Koos Duppen hall – whether they are an ACLO member or not. They test standard things like your stamina and BMI, but also fat percentage, lung capacity, and flexibility. With these results in hand, you can visit a UMCG sports physician, who will provide you with a tailor-made consultation.
According to sports physician Bram Bessem, it is much more important to keep your body in check than weighing yourself every once in a while. ‘People focus so much on that number on the scale, but fitness is much more important than the right weight. If you weigh the correct amount but you’re not fit, your risk of cardiovascular disease is quite a bit higher than if it were the other way around.’
The student lifestyle is especially dangerous, according to Bessem. ‘It doesn’t matter if you work out for an hour every day: if you spend the rest of your day sitting down, that doesn’t do much. You have to actively move around all day long.’
So far, the physician is happy with the results he has seen, but he does have one final remark: ‘What you see here is probably not representative of all students. For people with an unhealthy lifestyle, coming here can be quite difficult, whereas people with a healthy body obviously like hearing that again.’
In the accompanying video, the name of sports physician Bram Bessem has unfortunately been misspelled (as Bram Bessens).