A Healthy Mind in a Healthy Body -Exercise is Medicine on Campus Month

Celebrating an active lifestyle on campus with a month of free exercise activities.

October has been designated as Exercise is Medicine (EIM) on Campus Month, with over 280 campuses worldwide participating in promoting a healthy and active lifestyle on campus. The Centre for Sports and Exercise (CSE) at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) organized a diverse range of complimentary exercise activities throughout the month aimed at fostering physical activity and wellness on campus.

Under the EIM on Campus initiative, numerous free activities were offered, all of which focused on "Exercise for Brain Health." These activities included Fitness Fun booths held at Haking Wong Podium and the Centennial Campus. These Fitness Fun booths include health and fitness tests that enabled staff and students to assess their current fitness levels as well as interactive fitness games that not only increase physical activity but also improve brain health in an enjoyable and challenging way.

The EIM month also offered Weekly Workouts and Yoga sessions, comprising eight sessions for staff and students to join for free. The Weekly Workouts included: Foam Roller Relax Class, Brainfit Aerobic, Mind & Muscle Fitness Workout, and Stretch to De-Stress. The Yoga sessions offered are Vinyasa Flow, Yin Yoga, Hatha Yoga, and Yoga Nidra.

Each workshop promoted physical and mental well-being through various components of fitness, exercises and techniques such as foam rolling, aerobic exercises, resistance training, and stretching. Different types of Yoga were provided, to showcase the different styles, each offering their own unique mental and physical health benefits.

To further promote the benefits of exercise to brain health, the EIM month also produced online educational materials with weekly Knowledge Bits; a series of videos, that explored the brain health benefits of physical activity and encourage adopting healthy habits for an active lifestyle. A series of Workouts of the Week were also provided on the existing Movewell App; an online platform that provides users with knowledge about exercise equipment and routines. The app's main goal continues to motivate users to increase their physical activity. By using the Movewell App, members of the HKU Campus Community can access online training programs, fitness exercise videos, health and fitness tracking features, and more for free.

To celebrate World Mental Health Day on the 10th of Oct, CSE collaborated with Cedars in launching the Student Wellness Fair under their Wellness @ HKU initiative. The fair was a full day of activities, booths, sharing, music, fun and giveaways, that further promoted the use of physical activity to improve our mental health.

Don’t forget to check out our video summary to look back on the month.

The CSE would like to thank all participants for joining and viewing the online content and look forward to bringing the HKU campus community more physical activity opportunities in the future.