Participants can 'Swim to Spring Break'

Spring break is sneaking up, and if those love handles have seemed to have done the same throughout the blistery winter, don't fret, there is still time. There are 24 days to go before Acapulco, Florida, South Padre, Cancun, Jamaica, South Beach, or wherever else your spring break destinations may fly you. \nTo shed some extra pounds before hitting the beach, get off that futon and into a swim suit. Instead of doing the same old routine and waiting for hours to get on the elliptical trainer, why not take a dip in the deep blue and "Swim to Spring Break"?\nSince mid-January the free program at the SRSC and HPER through RecSports gives students the opportunity to engage in any of eight aquatic activities to earn "miles" toward one of five destinations. With each activity totaling a different amount of miles, and each destination requiring a different amount of miles, participants can progress at their own pace to reach their destination of choice. \nThere are eight different ways for participants to earn mileage. These include lap swimming, aqua jogging, deep water group exercise, group swimming lessons or participation in the upcoming Intramural Swim meet. Past opportunities to earn miles included participation in "Spirit of Sport" aquatic events, informal inner tube water polo and water basketball at the SRSC. \nEmily Ward, RecSports programs director, said one of the perks of the program is that it is promoted to all levels of participants and has a flexible structure. \n"You don't have to be a lap swimmer to participate, you could not know how to swim at all and still have fun doing this," Ward said. \nThe only sign-up requirement is the initial one, making it easy to find time to fit workouts into busy second semester schedules. \n"It's all for a personal challenge, and that's the great thing about it," Ward said.\nThis is the second year this incentive-based program has been a part of RecSports' Activity Motivation Programs, commonly called AMP. \nTeri Bladen, RecSports assistant director for fitness training, is in charge of the strength and conditioning AMP at the SRSC and said the AMP gives order to the participants workouts. \n"With swim AMP, the idea is to try and give folks some structure to their workout by giving them a timeline to complete their goals rather than a schedule," Bladen said. \nThe kickoff of "Swim to Spring Break" was on the first Tuesday of second semester, and the last day to complete miles needed is March 1. At the completion of the program, all participants who have reached the minimum amount of miles necessary are entered into a drawing to win one of four $100 gift certificates to Athletics International.\nWill that two-piece bikini fit in time? How about that leopard speedo? According to www.WebMd.com, the primary benefit of aquatic workout programs is the reduction of stress on the body. There are only 24 days left until spring break, if you are stressing to lose the extra jiggle, there's only a couple weeks to splash into the pool.\n-- Contact staff writer Jessica Lobel at jlobel@indiana.edu.