RecSports podcasts about health, wellness, fitness

RecSports is now using weekly podcasts to inform its visitors about health, wellness and working out. \nThe podcasts began airing in October and have since shown the signs of increasing popularity and have even won a national award. \nCurrently, almost 1,000 viewers have subscribed to the RSS feed for the IU RecSports podcasts. \nThe podcasts, starring co-hosts Kelli Archer and Steve Foster, won the first place Creative Excellence Award in the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association.\n“We’re really pumped about it,” said Melissa Copas, the assistant director of marketing of RecSports. Copas entered the podcasts in a contest without informing the volunteers. She said in addition to how exciting the award is, student involvement with the podcasts allows the Health, Physical Education, and Recreation building and Student Recreational Sports Center to see how students are using the facilities. \n“Sometimes its hard to get people to talk to; you have the big microphone and the camera so they kind of run from that,” Archer joked.\nThe podcasts cover a variety of information, including healthy diets, workout tips, interviews with students and fun facts about the SRSC and HPER.\n“The focus is to make people more aware of all the things RecSports offers,” Archer said. \nArcher said people are interviewed through “man on the street” interviews, (a random selection of people in the facilities), helping to spread news of the podcasts on campus through friends telling friends.\n“I think it’s a unique program as well, because the podcast is run almost entirely by students and they are all volunteers,” Copas said.\nSophomore Kaitlin Addison, a videographer for the program, said podcasting is “the next big thing,” which is the major reason for using it to inform students.\n“I think students are on the Internet 24/7, and if they just take the time to watch the videos ... you can learn from them,” she said.\nArcher encouraged those who are interested in working out to watch the podcasts, saying that once students take the focus away from “I have to burn this number of calories or lose this number of pounds,” they start to have better adherence to working out.\nThe podcasts are compatible with video mp3 players such as Apple iPods and Microsoft Zunes. \nPodcasts can be found at the IU Portal at podcast.iu.edu/Portal, on the IU Recreational Sports Facebook page and on the IU RecSports homepage. They are free to download.