Category Archives: Health and Wellbeing

Book Club

The UC Wellbeing Navigators are excited to bring students a new on-campus book club! 📚 This semester, we are going to bring you a new theme every fortnight. Come with a book or just bring yourself to evenings of conversation, hot drinks ☕, sweet treats 🍰, and conversations about our shared love of books. ❤️

Some of the upcoming themes include:

  • 📖 Queer literature
  • 🕵️ Thriller
  • 📚 Biography
  • 🚀 Sci-fi …and many more 📚

Where: The Living Room on campus
When: 5:30-6:30, every fortnight on Thursday beginning July 18th

Link for more information: UC Wellbeing Instagram

Boxing, Ballet and Hip Hop for fitness

Are you looking for something a bit different to stay or start getting active? Why not try our specialty courses!  Learn something new in a small group setting for five weeks.

What are specialty courses?
  • Five-week courses where you learn a new skill, starting Week 2 of Term 3 (that’s the 22nd July onward…)
  • The same (small) group come together each week to learn and move, building up skills over the course
  • These are not free with membership – but they are extremely well priced, with student prices coming in at $8.50 a session for boxing fitness, and $11 a session for dance classes
  • All held at the RecCentre
What can you choose from?

Check out all the info on our website.  You can book online from there, or go in via your app, with payment at reception.

Got questions?  Ask one of our friendly team at the desk or email danielle.mather@canterbury.ac.nz

Don’t forget, you can access all of our other amazing Group Fitness sessions for free with your membership, booking via the app.

Ngā mihi
UC Rec&Sport | Te Ratonga Hākinakina

Get your gym membership sorted for Semester 2!

Now is an excellent time to get your levy-funded gym membership sorted for Semester 2, setting you up for great results both in your health and your grades!  

View of back of the instructor teaching a pump class at the UC RecCentre

We all know that exercise can bring you physical benefits like strengthening bones, muscles, improving cardiovascular health, and it helps to maintain a healthy weight (which in turn helps stave off lots of long-term health conditions). But did you know that regular exercise also helps boost your brain power?

The link between exercise and the brain 

Indirectly, exercise helps to reduce stress & anxiety, and improve sleep. The brain performs more poorly when it is tired and stressed, so exercising indirectly improves your mental performance. 

Directly, exercise can promote the growth of new brain cells, a process called neurogenesis. With new brain cells comes better cognition (thinking), memory and learning.    

Your student levy pays for your RecCentre membership 

That means you don’t have to pay anything further to access top notch equipment and group fitness classes – some of the best in the city!   

  • Simply head to our membership page and register online. 
  • Once you’ve done that, pop over to see us and we’ll activate your student ID card on your first visit.   
  • We recommend downloading the Rec&Sport app as well, to book into classes, get free programmes and exercise videos and more
Not sure where to start?

We got you! Start with a Discovery session, or book a free 15min orientation with a fitness consultant via the app. You could jump right into a group class, head to our group fitness pages to see what’s available.  We really do have something for everyone, from yoga/pilates and Zumba through to boujee circuit style classes. 

Start small, build a habit, and watch both your health and brainpower improve! 

Ngā mihi
UC Rec&Sport | Te Ratonga Hākinakina