Early birds are taking over the gym

It is three past eight at the Erasmus Sport’s gym. The door has just opened, but the first enthusiastic students are already showing up. The duo Maika Cotton and Sambhavi Mathiyaznagan, both eighteen years old, go straight to the first floor to start spinning. “It is so easy for us to come this early”, says Cotton. “We get up early every day anyway, and we live in the Hatta building, here in the university complex.”

Cotton and Mathiyaznagan are not even the first; four athletes have been sweating themselves on the treadmills for a while; in a corner, a girl trains her abdominal muscles with a fitness ball. On the ground floor it is already quite busy with students who are engaged in cardio exercises, strength training or individual pilates.

Changing sport culture

The gym officer notices that more and more people come to exercise early in the morning. “The sport culture among students and staff has changed considerably in the last five years. At that time, at most, only a few people did the workouts early. We were not even open until one o’clock in the afternoon, because nobody showed up in the morning. “

Productive day

“It is not so busy here at this hour of the day”, explains IBA student Livia van Oosterbosch (21). “In the evening, all fitness equipment is usually occupied and you have to wait for your turn; it is not so convenient.”  So if she does not have to study, she prefers to spend her morning in the gym. Livia: “My day becomes more productive because I have an active start of the day.”

Marc Baptist, boxing trainer at Erasmus Sport, is not an early bird by nature. “But workout in the morning fits in better with my schedule, because I have to work until late at night. Sometimes I do have to force myself to get out of bed, but when I’ve done the workout, I am glad that my morning is well spent.”