Sitting for hours on end and listening intently - everyday lecture life can be quite stressful and tiring. Since the start of the semester, university sports instructors have been providing a new lease of life in the lecture theatre with their "Moving Break".
Thursday, 12.55 p.m., Lecture Hall 1, Professor Selck's politics lecture: around 180 pairs of eyes are intently watching the action in front of the blackboard: Jerk Wehrhahn, head of university sports, is standing there and raising his right hand to the sky. "And now raise your left knee," he calls out to the students, who are still looking slightly puzzled. Then the first ones start to imitate his movements. One by one, all the students stand up, stretch their limbs and hunch their shoulders. Professor Selck also joins in with vigour.
The "Moving Break" has been around for several years. Previously, the programme was aimed at university employees in their everyday office life. "But we also wanted to target students, who have to sit a lot in lectures and seminars," explains Mandy Klehr from university sports, who brought the "Bewegte Pause" to the lecture theatres. After all, sufficient exercise in everyday life is not only important for health - a short, active break while studying also gets the grey cells going again.
Sport in the lecture theatre, is that even possible? "At first we were sceptical as to whether there was enough space in the rows of seats, but then we just gave it a go. It works really well," says Klehr. Simply standing up and doing some light strengthening and stretching exercises is enough to re-energise you for the rest of the university day. "To finish, our trainers often offer the classic exercise: Patting your head with one hand and rubbing your stomach with the other. That always makes for a lot of fun," Klehr has observed.
A total of three experienced university sports instructors are involved in the "Bewegte Pause" programme. They are in charge of 15 groups this semester, which - depending on the size of the lecture theatre - can have up to 400 participants. In consultation with the respective lecturer, who must have booked the offer via the university sports website before the start of the semester, they come into the hall about halfway through the lecture and get the students moving for five to seven minutes. Then the lecture continues. The programme is already fully booked for the winter months. Interested lecturers can book the "Moving Break" for their course again at the start of the summer semester.
