College athletes making the most out of quarantine shut down

(Austin Moore, Saddleback College football player/Lariat)

Student athletes are left without spring season college sports, due to the COVID-19 quarantine shutdown throughout the state of California.

College athletes, Austin Moore, Saddleback football player and Lauren Ashby, Saddleback yogi, and Savannah Burns, University of California Santa Barbara division one women’s waterpolo player, continue to pursue active lifestyles after Saddleback’s campus is closed to students, student athletes as well as faculty.

“I’ve been quarantining since March 10th just because being an athlete I can’t risk getting sick and it’s setting me back especially with losing weight because of recruiting,” said Moore.

With the loss of sports, many athletes have become concerned with the inability to be seen by recruiters. Austin Moore is a third year at Saddleback, and is hoping to transfer to a university next fall, his top school being University of Southern California.

“Spring ball is canceled but it hasn’t stopped me from going on daily runs and working out everyday to keep my conditioning up and I’ve been doing my push ups and crunches,” said Moore.

Moore is continuing to stay in top shape because of his desire to transfer to a division one football school this coming up year. Unfortunately, spring ball being cancelled does introduce a setback in Moore’s plans but this hasn’t truly held him back from pursuing a healthy life-style.

“Lifting has been hard though because all the gyms have been closed down but I have a close friend who has a home gym, which has been my saving grace and keeping me strong,” said Moore.

Moore’s daily runs consists of many miles of social distancing on trails near his home in Dana Point. He has been practicing his other workout routines at his friend’s home gym, which he is practicing quarantine with, to be safe from the virus.

On the other hand, yoga instructor, as well as nursing major, Lauren Ashby has a much different routine now that quarantine has stopped her usual workout schedule. Before the enactment of the mandatory quarantine, Ashby was active in nursing courses, as well as teaching yoga at the Dana Point based yoga studio, I Heart Yoga.

“I’m staying active by doing at home yoga, workouts and running but avoiding people while I’m out,” said Ashby. “I usually do like 15 minutes of yoga in the morning, whatever feels good, then I’ll do an online class later.”

Ashby continues to flow through her yoga-based lifestyle with or without her studio. Because she is a certified yoga instructor, she does do a memory-based yoga session as a form of waking-up and starting her day. She likes to follow this with an online yoga class that she finds either on Zoom or YouTube.

Many yoga studios have begun to provide free online classes to keep members as well as new yoga students active while quarantined. The San Clemente based yoga studio, YNG, started a Youtube channel that acts as a substitute for members to perform yoga at home during this time of quarantine.

“One of my favorite teachers has been doing zooms and then I’ll do live-streams on Instagram or this one studio has online classes on their website,” said Ashby.

Savannah Burns has also been participating in zoom chats with teammates as well as trainers to stay fit during the quarantine shut down.

“I have been doing workouts on zoom with my teammates to stay in shape for season, while also riding my Peloton stationary bike. Being a division one athlete is not something that I take lightly, I am very serious about my sport as well as academics, so I am very invested in my fitness,” said Burns.

She has also been tracking her calorie count with an iPhone app, challenging her teammates and friends to eat healthier as well as chart their workouts. Working out at home is not as “rewarding” she said, but being in shape for season is what is the most important for a division one athlete like Burns.

The quarantine has put a dent in many of college students’ schedules, like Austin Moore, Lauren Ashby, and Savannah Burns, who are making the best of it to continually pursue their active lifestyles.

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