Good thing Princeton cares about maintaining the well-being of our minds and bodies, if not of our heavily burdened GPAs. There’s a whole range of fitness options available for incorporation into our schedules this semester, all of which are new, fun, and most importantly, FREE.

Mmm, nothing like a sun salutation in front of the Woody Woo fountain to start the day off right. (Photo from lululemon.com)

This week is Yoga Week, featuring workshops all week on topics ranging from breathing and eating to ”playing with prana (energy) in handstand, headstand and elbow stand.” You know, the basics. All Dillon yoga classes are also free this week. And if you discover an inner passion for the yogi’s lifestyle, the Yoga Club offers a staggering 6 free classes/week throughout the semester. If that’s not enough, Lululemon on Nassau also offers free yoga classes every Sunday morning. No experience or special equipment necessary — as the website says, just bring yourself.

If you’ve ever left a Disiac show in wistful regret for quitting ballet in 3rd grade, it’s not too late. The Lewis Center for the Arts recently started offering free ballet classes for all Princeton students. All levels are welcome, with beginner/intermediate classes on Saturdays, intermediate/advanced Mondays-Fridays, and advanced/pre-professional class on Saturday mornings.

Finally, for those who don’t want to break away from GTSL (S added for studying. Sorry, this is Princeton. We can’t just GTL our way through it), the USG is sponsoring free classes at Dillon all semester. Here’s the schedule:

Spinning: Mondays-Thursdays, 5:30 pm
BodyAttack: Wednesdays, 5:00-5:50 pm
Butts and Guts: Mondays, 6:00-6:50 pm
BodyPump: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00-6:00 pm

No excuses for not being in shape when spring hits us this year, guys. Let’s goooo.

Scientists have long known that exercise stimulates the creation of new brain cells, and some believe that’s the reason working out tends to have an antidepressant effect. A study by Princeton scientists has found that cells that are created from running don’t respond to stress in the same way regular ol’ lazy-people cells do, according to an article in the New York Times.

These “exercise-created” cells express fewer stress genes than regular cells do in stressful situations. If you’re a rat.

The researchers experimented with two groups of rats, only one of which was allowed to run. Then the rats were made to swim in cold water (which the Times tells us helpfully, “they don’t like to do”) and their brain cells were monitored.

The “cells born from running,” the researchers concluded, appeared to have been “specifically buffered from exposure to a stressful experience.” The rats had created, through running, a brain that seemed biochemically, molecularly, calm.

Other studies have shown that this effect is consistent with not only physical stress, but also emotional stress. In one experiment, rats were injected with an oxidative chemical that artificially raised their stress levels and then placed in an unfamiliar area. Rats that had exercised were “relatively nonchalant” and explored the area. Rats that did not exercise hid in dark corners. So.

“It looks more and more like the positive stress of exercise prepares cells and structures and pathways within the brain so that they’re more equipped to handle stress in other forms,” says Michael Hopkins, a graduate student affiliated with the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory Laboratory at Dartmouth, who has been studying how exercise differently affects thinking and emotion. “It’s pretty amazing, really, that you can get this translation from the realm of purely physical stresses to the realm of psychological stressors.”

OK, and here is the part where I actually motivate you to start going to the gym. Working out will help your brain cells not die.

Anxiety in rodents and people has been linked with excessive oxidative stress, which can lead to cell death, including in the brain. Moderate exercise, though, appears to dampen the effects of oxidative stress.