Walk Your Way to Better Health

Despite being a fairly underrated form of exercise, walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health. It's low impact, doesn't require equipment or any particular athletic skill, it's cost effective and can be done at any time of day or night by the majority of people regardless of your fitness level.

Walking is particularly good for those who are worried about the risks associated with some of the more vigorous forms of exercise.

Research has shown that just 150 minutes of brisk walking a week can add 3.4 years to your lifespan as well as offering a range of health benefits by increasing cardiovascular fitness, bone strength, decreasing excess body fat, and increasing musculature and endurance levels.

Regular exercise, even a low impact exercise such as walking can also lead to better performance at work. Researchers have found clear relationships between walking and overall mood and energy levels. The more walking you do throughout the day, the greater your overall mood and energy. Exercise can also increase cognitive function, making it easier to solve tough problems.

Walking can also help regulate your blood sugar levels, preventing the dips in energy after meals leading to three thirty-itis which can leave you feeling sluggish and struggling to concentrate.

Following the completion of the 10,000 steps challenge, Monash Sport will be implementing a weekly walking group for Monash University staff members at the Caulfield and Clayton campuses.

This program will be launched at the 10,000 steps celebration held at Monash Sport. Registrations for the event can be found here.

Mystery Shopper Success

As a part of an ongoing commitment to providing high quality service, between April and June, Monash University engaged independent customer service consulting agency CSBA to assess the service levels throughout the University, by mystery shopping a number of University departments, including Monash Sport.

Acting as "Mystery Shoppers", CSBA assessors made 226 general enquiry calls to multiple departments throughout the University. A total 70 of these calls were made to Monash Sport across the Caulfield, Clayton and Peninsula campuses, including the aquatics, health and fitness and venues service desks.

Monash University scored well above the GO8 University sector average in their overall telephone service scores, both in "getting through" and the quality of the services delivered.

Monash Sport received the Universities top Service Delivery score of 95% and in particular were highly accoladed for offering consistent greetings to customers, the warmth, attentiveness and interest of the staff, staff skill in resolving customer enquiries as well as their sound communication skills.

Customer service levels are a continuing focus of Monash Sport, last year approximately 60 staff members undertook a comprehensive customer service training program in a range of online and in person service enhancement workshops. We are proud to see that our service level reflects the emphasis and effort Monash Sport place on customer service. 

Staff are presently about to embark on another series of training modules in communicating effectively with customers from various backgrounds and cultures to create positive experiences for students who may experience language and cultural barriers.

Twilight on the Green

Held on Monday 12 of October, Twilight on the Green was the official launch by the President and Vice Chancellor Margaret Gardner AO, of the recently developed Caulfield Green and Sound Shell.

After many months of construction and development, this architecturally designed part of the campus has been brought alive with colour and activity.

Around 1000 students, alumni and staff came together to attend the event, despite the chilly evening, which offered a range of spring festivities as well as live music. 

Participants got to challenge themselves in sporting competitions, enjoy some tasty treats from an assortment of food and drink stalls and trucks, get a new look from our face painters all whilst being entertained by musicians and roving performers.

Live music was on offer from Kilter, E^ST, Tara Dowler and Monash's own Papa G and the Starcats as well as tunes from DJ Mona Gene. 

The event was a success with students and staff excited about the newly developed space and the potential future events and activities to be held at Caulfield Campus.

Water Wise Program creates a Splash!

At the beginning of the year the Water Wise program was launched as a fully funded learn to swim program available to all current Monash University students.

The initiative was designed to increase the Water Safety and swimming ability of Monash students. Last year alone 266 people drowned within Australia. The age group most at risk was 25-34 year olds. Monash recognised that whilst many students may have been brought up learning how to swim, some may have come from remote areas without access to swimming facilities or programs.

The water wise program is designed to teach any current student who would like to participate, how to swim at a beginner level. We believe that by increasing the number of students who know how to swim, we can help reduce the incidence of drowning.

Fully funded by the Student Services and Amenities Fee, since it’s launch date in January more than 1500 students have signed up to this valuable program, with numbers growing every week.

Over $9000 raised at MS 24 Hour Mega Swim

Team Minky raised over $3,800 and swam 87 kms

The 24 Hour Mega Swim, Stride and Spin was held over the weekend at Monash Sport, with over $9,000 raised for people affected by Multiple Sclerosis.

From 10am on Saturday morning to the following Sunday, five teams contributed to raising money for Multiple Sclerosis Australia. There were many tired faces when 10am Sunday arrived, as many participants elected to sleep at the pool over night. However all 52 participants were proud of their achievements while raising money for an excellent cause.

The money raised will go towards financially helping people unable to achieve their goals and dreams due to Multiple Sclerosis, in what MS Australia call Go for Gold scholarships.

Spokesperson for MS Australia Shara Gillahan was thrilled with the efforts shown from all the teams.

"So for the 2015 Monash 24 Hour Mega Swim, Spin and Cycle, you guys have been able to raise over $8,700 and still counting. That's an amazing effort and will help so many recipients of Go for Gold scholarships," she said.   

"The MS 24 Hour Mega Swim is to help raise funds to support people with MS to achieve their dream by granting them Go for Gold scholarships. Which is a financial scholarship to help them achieve their dreams, whether it be in education or employment, anything like that. Just to make it a little bit easier for them to achieve their dreams."

Shara herself was diagnosed with MS five years ago, and after being supported by MS Australia she has joined the organisation to give something back.

"I was diagnosed with MS in 2010, and I was fortunate enough to be a recipient of a Go for Gold scholarship in 2012. And through that it allowed me to achieve my dream of traveling over to Ireland and UK and the US to learn millinery from some of the world's best milliners," she said.

Click here for the highlights video featuring Go Pro footage.

The Mega Spin and Mega Stride were two new additions to the Mega Swim event this year, to give flexibility for those wanting to contribute out of the pool. The Mega Stride consisted of walking or running on a treadmill, while the Mega Spin gave participants the task of riding on a spin bike for 24 hours.

Mega Swim team Team Minky took out the overall winning team award, raising $3,840 and swimming 87.6km. Sally Fyfield won the award for highest fundraising for an individual, raising $1,485.

Georgia Abott took out the youth award and Mega Spin team the Knight Riders won the award for best dressed team.

Monash Sport has held five Mega Swim events over the years, with over $100,000 being raised in total.

Donations for the Monash 24 Hour Mega Swim, Mega Spin and Mega Stride will close a month after the event finishes. Follow this link to donate.

Mega Spin team 'Knight Riders' won the best dressed team award.

Footy Colours Day 2015

Each year, the Fight Cancer Foundation asks Australians to don their favourite football teams colours, unite and help support the fight against cancer.

For the second year in a row, Monash Sport held their all inclusive Footy Colours Day events across all three campuses to support the Fight Cancer Foundation.

At Clayton, staff and students ventured out to Monash Sport in spite of the week 8 overload to sample some tasty fares from food trucks, listen to tunes from our DJ, test their accuracy at hand balling or kicking a footy, and check out how high they could jump in the vertical jump test.

Ever the fan favourite, participants also spent some time bouncing off each other, the walls, and even off the ground in friendly games of bubble soccer.

Events were also held at the Caulfield campus on the new Campus Green and Peninsula campus in the Student Lounge involving football themed activities such as handball targeting, vertical jump competitions and goal kicking, while MONSU provided participants with a free BBQ lunch in support of the event.

A number of students and staff came out to celebrate the events, enjoying the food on offer and the chance to pit their skills against one another.

The Clayton campus event also offered the perfect opportunity to announce the winners of our inaugural Footy Tipping Competition. Nearly 1000 people registered in the competition from diverse areas of the university, the final draw however came down to six participants, who sat equally tied for first place. The winner was ultimately determined by the margin score.

First place went to Professor Chrishan Samuel from the Pharmacology faculty and was accepted by Dr Barbara Kemp-Harper on his behalf as he was overseas at the time. Professor Chrishan not only became the winner of the first place prize - a 50 inch Full HD Smart LCD TV, but also came first in their faculty's private competition, consisting of around 20 people.

Second place went to Saul Block - a Bachelor of Engineering/Bachelor of Commerce student, currently completing his penultimate year. Saul won a one-year Fitness and Aquatics membership at Monash Sport.

Third prize was won by biochemical Post-Doctoral researcher, Dr Laurent Lermusiaux, who got to take home a Playstation 4 plus a couple of games.

Fourth place went to first year Psychology student Deandra de Krester, who as unable to attend and collect her Fitbit Charge HR as she was in a tutorial during the presentations.

Fifth place and winner of a Fitbit Flex went to Monash Blues football player Taylor Cameron.

A special mention should be made for Professor Edwina Cornish - Provost and Senior Vice-President of Monash University, who was the last to hold an equal tie for first place in points, however missed out on a prize by margin.

Well done to all of our Footy Tipping participants, and thanks to all who got involved in our Footy Colours Day celebrations.