Column by Joanie Barry

Spring break begins at the end of the week. Many students have started their spring break workout plans.

Though many of the intramural athletes made this attempt to try and get into shape for Panama City Beach, their plans may not have turned out the way they hoped.

That inspired the theme for this article. Which intramural sports give you the best work out?

Badminton

Badminton is the most underrated intramural sport, though it did have a sudden growth in attendance earlier this year. Historically, badminton has shown low numbers throughout the years.

Despite this fact, many intramural players would be surprised to know that badminton, when played correctly, can be a solid workout. Badminton courts are small, but that does not mean that players don’t run. Badminton consists of many of short quick moves.

These quick moves require agility and speed. With a combination of quick footwork and upper body movements, badminton can be a surprisingly fun workout to help get rid of those post-midterm pounds.

Tennis

Tennis is another clear-cut contender in this category. Similar to badminton, tennis requires a lot of agility and upper body movements.

However, out of all intramural sports, tennis requires the most upper body strength. In sports like basketball or volleyball, upper body strength is required. But, because of the added number of players on each team, it is less likely that every member will receive the upper body workout that tennis can provide.

Outdoor Soccer

Outdoor soccer is not an option for spring break workout plans, considering the fact that Des Moines is under a sheet of ice.

Thankfully, intramurals is currently starting the third week of indoor soccer. Indoor soccer has some drawbacks compared to outdoor.

One fact being that the field is smaller which allows for less cardio work.

Despite that, indoor soccer still allows a lot of cardio, and playing inside the field house is a lot more comfortable than running outside.

Basketball

This might be a controversial call, but from my experience basketball provides strong all around fitness.

Basketball has a 20-minute running clock, which provides a tough cardio workout. In addition, basketball includes agility and quick reaction times when ball handling.

Basketball includes arm workouts, depending on how many shots are taken per game. In addition to agility, basketball provides the toughest competition.

Basketball has the highest participation of all intramural sports, which naturally leads to the best competition.

This added toughness brings an added element of fitness that many other sports cannot compete with.

After all you athletes get back from spring break, remember to sign up for floor hockey and softball.

The last two sports of the season will help you finish getting into shape for summer.

As always stay safe and play ball.

Barry is a senior radio-television and secondary education double major and can be reached at [email protected]