Fitness and Outdoor Activities

I started doing weekly ballroom dancing sessions with other WashU graduate and medical students (and some partners) on the Danforth Campus. I’m in the beginner class (there is a more advanced one) and it’s a ton of fun. We’ve done waltz, cha cha, rumba, foxtrot, tango, east coast swing, Viennese waltz … It’s been a good way to take a break from books and be immersed in the elegant (and often hilarious) embodied experience of moving in sync with the music and another person.

Although I’m pretty average at the sport, I love basketball. Olin Residence Hall (a literal three-minute walk from your classes on campus) has a court in the basement. If you want something a little more extravagant, the Danforth Campus Sumers Recreation Center has three courts and games of pickup running daily, and there are outdoor courts at Chouteau Park and Tower Grove Park for nice days when you want to be outside. M1s reserve Olin on Monday nights, and the M1s and M2s try to play most Fridays. Additionally, we have a 271-person (and counting) GroupMe across WashU Med and beyond dedicated to organizing games of pickup. And if that isn’t enough basketball, there are 3v3 intramurals in the fall and 5v5 intramurals in the spring at WashU.

I have only been bowling once, but it was an absolute blast. The Erlanger-Graham Society reserved Pin-Up Bowling (see: Societies), and we ended up with a friendly M1 vs. M2 competition where we M1s won by one point. It was as intense as an exhibition bowling match gets: side bets were made, an anonymous M1 took a dive, and another one even risked re-tearing their ACL — talk about stakes!

I got ClassPass when I started medical school, and I love going to workout classes around the city! There are a bunch of yoga studios, pilates spots, and barre classes available, but my favorite by far is the spin class at CycleBar. There’s a group of M1s that go to spin class together on Tuesday evenings, and it’s been a fun way to bond with classmates outside of school.

The area around the Washington University Medical Campus is very flat for bike commuters. There are at least two fenced and covered bike locking areas that are accessible with student ID cards. Forest Park next door is very bikeable throughout, with a six-mile perimeter loop for biking/running.

If you are an avid road biker, St. Louis has got the climbs and flat sprints for you. Through the undergrad cycling club, you can always find fellow bikers to go on those 3000 ft climbs or century rides.

Coming into medical school, I loved taking CycleBar classes but needed to keep my expenses low. Sumers Recreation Center at the Danforth Campus offers free cycle classes in a dark room every day of the week! A group of my classmates and I go every Sunday with one of our favorite instructors (Jake). We also have a spin group chat where people send when they’re going. While they aren’t exactly the same as CycleBar, they’re still super fun, a great workout, have great music, and (most importantly) are completely free. Like other studios, it does take a little bit of trial and error to find the instructors that fit your style. Overall, it’s a great way to add some cardio into your workout routine, listen to great music, and bond with classmates!

I was pretty involved in the SoCal dance scene back home in Los Angeles, so coming here for medical school I knew that dance was something that I wanted to keep up with in some capacity, and I’ve found a good diversity of styles available at the studios and clubs here in St. Louis! For more classical styles like ballet, lyrical, contemporary, and jazz, CKDC is a dance company that offers wonderful drop-in classes. Yes, Honey Studio in The Grove is a great place for fun, high-energy cardio, dance workouts, but they also have some great choreo combo drop-in classes as well (especially their Advanced Hip-Hop sessions on Sundays at 7 p.m. that I personally love). For the advanced, open-style/commercial-style dancer, Kode Redd is a pre-professional dance company here in St. Louis founded by Anthony D. Williams (considered by many to be the best in the Midwest), and they have incredible, seasonal open workshops. Also, Club Viva is a super fun dance club right here in the Central West End that has Reggae Wednesdays, Dancehall Fridays, and Latin Night Thursdays and Saturdays (where they have free salsa/bachata classes before open dance)! There’s definitely something for dancers of all forms to either train their existing skills or to try out new styles!

The Sumers Recreation Center is located on the Danforth Campus, about a 10-minute drive west of the Washington University Medical Campus. WashU Med students receive free access to everything it has to offer including the weight room, basketball/volleyball/badminton/racquetball courts, indoor track, and swimming/diving pool. Sumers also offers 50+ free fitness classes each week ranging from yoga to Zumba to spinning. It also organizes intramural sports year-round if you’re feeling competitive.

I always joke around with people that my only hobby is weightlifting (not really a joke), so it was really important for me to find a space where I could find everything I need for my workouts. I looked online and found Fit City Gym, which is only a 10-minute drive from my apartment at Parc Frontenac. On top of that, we get discounts as medical students, which means I pay only $36 a month with no contractual obligations and no annual fees.

The culture of the gym is fantastic with a kind and supportive crowd, and I’ve even begun to make some friends and connections through going to the gym at a consistent time. Fit City is the type of place where you can always ask for a spot and always expect other members to be hyped to see you hit a new PR. In terms of the machines, you have all of your standard commercial gym equipment, but we also have tons of specialty machines, including a genuine pendulum squat, three types of leg press machines, monolifts, calibrated kg plates, squat/bench combo racks, and other machines I don’t even know the names of.

Whether you’re just trying to get started out in the gym or have been a passionate gym-goer for years, Fit City is a great, affordable, and relatively accessible (car needed) gym that I feel extremely lucky to have around me!

I work out pretty casually, so the gym at The Core Apartment Residences (818 Fitness), which is a few minutes walk from the majority of our classes in the Farrell Learning and Teaching Center, has everything I need. There are four squat/bench racks, a belt to add weight, various machines, dumbbells, and a cable machine. Beyond weightlifting, there are multiple cardio machines and TVs. Plus, the treadmills have attachment sites for tables for anyone that likes to walk and work.

There are many trails 30-40 minutes from the Washington University Medical Campus; my favorite so far are the White Bison Loop in Lone Elk Park (an elk was hanging out on my trail) and the White Rock Trail (the drive there during fall foliage is part of the charm). For good elevations, the Mark Twain National Forest is a two-hour drive and the Ozarks are four hours away, making for great weekend trips.

I have played on an intramural, three-versus-three basketball team for the past few weeks, and it has been a great time. Spending time with my friends in a team setting has allowed me to get to know them better and have fun in the process. It is also nice to spend time on the Danforth Campus and compete against other members of the WashU community. Outside of basketball, there are a variety of different intramural options that can be competitive or just to have fun!

I had only played pickleball a few times before starting medical school, but it has been a fun way to get more exercise and meet other medical students! There are pickleball and tennis courts conveniently located right next to the Washington University Medical Campus and Barnes-Jewish Hospital, and our class has a group chat to plan times to play together after class and in the evenings. Overall, pickleball has become a great study break and a way for me to meet more people in my class, and it is really nice to have courts literally right next to our campus!

I started running in 2020 and continued my journey when I started medical school in 2021. Since then, I’ve fallen in love with trail running and completed my first 53k ultramarathon this September! We have the beautiful Forest Park right next to campus which is a perfect place for road running during the week, and on the weekends I love exploring all the trails in the area. My favorites for trail running are the Lewis and Clark Trail in Weldon Spring, Rockwood Reservation in Wildwood, and Pere Marquette State Park in Illinois! St. Louis also has a wonderful running community, with several local road and trail running organizations (Big River Running, St. Louis Track Club, Terrain Trail Runners, St. Louis Ultrarunners Group) that organize lots of races throughout the year. I’ve had no problems finding time for running during medical school and have loved training and running in the St. Louis area!

St. Louis has a rich and storied history of soccer culture, from hosting the nation’s first fully professional league to the addition of our very own Major League Soccer team just last year. There are plenty of ways to twinkle those toes whether at a facility nearby campus, in an intramural league, or at a regularly scheduled pickup game on the Danforth Campus. If you’re more of a spectator, get tickets to watch St. Louis CITY SC or grab a pint at Amsterdam Tavern with your fellow fans.

Every Wednesday evening and Saturday afternoon, people of all skill levels and from all walks of WashU life show up to the South Campus gym to put out Butterfly tables, string up nets, and play table tennis for two hours. We’re a smaller community compared to a lot of on-campus sports, but newcomers of all skill levels are welcome — just bring a racket and a good attitude (if you don’t have a racket, borrow mine).

There’s also a table in the common area of the Core Apartment Residences (818 Fitness is in here too!) that some of my classmates use to duel each other after or between classes.

For anyone who takes table tennis very seriously (or wants to), I play competitively (USATT ~1900) and have been pleasantly surprised by the level of play at WashU. You’ll have no trouble finding a practice partner to train and improve with. We also have an A Team and B team that competes in NCTTA tournaments; A and B teams both compete in Divisionals, and the A Team represents WashU at Midwest Regionals and Nationals. If you’re interested, come try out!

As a tennis aficionado, I’m glad that a lot of my peers are passionate about watching and playing tennis. I love the camaraderie among my tennis peers; we even watched a livestream of the U.S. Open championship match between Djokovic and Medvedev at a friend’s apartment together. In terms of playing tennis, St. Louis has plenty of real estate dedicated to tennis. I highly recommend Shaw Park Tennis Center, which has 10 hard courts that have been kept in pristine condition and are free to play on after 5 p.m. on the weekends. If you live at or close to The Core like I do, you can also try the two tennis courts at Hudlin Park near Barnes-Jewish Hospital.

I’ve been going to yoga classes at Align Massage & Yoga Studio in Tower Grove since starting at WashU Med. It’s a fun way of de-stressing, and I’ve managed to rally a couple of my friends into going with me to some pre-lecture yoga. There are a ton of yoga classes that you can sign up for through WashU Rec (for free), ClassPass (at different yoga studios around the city), or individual yoga studios, and they range from beginner to advanced levels.