Fitness and Outdoor Activities

There is a full-size basketball court in Olin Gym on the Medical Campus in the same building where we have many of our classes! I didn’t know about this before coming here, but it might just be my favorite thing about the Medical Campus. People play pickup games there all the time. There are also outdoor courts at Forest Park and other neighboring parks, though I haven’t been to those.

St. Louis has several areas close to the medical campus that are great for cyclists. A top pick is Forest Park, which has a six-mile paved bike path around the perimeter and 10+ miles of beautiful road throughout the park. There are other paved bike paths, like the Mississippi Greenway and Riverfront Trail, which covers 13 miles along the Mississippi River. Just a 20-minute drive away in Illinois is the MCT Trail System, with over 100+ miles of paved bike paths that take you all over western Illinois.

There are also tons of secure bike parking cages near the medical campus, which have repair tools available for free. Big Shark is an amazing nearby bike shop that sells and fixes bikes for good prices. If you’re looking to purchase your first bike here, I recommend Facebook Marketplace, where you can find amazing deals on used bikes.

There are tons of fitness classes in the Central West End, and a lot of them have student discounts! I personally go to Orange Theory, which is a mix of rowing, running, and strength training. It is right next to PLNK, a pilates studio, as well. There are also Barre classes and boxing classes close by. I have not tried ClassPass personally, but I have heard that it works well here! Overall, fitness classes here are a great option and have been a cool way to meet new people outside of medical school and keep myself accountable to working out regularly!

The Sumers Rec Center on the Danforth Campus is free to access with your medical school student ID! It has many amenities, such as state-of-the-art weights equipment and cardio machines along with basketball courts and a pool. If you’re looking for group exercise classes, such as yoga, dark room cycling, Zumba, or strength training, check out their website for a daily schedule! The gym also offers intramural sports, cooking classes, and “Bear Adventures,” like “Yoga under the Arch” and “Sip and Cycle the Katy Trail.” Whether you want to exercise, make friends, or learn a new recipe, the Sumers Rec Center has you covered!

The Core’s gym, 818 Fitness, is very adequate. It’s free and convenient and has all the basics you would want. It houses a couple squat/bench racks, dumbbells up to 100 lbs, a few benches, the classic cardio machines (elliptical, treadmill, bike), a few lifting machines and some other miscellaneous equipment. It’ll get busy around 5pm, like all gyms, but it’s usually not too crowded. Bottom line – try it out before you spend money on a gym membership, because it’s definitely good enough to have a solid workout.

There are many hiking spots near St. Louis! One of the best-known is Castlewood State Park, where there are many walking and mountain biking trails, like the River Scene Trail overlooking the Meramec River. If you’re looking for a long walk with friends or an easy bike ride, drive to the Katy Trail, the longest recreational rail trail in the country! If you want to hike further from St. Louis, check out Johnson’s Shut-Ins State Park in Middle Brook, Missouri and the Garden of the Gods in Herod, Illinois! To find more hikes in the area, I recommend the AllTrails app or “St. Louis Hikes” on Instagram!

Having played goalie both for my college’s club team and then playing in beer league during my gap year, I was looking for an option to keep playing at least once per week here at WashU Med. I first tried to join a beer league, but many of the leagues here are already full, so I have started playing for WashU Club Hockey. The team is semi-competitive, but the practices are more relaxed. The team and coaches are understanding of the fact that I may be busy and not be able to attend all events. I am glad I still get to play hockey albeit in a limited fashion.

There are so many places to play pickleball here, and you will not have trouble finding friends in your class to play with you! There are courts right next to the Medical Campus with pickleball lines, which are free to use although they have tennis nets. There are courts in Tower Grove Park that are true pickleball courts and are free most hours of the day but can get a little bit busy in the evenings. Also, there are courts in Forest Park and Francis Park! Lastly, there is Chicken N Pickle in St. Charles, which is a bit of a drive, but super fun!

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!

Around the Medical Campus, there are plenty of great spots to play soccer, with the surprisingly nice, nearby Forest Park grass fields, the turf Francis Olympic Field on the Danforth Campus, and the turf Intramural Field on Saint Louis University’s campus. In terms of options to play, there are weekly pickup games, intramural and indoor leagues to sign up for, and also the Olin Gym court to play futsal on when the weather turns. If it’s attending you’re interested in, St. Louis City SC had its inaugural Major League Soccer season back in 2023, in which they ranked No. 1 in the West. Their brand-spanking-new stadium, just a few MetroLink Lightrail stops away, has also been known to host the U.S. national team for international games. For supporters of non-St. Louis teams, there is no shortage of fans of the sport in the school, and there is also a soccer bar called Amsterdam Tavern.

I used to swim throughout high school and wanted to get back into it in medical school. The WashU Danforth Campus, although a bit far from the medical school campus, has a nice eight-lane pool that’s open at select times every day for open swim. I have been trying to swim once a week as a nice break from studying. I also recently started going with some of my other classmates who swim, and it has been fun sharing a lane and running sets together.

There’s tennis, there’s pickleball, and then there’s us: table tennis! WashU Table Tennis (WashUTT) is always looking for people who want to learn more about the smallest (but totally the coolest 😉 ) sibling of racket sports. Every week, people from all walks of WashU life show up to the South Campus gym to set up tables, string up nets and have a good time for two hours.

If you want to paddle on campus, there are two tables at WashU Med that are frequently used: one in the Student Lounge and the other in the lobby of The Core apartments building, which has more space and smooth flooring. I like to use the table at The Core apartments to run drills with friends outside of WashUTT practice hours, or simply to practice new serves when I want a study break. Either way, it is very convenient to have them around.

For anyone who takes table tennis seriously, I train and compete in USA Table Tennis tournaments at a 1900-2000 level, placing me in the top ~15% in the US by rating, and I am impressed with the level of play at WashU Med. You’ll have no trouble finding a practice partner at any level to train and improve with. If you fancy collegiate competitions, WashUTT competes in two National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA) Lower Midwest Divisionals against rival schools such as the University of Illinois. The primary co-ed team represents WashU at NCTTA Midwest Regionals and the National Championships. In addition, we support members who are interested in competing independently at USA Table Tennis-sanctioned tournaments. If you’re interested, stop by South Campus on Wednesday and Friday evenings and check us out.

ACE Inhibitors is the medical student tennis club and is the main way that students get involved with tennis here at WashU Med. Outside of their weekly practice, there are wonderful outdoor courts in Forest Park that can be reserved for $10 per hour. During the winter, there are several indoor clubs around St. Louis, but they are all about three to ten miles away from campus.

The ultimate frisbee community in St. Louis is super fun and welcoming, and I’m so glad to be a part of it! The St. Louis Ultimate Association coordinates local women-matching, male-matching, and mixed leagues all year round that are open to a variety of skill and intensity levels. If you have previous college ultimate experience, consider joining WashU’s men’s or women’s undergraduate teams (especially if you still have college ultimate eligibility!), or try out for one of the club teams that play competitively over the summer. I played ultimate frisbee during all four years of undergrad, and connecting with the ultimate frisbee community in St. Louis through the local women’s league and the WashU undergraduate team has been an amazing way to meet new people and continue to have a structured form of exercise every week.

St. Louis is an awesome city to live in as a yogi! There are lots of options for free yoga, such as classes at the Danforth Campus gym – the Sumers Rec Center – and in Tower Grove Park. Some of my favorite studios that I have tried for both regular yoga and hot yoga are FLY Yoga in Midtown, Shanti Yoga in Tower Grove, YogaSix, TruFusion (WashU Med has organized lots of free classes for us here!), and Central West End Yoga. I signed up for a free month of ClassPass when I moved here, and it was a great way to try out a bunch of new studios.