Jonathan Stith, a senior nursing major at Troy University, takes advantage of a little-known part of the university and exercises on monkey bars located by Sartain Hall when the Dart found him.

“My friend took me for a run on campus, then we found the monkey bars and just started to goof off,” Stith said. “We realized that it was really hard and that we should do it more often. So now I take a little run then come here and do some pull ups. I did it with a group of guys while school was in session, but now its pretty much just my roommate and me doing it.”

He follows a workout plan that his cousin provided for him, doing a pull up regime three times a week and other body weight workouts the rest of the week.

“I’m just doing a pull up workout set on the bars,” he said. “I like working out on the monkey bars over by Sartain because pull ups are good for general upper body strength, and its good for your back. I have a bad back so that works out well. It’s not as hard on your body as using weights.”

Stith explained that being a nursing major has made him realize how important it is to maintain a healthy lifestyle and to make his body strong.

“I’m a nursing major, so in addition to just wanting my back to be as strong as possible because its important for life in general its extra important for me since I’m going to be on my feet 12 hours at a time lifting patients and stuff like that,” he said. “So I’ve been doing as much as I can to straighten my back and the rest of my body just for my job in general.”

Being in the medical field, Stith constantly hears about the need to be healthy and strong. He said that it is important to embody that lifestyle since he will be encouraging his patients in the future to live that same kind of lifestyle.

“It’s important that we embody at least some of the values that we try to teach the patients,” he said. “I mean we are in Alabama, which is probably the most obese part of the world. So a little bit of exercise is definitely preached all throughout the medical field in general. It helps if the people that are preaching it to you look like they practice that a little bit themselves.”

Not only is it good for his body, Stith said working out on the monkey bars is also good on his wallet.

“It’s a little hot right now, but free still definitely works for me,” he said. “Everyone should do it. Pull ups are awesome and good for you.”