Growing up in a landlocked state, Allie Skalnik ‘26, a desk editor and staff writer for The Stanford Daily, never learned how to swim. As an Earth Systems major, she became fascinated with studying the ocean and wanted to take part in the Australia abroad program — but it had a swimming requirement. So, she decided to learn how to swim through Stanford’s physical wellness (PHYSWELL) classes.
Skalnik took PHYSWELL 50: Swimming last year and returned from Australia this quarter, which she described as a “full circle” moment.
“I was very nervous going in because, as someone who didn’t swim, water is scary, and I was also a little nervous that I would be self-conscious about my lack of skill and how hard it is for me,” Skalnik said about her hesitation to join PHYSWELL 50.
“But what ended up happening was these physical [wellness] classes became some of my favorite classes I’ve ever taken,” she said.
The class provided a much needed break from school work for Skalnik and became a major benefit to her mental health, she said.
The classes are offered throughout the year for one unit of credit, and are generally repeatable up to eight times. According to Stanford’s website, the purpose of the program as a whole is to “educate, motivate and support Stanford students to live a healthy, active lifestyle that supports belonging and well-being” through a series of classes, including martial arts, golf, racquet sports, fitness, aquatics, yoga and Pilates.
PHYSWELL classes not only get the students, but also the director of the program, moving. Tia Lillie, director of the Department of Athletics, Physical Education and Recreation (DAPER) academic programs and the PHYSWELL program, also teaches PHYSWELL classes.
“When I’m implementing policies and procedures for instructors, I have a better idea of what needs to happen because I’m actually teaching as well, and so I’m also hearing from the students,” Lillie said.
For over a decade, she’s been teaching classes like PHYSWELL 4: Walk, Talk ‘N Roll, PHYSWELL 1: Indoor Cycling and PHYSWELL 85: Yoga for Health, Performance and Wellbeing. To get students excited about classes, Lillie will often draw inspiration from her students to come up with creative titles — like PHYSWELL 3: Keep Calm, Jog On.
Teaching Specialist Ying Mitchell is also an academic administrator within the Department of Physical Education and Recreation. Some of her classes include Cardio Dance Fitness and Stretch, Release, Relax. Mitchell loves how her classes make a difference in her students’ workout habits. Her goal is to “teach them how to incorporate physical activity and exercise, which is a little bit more structured…so that they’ll do it after they graduate, whatever career they choose.”
Mitchell said each class begins with some sort of postural assessment: for resistance training, it’s muscle endurance; for cardio dance, it’s a cardio respiratory test. She described each one as starting more slowly and simplified in the beginning and building over the course of the quarter, which culminates in a student-designed class where they work in groups and display their knowledge.
Over the course of her time teaching these classes at Stanford, Mitchell said she has seen the program develop more of an academic component — including the addition of assessments and having students create a workout or fitness program — so they can apply what they learn to their “fitness career.”
Junior Jesse Drayton has experienced this benefit firsthand. Drayton has taken a PHYSWELL class every quarter starting his sophomore year and highlighted how they provide opportunities to expand agency and creativity. Among these classes — which included cross-training, cardio fitness, advanced beginner tennis, pickleball, and jogging — he said his favorite so far has been PHYSWELL 1: Indoor Cycling. Drayton appreciated that these classes give him the foundation to build on the basic skills he learned.
“They do prioritize you being able to kind of build the infrastructure and have the toolbox to make your own workouts,” Drayton said.
The department has removed fees for the PHYSWELL courses, which Lillie said will hopefully make the courses more accessible to students. According to Lillie, depending on the activity, the price ranged from $35 to $100. The department also removed fees for all outdoor education courses, which previously ranged from $100 to $350.
According to Lillie, alongside the change in fee, some other future changes include adding PHYSWELL 106: Fitness Instructor Training course next fall — which will begin teaching students how to be group fitness instructors so they can then go on to teach in Stanford’s recreation department. She hopes to get these classes WAYS certified in the future. Lillie emphasized that PHYSWELL classes are not as difficult to enroll in as many students think and that golf is certainly not the only class offered.
“I feel like people here like the big classes, like golf…everyone wants to try to get to,” Drayton said. “But there’s a lot of great classes that I feel like people just aren’t aware of.”