Many students have been figuring out Zoom hacks to get out of attending classes. But junior Suzanne Guo has a class you don’t want to miss out on. 

Since the start of the school closure and quarantine, Suzanne has been hosting workout sessions over Zoom six days a week from 5 to 6 p.m.

“My goal is to motivate people and myself to stay healthy during quarantine,” Suzanne said. “For me, if I don’t exercise, my mental health will deteriorate throughout the day. Also, working out in a group is a way of socializing and getting a bit of human interaction, combined with the benefits of exercise.” 

Suzanne first came up with the idea of virtual workout sessions when she realized that, due to cancelled sports, many people lack the motivation to exercise and are unable to continue their regular routines. She consistently has about 15 people in her sessions, and she’s working on recruiting new people to expand her workout sessions. Every workout session consists of core exercises combined with cardio, yoga or stretching. 

Suzanne plans to do these workout sessions for as long as school sports are cancelled. She hopes that she can inspire others to workout more and stay fit throughout the quarantine period.

“I feel like some people are scared to join,” Suzanne said. “But this is a very non judgmental and welcoming working out environment. It’s just like if you were to go to a YMCA class, except I’m the instructor.”

Note: Suzanne Guo is a writer and graphic artist for the Talon.

“I’m bored in the house and I’m in the house bored” (TikTok reference). If this is you, then maybe you should try the Rosen Challenge. 

Like many other students, the shelter-in place order left Junior Justin Rosen bored much of the time, until he came up with a creative idea and proposed it to his sister: the Rosen Challenge. The challenge is to run 24 miles in 24 hours: one mile every hour of the day. 

Over 15 people joined the Rosen Challenge, including his dog Alani, friends and family. They started at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 18 and ended the challenge the next morning at 9 a.m. 

“The hardest part was waking up each hour after 12 a.m. to go outside and run,” Justin said. “It [takes] a lot of mental will. You have to persevere through the hardest parts even when you don’t want to wake up anymore to go run and just want to sleep for the rest of the night.”

As a member of both the Los Altos cross country and track teams, Justin felt this challenge would be a great way to get the Los Altos community active as well. 

“Afterwards I felt very proud of myself and all my friends and family who did it,” Justin said. “I have so much respect for all of them for pushing through and joining me on this crazy crusade.”

Justin plans to do the challenge again on Saturday, May 2 at 9 a.m. While promoting the ASB food drive for the Second Harvest Food Bank, he and ASB are also publicizing the next opportunity to do the Rosen Challenge. 

“Give it a chance,” Justin said. “It is a really fun and unusual experience that you may not have been able to participate in without quarantine because you wouldn’t want to stay up all night when you have to go to school the day after. I recommend that everyone tries it even if they don’t do the entire thing.”