By Robin Overby

Energy drinks or exercise? With final exams rapidly approaching, students are trying to find the best way to be fit for finals.

As summer draws near, more and more students are flooding TRECS and the library.  Trying to balance the impending stress of finals and the ever-so-close summer break becomes a daunting task as time seems to be passing faster now that finals have arrived.

Predictably, this question does not have one concrete answer; however, there are some resounding opinions on the issue.  When asked about what he thought of energy drinks Kyle Prins, a sophomore in Computer Engineering, simply replied, “They don’t work.”  To support this claim, Kyle recounted his multiple attempts at taking energy drinks to stay awake and emphasized that none of them did the trick.  Oscar Cabral, a sophomore, laughed and proclaimed, “I took 3 energy drinks this morning and then fell back asleep!” 

For these two students, energy drinks did not seem to fulfill their promise of alertness and instead resulted in a sugar rush quickly followed by a complete lack of awareness.  One look into TRECS reveals that hundreds of students have ditched the energy drinks and found a new source for energy, exercise.

Instead of pumping herself with sugar-filled energy drinks, Katie Peay goes to Yogalates and praises how the class affects her, “When I leave Yogalates, I feel refreshed and focused.”  Students engage in activities to prepare themselves for a study session.  TRECS offers a variety of exercise classes and other venues that benefit students' physical and mental health.  From treadmills to weights, students spend hours working out and rely on exercise for focus and energy. 

Exercise "works out" for those who flock to TRECS, but others rely on energy drinks to study effectively.  Even further, there are students who both drink energy drinks and exercise to be successful.  Redbull has an infamous reputation among students accustomed to beating the clock and finishing the last three hundred words of their research papers hours before it's due.  For Yoga instructor Lynsey Kennon, energy drinks are never an option.  "If I had to choose between energy drinks and nothing, I would choose nothing."   

Exercise may be the best outlet for stress while simultaneously restoring the mind, as opposed to energy drinks that appear to be filled with both empty promises and empty calories.  Students unsure of which method to use should consider trying exercise first before resorting to cashing out on energy drinks that may end up contributing to their waist line instead of their GPA.