Home Exercise

2-3.1 Participate regularly in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity in and outside of physical education class.

Technology is making exercise at home very effective and, more importantly, engaging. Video games, apps, and DVDs provide a wide variety of exercise ideas as well as accurate tracking systems of exercise data.

http://www.thewiredhomeschool.com/2012/04/5-ideas-for-using-technology-with-pe/ provides a sample of the available technologies for students to use. My personal favorite is the RunKeeper which keeps a GPS like tracking of your running or walking routes. It is fun to look back over the data to see where you have traveled as well as the pace of your workouts.

Body Composition

5-4.1 Achieve the age- and gender-specific health-related physical fitness standards defined by a
state-approved fitness assessment.

Body composition describes what our bodies are made up of. An individuals body can be unique based on the amount or lack of muscle and fat inside the body. Too much fat can be a concern. Obesity leads to life threatening conditions such as heart disease. The way to prevent this is to keep your weight and body fat within a healthy zone.

You can quickly see if you are in a healthy weight range by measuring your Body Mass Index (BMI) which indicates healthy weights for an individuals height, age, and gender. You can see how healthy your BMI is in 4 steps.
1. Measure your height in feet and inches.
2. Measure your weight in pounds.
3. Go to http://www.nhlbisupport.com/bmi/ and enter in the numbers, then press the "Calculate BMI" button.
4. Use the chart on the right to see if you are underweight, normal weight, overweight, or obese.

Target Heart Rate

5-2.6 Describe how heart rate is used to monitor exercise intensity.

Your heart beats faster as you increase the intensity of your exercise. Different intensities of exercise achieve different fitness goals. Your age affects what your target heart rate should be during exercise. Instead of just getting 30-60 minutes of exercise, try to monitor your heart rate during the exercise to make sure you are always at your target heart rate. You can do this in 4 simple steps.

1. Find your pulse on your wrist or neck.
2. Count your pulse for 6 seconds.
3. Multiply that number by 10.
4. Use this target heart rate calculator to see if you are in the healthy exercise range.

After a few repetitions, you will know the range you should be at and not have to refer to the chart everytime.

Regular Participation in Daily Physical Activity

5-3.2
Identify opportunities available in the school and community for regular
participation in physical activity.

It is important to be aware of what opportunities there are for physical activity. Just being aware can really change our decision making. When a YMCA was built right across the street from where I live, it greatly enhanced the frequency of exercise for me because I finally had a place where I could go play basketball all of the time.

I created a flickr account for students as well as anyone to contribute to in order to spread awareness of local opportunities for regualr health enhancing physical activity. All you have to do is sign up, take pictures, upload, and geotag them for others to see.

http://www.flickr.com/groups/1920590@N24/

Muscular Fitness

2-4.3 Participate in physical activity to increase muscular
strength and endurance.

Muscular strength and muscular endurance are 2 of the health-related fitness components. Gyms are popular places to improve muscular fitness with all of the machines that are easy to use. But, since, this blog also focuses on safety, there are some exercise machines that should be avoided as this article explains as well as provides alternatives that are more healthy.

http://health.yahoo.net/articles/fitness/photos/10-exercise-machines-avoid#0

Warming Up

Warming up is the first part of exercise students need to learn in order to maximize participation and reduce injuries. For this post, I have created a podcast episode that can be downloaded and subscribed to. http://podcastmachine.com/podcasts/12898/episodes/65000

Purpose

This blog is intended for provide ideas, resources, and discussions on health-related fitness strategies and activities for elementary students. My intentions are to attach the South Carolina Academic Standard for Physical Education that relates to each post so that it can be used by other educators or those invested in childhood fitness. He is a link to the PE standards. http://teachers.greenville.k12.sc.us/sites/kgaines/Shared%20Documents/SC%20PE%20Standards.pdf