Fitness education could, in the immediate future, play a major role in the reduction of childhood obesity, as well as obesity throughout all age ranges, while simultaneously increasing the overall health of all individuals. In order for this to happen, fitness education must be incorporated into all levels of schooling, and be made more available to the adult population who were deprived of it during their school age, adolescent, and young adulthood stages of life. Fitness education is accompanied by a plethora of health benefits asides from obesity reduction which mustn't be overlooked. Join me as we explore these benefits and see how fitness education can be applied.
In my opinion, the most practical approach to increasing the level of fitness education is incorporating youth strength training into PE curriculums. For years, so called experts have argued that strength training is harmful for prepubescent children, and therefore should be done away with for this age group. A lot of this has to do with the fact that the definition of strength training was being looked at narrow-mindedly in that it was directly linked to power-lifting. However, strength training exercises are not only about finding your three rep max on the bench press or back squat. Instead they are "exercises designed to increase an individual's ability to exert or resist force" (Faigenbaum, Micheli). Therefore, exercises such as pushups and pull-ups, along with many others, can be considered strength training, and if done with proper form, can lead to overall strength gains.
Gradually adding weights into the workouts, and then slowly increasing said weight over time, will help make the program more challenging, and therefore yield greater results....
... middle of paper ...
... stop it, it may be too late before we know it.
Works Cited
"Adult Obesity Facts." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, 16 Aug. 2013. 20 Mar. 2014.
"Exercise and Depression: Endorphins, Reducing Stress, and More." WebMD. WebMD. 21 Mar.
2014.
Faigenbaum, Avery D. and Lyle J. Micheli. "Youth Strength Training". ASCM Current
Comment. Volume 32, Number 2, Page 28.
Gonnelli, Ajay and Gunnar Andersen. Fitness Edu. PowerPoint Presentation. Slide 2. 4 Feb
2014.
Kotz, Deborah, and Angela Haupt. "7 Mind-Blowing Benefits of Exercise." US News. U.S.News
& World Report. 22 Mar. 2014.
"President's Council on Fitness, Sports & Nutrition." Facts & Statistics. 22 Mar. 2014.
Wenig, Marsha. "YogaKids: Educating the Whole Child Through Yoga". New York, NY:
Stewart, Tabori, & Chang. 2003.
Click here to unlock this and over one million essays
Show MoreIn my opinion, physical education is very important. I also feel that we should do whatever to get as much exercise as possible. That does include PE classes. At first thought, mostly everyone will assume that PE is just a class to get the easy way out, so a harder class isn’t assigned. I feel like it can be very beneficial, though. For some, the class may be the only exercise they get at all. Even though its only a hour and a half, it is better than none. PE also gets the students to cooperate with each other. The kids that don’t talk much or don’t have many friends, get a chance to socialize with others and make friends. The class can teach sportsmanship and teamwork. PE has the potential to bring out the competitive side of...
Physical activity should be encouraged at an early age. It would be best to make physical education a required school curriculum. A student taking a physical education class will have many benefits. For example, a child taking a physical education class will learn about proper exercising. It would also be wise if the instructors integrated information about healthy eating habits into the curriculum to further increase a child?s knowledge on good dieting. This will help a child develop physically more in strength and endurance which in turn will build healthy bones, muscles, and muscle development. Furthermore, at the same time a child will maintain a healthy weight from eating a nutritional diet. Having studied some physical education classes from personal experience, the coach was very passionate about being healthy. Before leaving P.E. class everyday, he would review all the major food groups and stress that the students stay away from fried foods and consume more fruit in their diet.
Did you know that “one out of three children in the United States is considered overweight”? (Miller). In today’s society, more and more students are gaining excessive weight which can lead to even worse internal problems like heart disease which can drastically shorten their life span. With school budget cuts and limited time available for the class, physical education has slowly become more obsolete in today’s educational requirements. If students cannot get the minimum time needed to burn the extra energy found in today’s foods and drinks, the extra fat adds up, and can create a buildup extra weight. With the rise of obesity, simply learning healthy eating and exercises can lead to a better life style later on in life. If physical education
Proponents of physical education often contend their case with these and other similar arguments, but upon closer examination of the physical education system, its true use and effectiveness are highly questionable. Those who argue that physical education is integral to the nation’s health must reexamine the nation in which we live, a nation in which more than one-third of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Pennsylvanian legislation has mandated physical education since 1999, but since 1999, the adult obesity rate has risen by 11%. Regardless of the proponents’ claims, physical education is not having its intended effect on public health. (Note: I am not trying to suggest that physical education is deleterious to public health. I am just showing that physical education has done a negligible job promoting health). Furthermore, physical education consumes an entire class period of a student’s day, a class period which could be spent learning one of many highly important, pertinent 21st century subjects that the Common Core has inexplicably ignored: micro and macro economics, U.S.
Samantha Cleaver’s article titled “Is Your Child Getting Enough Physical Education?” addresses America’s past and previous issues regarding obesity. In addition, she also brings up the fact our country is overlooking the real reason as to why obesity is still a problem if children are required to take physical education classes. Cleaver explains that “only 4 percent of elementary schools, 7 percent middle schools, and 2 percent of high schools provide daily physical education classes for the entire year” (Cleaver, 2008) . Furthermore, Cleaver brings to our attention that America should take into consideration the small amount of physical education students are receiving, and the amount of time they are being active in the classroom. She
For most children growing up, school can often be the first place that a students are introduced to physical equipment and personalized time set apart for them to work out. I like, many other student in high school, was given physical education class. The experience in class was not only a bonding experience between my friends and I. Yet also a chance for me to work on my physical fitness. Unlike my other class I was able to jump and run, stretching not only imagination and my limbs. In schools today students
John F Kennedy once said, “Physical fitness is not only one of the most important keys to a healthy body, it is the basis of dynamic and creative intellectual activity.” He believed that a person who has conditioned their body will exceed when striving towards intellectual achievements. Parents across America have seen the influence that physical exercise can have on students. After school physical education programs, such as sports, not only condition the students to maintain physical health, they also work with teachers to make sure the mind is also being conditioned through learning. Students who participate in school sports are required to maintain their grades to academic standards to be able to participate in the activity. Even though many people would agree that physical education is important to a student’s health and learning process, schools across America are still suffering budget cuts that directly affect the physical education programs and hinder the amount of resources schools have to educate students about physical education. In some cases programs have been removed from schools entirely due to the tremendous cuts in school funding. Physical education programs in schools should not suffer from budget cuts because they support making positive life choices, the exercise is good for an active brain, and being physically fit is important for children as they grow into adults.
Fitness education is the focus of helping your students achieve the knowledge and understanding of physical fitness. As a Phys ED teacher, our job is to promote a healthy lifestyle, and to get our students to live a physically active life that they choose to be a part of. This is our main goal, and this can 't be done if all we are doing is having our students simply run laps, as well as having a once a year testing that tells kids they are not fit, and test norms for comparisons. When we do this, we are not encouraging students to choose to be physically active, especially the ones that do not play sports. In many cases it is very evident that some students are not physically active, so when we do have meaningless testing and the idea of just
other hand, obesity accounts for about 13 percent of children in the United States, which is why physical education programs should be one of the last things to go. They also help students release the stress they have built up through out the day and teach them the ...
The athletic programs in schools solely provide children with different ways to learn motor skills, develop fitness skills, and gain knowledge about physical activity. The physical benefits acquired from establishing a pattern of physical activity in a child’s life include “lowered risk for heart disease, diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis, high blood pressure, obesity, and metabolic syndrome; [improvement of] various other aspects of health and fitness, including aerobic capacity, muscle and bone strength, flexibility, insulin sensitivity, and lipid profiles; and a [reduction] of stress, anxiety, and depression” (Kohl and Cook). In a standard United States physical education program, students learn about the health benefits obtained from participating in physically active activities, as well as the importance of continuing these practices throughout life. In elementary school, the athletics program emphasizes the development of fundamental locomotor, non-locomotor, and artful skills through dance, gymnastics, and games. The motor skill basis established during elementary years can increase children’s social, cognitive, and physical development, and could also increase the individual’s interest in physical activities later on in life. Subsequently, in middle school, the physical activities taught in elementary school are usually refined, combined, and applied to
Gabbard, C., LeBlanc, B., & Lowy, S. (1994). Physical Education for Children: Building the Foundation, 2nd edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, inc.
Sometimes these dramatic changes in our workout programs (such as increasing volume or intensity) can put too much of a shock on the body. Especially if you see these pro athletes or bodybuilders crazy hard workouts, just because they do it does not mean that it’s right for you. When we are using high rep or intensity sets multiple days a week on the same muscle groups such as drop sets, failure sets and compound sets. This can diminish your energy and take longer for your body to
Physical education in schools improves children’s physical health. Getting the recommended amount of exercise can combat obesity. “Regular physical activity can help children and adolescents improve cardiorespiratory fitness, build strong bones and muscles, control weight, reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression, and reduce the risk of developing health conditions” (CDC.gov). PHIT America states,
Physical education exists in schools to help students perform physical activity in schools and promote healthy lifestyles. It is extremely important that physical education teachers promote physical activity and healthy diets to young students because they are the ones who will be at risk of developing health issues such as obesity. Physical educators need to teach the younger generation the proper way to stay healthy so that they will continue to be physically active outside of phys...
Childhood obesity poses a serious threat to the health of our nation, children these days have little to none outdoors activities. Lack of physical activity found to be a significant factor in contributing to childhood obesity. It is very probable that the only outdoors activity that children have now is a P.E. class at school if the school offers it. It doesn’t help that most schools in the United States have had physical activities and recess programs removed from the school. In the article Physical activity and childhood obesity: strategies and solutions for schools and parents the author states, “During active class time, physical educators can look to the teachable moment in which they can talk to an entire class concerning individual differences. Just as the teaching of good sportsmanship should be an essential component of all elementary physical education programs, the recognition of obese and overweight children should be taught so that children become sensitive to the thoughts and feelings of others”.