Departments : Keeping Fit :
Hooked on Fitness
By Jeffrey Crupi
Take advantage of these formative years to help your students develop healthy exercise habits
Regular exercise can promote overall good health, confidence and a positive self-image. Encouraging students to exercise during the formative years can promote lifelong healthy habits. With this in mind, it is important that we as educators promote a positive attitude toward physical fitness.
Positive steps
When teaching physical fitness to your students, consider the following guidelines:
- Make it enjoyable – Physical fitness in K-8 should be fun! Focus on enjoying the activity and better understanding the body's capacity for physical fitness.
- Introduce a variety – We all like to have options available to us. When children learn about a variety of sports and fitness activities, they are able to choose the activity that best suits their needs. From softball, to soccer, to tennis, to golf, kids can become involved in these activities both in and out of school. Students might join a school team or become involved with a local recreation league, or even enroll in private lessons.
- Plan for success – To promote a positive attitude toward physical fitness, students need to experience success – and lots of it. To ensure that all students succeed, teachers may need to make accommodations for various students. In addition, students should be encouraged to create realistic and attainable physical fitness goals. Fitness goals that are viewed as worthwhile and attainable can prompt child-initiated activities.
- Constant feedback – Feedback that is both verbal and nonverbal can go a long way in stimulating a child's participation in physical fitness.
- Role modeling – Being a positive role model can help influence a child's beliefs and commitment to physical fitness. Teachers who openly share their own physical fitness goals and interests with students, and who participate in physical activities with students, are clearly a positive influence upon our children's attitudes toward an active lifestyle.
A fit generation
A positive attitude toward physical fitness is crucial to establish within children's early years. By promoting physical fitness in schools we can help build a generation of children that can reap the rewards of regular exercise and physical activity.
Jeffrey Crupi is the owner of Peak Fitness Gym in Westport, CT. He is a certified fitness specialist with a degree from Marymount Manhattan College.
November/December, 2006, Vol.37, No.3
