High School P.E.

Hi Rachel,

I just designed a Phys. Ed course (first time ever!) for my kids this year.  So far so good.  I found it helped me to pick a couple of things that I knew they needed improvement in (ie. flexibility, endurance, strength) and then put them in an order that built off of one another.  for instance, it made sense to work on flexibility and coordination first, before getting into other things because flexibility and coordination will help with the others as well as keep them safer while doing things like running or strength training.  Then I just picked an amount of time for them to work on those areas and picked how many times per week they should do phys ed.  I wrote out appropriate activities (depending on the focus for that time) for the specified amount of days.  I found a lot of ideas for age and gender appropriate activities online, just doing searches.

The other thing that I had thought of doing, and that I know others have done, was to get a boxing bag and gloves and let them use online tutorial videos (there are a lot for free) then have them do kickboxing type workouts two to three times per week.  This is a great overall body workout and is fun as well.  Boy seem to really like it but my girls also like doing these workouts as well.  You don’t necessarily need a boxing bag, though.  you can get a good kickboxing type workout just with “air boxing” as well, if it is intentional and guided by someone who know what they are doing (again, there are free, guided workouts online).

Games using a medicine ball are great for strength and are also fun.

I think training for a race or marathon is a great idea as well!

Rachel –

As a former P.E. instructor in public schools , and am currently directly involved with implementing / teaching the P.E. within our  HS co-op  I will take a stab at giving /offering ideas and advice.

For planning purposes ……My FAVORITE website as an instructor is http://www.pecentral.org .  They have K-12 lesson plans  in every thing imaginable. Granted this caters to a group setting , I know that with some modifications some   could be done with a family at home.There is also a section on assessment – which could help for individual assessment vs. group. They do occasionally have fitness challenges to sign up for . I think there is a small fee to do the fitness challenges though ( I think the fee is per instructor which gives them the awards/ pins to hand out ) .

Ok so that said. You have 2 high schoolers?  Not sure how much $$ you want  to invest in some key pieces at home to equip you ? Things like good quality jump ropes , stability balls , bosu ball ( it fires  the nervous system to react as you are performing an exercise on a unstable surface ) , medicine balls , pedometer , heart rate monitor etc.

Jump roping is GREAT for not just coordination , rhythm , timing but for cardio and leg strength – it is a great substitute for running/ walking as 5 minutes of consistent jumping burns the same amount of calories at 15 minutes of walking. Granted walking is by far the most easiest and accessible as you can just leave from your house and need no equipment.

If walking is where you want to start as it’s level of ease and simplicity — invest in either a pedometer or heart rate monitor maybe . For your high schoolers you could have them track their steps/ distance , frequency , intensity ( heart rate monitor ) . You could bring in some of the exercise physiology aspect of fitness and learn about working towards their target heart rate …or say you start with 50% of their maximum heart rate and work up until they are at your decided target heart rate . Maximum heart rate is 220 minus your age , that number would be where you are working at 100% effort . Half that number is working at 50% effort. If you  pick say…. 70% maximal effort then figure out what that number would be and work towards reaching that target heart rate each time they exercise.

I don’t know what would interest your kids . You could create a individual goal , something fun for them , create a buy in that would motivate them. You could create a 100 mile club  or 100 hours of exercise club etc ., where if they reach the goal of 100 they are rewarded a privilege related to P.E.  like ..  buy tickets for the family to a sporting event ?? Or find a disc golf course and go play as a family ??  I know our co-op has the 100 mile club – it includes not just running / walking but also swimming laps , bicycling , inline skating etc. We have it structured so the harder things like swimming are worth more ( 1 mile of swimming laps counts as 5 miles towards the 100 mile goal ) .

One of my all time fav. things are core exercises. Core strength is so crucial and doing sit up  after sit up after sit up gets OLD !! I like to be creative and switch it up. I have my junior high kids in our co-op do all sorts of planks and that include medicine balls. There is the traditional plank with your arms in a triangle – try to work up to 60 seconds of a traditional plank.  Then there are side planks with your legs stacked. Those work the obliques and can be brutal. You will find out what side is your weak side very quickly !! For more of a challenge with the side planks – put 1 leg and 1 arm up in the air . You then are only supported by 1 foot and an elbow. You could do traditional planks face to face and every 5 seconds give each other a high 5 , rotating left hands to right hands. You could hold the plank facing another person about 5 -7 feet away and pass a medicine ball back and forth to each other – all the while maintaining a plank .

Ok. I did not mean for this to be so long !! As you can see Phys. Ed. is something I am passionate about 🙂  I hope I have spurred some ideas for you to try . Have fun and participate with your kids !

Blessings,

Jamie