Read about an exciting study that intends to show positive effects on fitness and health related measures. This work was presented as a poster presentation recently at the Midwest chapter meeting of the American College of Sports Medicine, hosted by Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana.

Debra D'Acquisto
Health & Fitness Section Editor

The Tri-Fit-A-Thon

The Tri-Fit-A-Thon, as author Len Saunders tells us, is a fun way to get kids active. It consists of three fitness events: chin-ups, curl-ups, and push-ups. The target audience can be any group of children from grades four and up.

The idea of Tri-Fit-A-Thon was implemented to help encourage students to develop better upper body and abdominal strength, while also having a cardiovascular workout that is fun. Points are awarded during the event upon completion of each exercise that lasts for 3 minutes each.

The class is divided into three groups, or partners. It is important that the children are first educated on the proper ways of performing the three different exercises before you begin.

This chapter includes how the author defines each type of exercise, and how it can be accomplished in groups. The chapter also contains samples of a recording sheet, a completion certificate, a parent letter, press release and event checklist that will help with implementation.

Let's take a quick look at the Procheska stage model of behavior change and think about where we see ourselves.

	Pre contemplation: Provide education. Physical activity venues, refreshing programs, and education starting at an early age set the foundation.
	Contemplation: Motivate. Describe the goals of programs, the benefits of being physically active, and involve the whole family.
	Pre preparation: Have a start plan, have equipment, have a place. The inside and outside environment are critical.
	Action: Match goals to the place, the equipment, the program. Develop coping strategies for barriers to exercise at every age.
	Maintenance: Review the coping strategies, and reassess the goals for compliance and adherence.

Physical Activities Workbook
How do you motivate yourself to increase your physical activity? Start by lifting one of these.

Adding more physical activity into your life isn't easy. That's why AARP is offering the "Physical Activities Workbook." Based on the "Be Active for Life Handbook," which won a 2004 Silver Award from the National Health Information Awards program, this updated and re-titled version shows how you can add physical activity into your daily routine based on your unique needs and lifestyle. It also teaches you how to start safely, set goals, develop a support network, find motivation, and overcome barriers. - source:site
FREE!

Seed - Flower Stretch
This is a fun, physical, group warmup activity which works with all ages. In a circle, everyone starts as a small seed (crouched, hunched), then slowly sprouts and grows, eventually flowering towards the sun (tippy toes, arms outstretched).

Giants, Wizards & Elves
Fun chasing game with suspense, laughter and exercise. Giant (arms up, roars) beats elf (hands to ears); elf beats wizard (waves wand & "kazaam"); wizard zaps giant.

Baseline Fitness and Health Data in a nationally Recognized Junior and Senior High School Physical Education Program - R Glorioso, C. Broeder, FASM. Benedictine University, Lisle, IL.

This purpose of this study was to collect baseline fitness and health data for the development of a CDC longitudinal fitness and health behavior related grant. The data would be on children 13 to 18 years old, from a nationally recognized PE program, using representative and random samples of students from five junior, and two senior high schools.

Because each junior and senior high school has a complete testing and fitness center (weight room, treadmills, and in-school options for special fitness activities, i.e., rollerblading or rock climbing), we hypothesized that compared to normative data from both the Fitnessgram and national norms (such as the CDC's national growth charts for BMI), the results of this evaluation would show a strong positive effect on both fitness and health related variables.

A total of 270 subjects were tested (147 from junior high (78M/69F), age 13.9 + 0.6 years; 123 subjects from senior high (61M/62F), age16.2 + 1.2 years). Due to the small number of subjects, and a very culturally diverse sample population, subjects were not subdivided by race. The results indicated that 13% of junior high school males were overweight, which is 7.3% below the national average, while only 11.6% of females were overweight, or 7.5% below the national norms; this according to the children's body mass index 95th percentile of the CDC 2000 growth charts.

For senior high students, 6.7% males and 8.2% females were overweight, which were 13.6% and 10.9% below the national norms, respectively. More importantly, percent body fat measurements (by BMI) in the senior high students indicated that 100% and 83.6% of the males and females, respectively, met or exceeded the Fitness gram norms for body composition.

For all Fitnessgram variables tested (mile run, pacer, curl ups, push ups, sit up and reach), on average 82.4% of males and 77.0% of females met, or exceeded the Healthy Fitness Zone standard required scores. Research supported by a grant from PE 4 Life nonprofit organization.

Results of the baseline research are encouraging. You may ask if the "healthy" baseline fitness levels were directly related to the availability of the in-school fitness centers, or the in-school options of special fitness activities. In either case, the accessibility to a path of encouraging greater physical activity has been created. Also, we do not know if the schools represented in the study are in towns where many barriers to be physically active exist. (see How to Remove barriers to Exercise at vanderbiltowc.wellsource.com). Therefore the presence of in-school facilities would make a major impact on the physical activity levels in the community.

Offering special physical education options (rock climbing and in line skating) set in motion a foundation of physical activity education that open pathways to the continuation of being active into adulthood years. Key to promoting physical activity programs is education. Half the inactivity battle is won if children at young ages understand, through education, the need to move their bodies. The other half of the battle is breaking down the barriers (Overcoming Barriers at www.diabetes.org.) to be physically active.

What if young students grew into young adulthood, and took with them the need to construct their daily lives around meaningful physical activity? And what if the graying population increased their daily activity levels, supported their families in a physically active lifestyle, and participated with the local schools and their community in the battle against inactivity. Wouldn’t we be a nation of healthy movers!

There are strong indicators that show physical activity is increasing as a result of a national youth media campaign launched by the CDC in 2002. Keep an eye open for more and more data that shows a positive trend in greater physical activity time among our youth. Also, look for current data that shows a shrinking in the activity gap between boys and girls. Yeah! Our youth is getting the message that it is cool to be physically active!

Two sources to reference:

	National Campaign to get Kids Physically Active is Working, CDC National Center for Chronic Disease Press Release, February 17, 2004.
	Make Family Time An Active Time, US Department of Agriculture.

The Basics of a Healthy Diet
If you were to offer your child either a candy bar or an apple, which do you think he or she would choose? What if you changed the choice to either crackers and cheese or an apple? Read this article to find information on how to 'condition' your child to make healthy food choices.

BAM! Body and Mind is a resource for you to incorporate CDC health, safety, and science topics into classroom activities. The site also offers your students interactive content to investigate health and science topics for school or for a personal interest.

Also at BAM! Body and Mind the CDC provides tips for kids on how to stay true to themselves when faced with peer pressure. Tons of resources here.

early childhood
Frequently Asked Questions About Physical Activity in Early Childhood. See also, middle childhood FAQs.

Promoting the Development of Movement: the role of physical education - This is a 7 page PDF file that discusses:

	An introduction to growth, maturation, motor development and learning.
	Biomechanical basis of movement.
	The evidence base from some longitudinal growth studies.
	The adolescent growth spurt.
	Conclusions.

Stretch 'n Grow is a comprehensive fitness program for kids. They are committed to helping educators and parents establish a foundation of exercise and proper nutrition at an early age, before habits gel. The Stretch-n-Grow program teaches children the fundamentals of a healthy lifestyle. Tons of locations.

There must be 50 Ways to Play Outside - The folks who produce have done a survey that shows 50 percent of mothers say their children are outside less than five hours per week. The company has produced a list of Fifty Ways to Play, to encourage families to get outside and do physical activity more often.

Eight clues to future weight gain in children
Researchers have come up with a list of eight things parents and caregivers can look for in a child that may indicate the child's risk of becoming obese. They are:

	too much television.
	not enough sleep.
	high birth weight.
	early size.
	rapid weight gain.
	quick growth in years one and two.
	early body fat.
	having obese parents.

What’s "too much" television? These researchers suggested anything more than 8 hours a day [Correction!: that's per week]. "Not enough" sleep? Researchers say a 3-year-old should get 10 ½ hours of sleep a night, for example.

Obviously, once parents are aware of the signs, they can take steps toward prevention. Things to do instead of watching tv.

Television? Just walk it off!
Okay, if you've tried everything else to get your children to get up off the couch and stop watching so much tv, maybe you can just give in and let them watch-as long as they're moving.

An engineering and design student in London has developed a pedometer type thing that, in essence, requires movement for the wearer to "earn" television time. The more steps taken, the longer the television will run. When steps run out, the television goes blank!

The device's designer says she's aiming to get girls to take 12,000 steps and boys 15,000 steps in a day - a bit higher than what a lot of adults are now trying to achieve, but very doable. If the child hits the target, 2 hours of television are awarded. A special device turns the television off after 2 hours. No word on when this device will be mass-marketed.

Too Much TV?
American kids spend a unbelievable amount of time in front of the boob-tube.