Fitness & Wellness Coming Down to the High School Level

by Heather Long | More from this Blogger

I was talking to a friend of mine from out of state the other day and she told me an interesting story about the local high school in her area. The schools there are relatively small - the grades K through 8 are at one school with 9 through 12 at another. The K through 8 school has only 125 students and the high school has about twice that number.

The relative size of the school helps with the new fitness program they are instituting in their gym and physical education classes. By taking a page from the local University's lifetime fitness and wellness classes, the area schools are promoting a fit lifestyle. They have challenged the different grades to wear pedometers 24 hours a day and to keep a log of how many steps they are taking.

The first part of this challenge is to take place over the course of six weeks. Once they've set their baseline for that first six weeks - the second six weeks will challenge them to double the number. This is in accordance with the 10,000 steps a day program. The concept of the 10,000 steps a day program is to make a person more aware of their fitness level.

By increasing their steps, students are more likely to discover weight loss and better physical fitness as they increase the number of steps they take every day. I have mentioned previously that the pedometer can be a great motivator for your personal fitness because you can see immediate and physical evidence of your daily activities and more.

Valorie Delp is exploring her own personal results with the 10,000 steps a day challenge in her personal fitness. This high school experiment is designed to get students up and moving. The challenge to increase their steps is the lesson - it's not whether they succeed, it's not how much weight they lose and ultimately it's not about how many steps a day they take or achieve - it's about becoming aware of it. The more aware we are, the more likely we are to improve our physical activities.

Do you think your school would benefit from such a program?

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Learn more about Heather Long

Heather Long is 35 years old and currently lives in Wylie, Texas. She has been a freelance writer for six years. Her husband and she met while working together at America Online over ten years ago.

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