Why is physical exercise important to the International Academy?
Exercise is important to an over healthy state of being
Helps brain function and focus
Promotes psychological balance
Helps maintain or lose weight in a healthy way
Promotes time management and scheduling
Reduces diseases and conditions associated with premature death
Finding exercise opportunities is important to us because as students at the International Academy it is hard to find time to exercise due to our busy schedules and we want to have all these benefits
We spend so much time on homework that it makes a healthy exercise program almost impossible.
Each of us needs help making a semi-personalized exercise plan so we can stay healthy and study more effectively.
The Problems
Nearly half of young people aged 12-21 are not vigorously active on a regular basis.
Physical activity declines dramatically with age during adolescence.
Female adolescents are much less physically active than male adolescents.
Gym classes are not enough
In high school, enrollment in daily physical education classes dropped from 42 percent in 1991 to 25 percent in 1995.
Only 19 percent of all high school students are physically active for 20 minutes or more in physical education classes every day during the school week.
At least half of Americans are affected by lower back pain, and about 80% of these problems are related to muscular problems rather than to the spine.
Studies of societies in which people commonly live for over 100 years show a common denominator of moderate physical activity.
Creating Solutions:
You have now seen how not enough exercise can lead to problems later in life, regular fitness leads to a long life, and also how American teenagers are not getting enough physical exercise in their lives. Even though all this information is compelling, there are some obstacles that make it hard to exercise no matter how much you convince yourself to. Below are a list of common problems and solutions to each, we understand that many of you encounter multiple problems and most solutions are easy to combine or alter for your personal exercise plan.
Not having enough time (getting home late at night, homework all the time)
Schedule in exercise! If you write your homework and activities in a planner, write your fitness time in too! Maybe you have to do chores after homework and your parents won't listen to "I need my exercise!" as an excuse. This may sound crazy, but do the hard chores! Shoveling snow, mowing the lawn, raking leaves, and planting flowers are all considered fitness.
Maybe you can't exercise outside because you live in an unsafe neighborhood, or it's too cold to go outside, or maybe your parents want you doing something they think is more productive like studying or making money.
Play sports or join a club through your school. These can be things such as enrichments in IA's case. Another option is to exercise in your home, you can do yoga pilates, or something like the Wii Fit. Sometimes a fun thing to do is just put on your iPod and dance! You do this no matter what music you listen to and its a great way to take a 10 minute break from studying.
Do things that are fun. Your mind may not register these activities as exercise because you are doing something you enjoy. To get exercise you could walk around in the mall (shop), walk to a friends house, or even dance. You could do things that your family makes you do, such as, playing with siblings or walking the dog. If your family pushes you to do this you are more likely to follow through with one of these activities.
*Maybe you can go hangout with your friends and possibly even a crush?
There are websites that are specific for teens that can help them find a fun activity for them to do so that not only will they find something to fit their schedule, but also the advice and exercise will boost teens confidence
As our groups going beyond we attended and participated in the Roseville Big Bird Run! Participating in small compititions is a great way to stay in shape and give yourself a little motivation when exercising just to stay fit gets boring. Below are the pictures of Rebecca running the 4k (2.56 mi) event!
But That's not It!
Blair Interviewed Internation Academy's own alumini Ms. Clancy. She meet with her and she asked her the following questions:
1. When you hear the word diet, what is the first thing that comes to mind?
Changing your eating habbits, and maybe (not required) weight loss. Weight loss is not always a goal when going on a diet.
She's absolutly right! Did you know that dieting does not exlclude any food what so ever, in fact the actual "correct" diet is eating everything on the food pyramid, just planning how much the idividual can eat - which varies in each person. Did you know that when people hear diet they think cutting out food but really eating just as much or more of the approprate food.
2. How much water do you drink per day? And if you were given the opportunity would you replace water with soda pop?
I rarely drink juice, and I drink water at least four times a day - at least during school. I might go home and have one more bottle.
This is probably the best thing that she can do for herself, keeping yourself hydrated with water is healthy not only does it help with body function (blood, regulates body temperature, lubricates moving parts, and intracellular fluid.) It also helps maintain weight.
3. In high school what sports did you do?
My freshman year I did track, and I did scottish highland dancing. Today I'm not a big exerciser but i love walking.
Actually this is great, doing sports in high school leads to a healthy lifestyle in adulthood. Also this is a great example of just the typical sports like football, soccer, basketball ext. A grave misconception that many people have is that in order to be healthy they have to do sports that maybe their not good at. Although something as simple as walking is a excellent way to stay in shape. In fact walking is better sometimes then running.
4. In high school what did your diet consist of?
I ate dinner with my family almost every night, rarely ate out. For lunch i had a bagel and yogurt during school days.
This is probably the best thing she can do, eating with your family is proven to help teens keep teens from drugs. Also, making your own food allows you to track what goes into your dinner. And yogurt is a delicious way to get one of three reccomended servings of dairy per day.
So put it all together!
Exercise is so important for teens because it helps maintain weight, it influences a healthier schedule in their future, and it improves mood and focus for both in and out of school. Not only that, but having a healthy exercise plan prevents crash dieting and laziness and it incorporates something fun if the teen is not an athlete. This one might interest the IA student the most: working out gets more oxygen to the brain so you can find it easier to focus in class and feel more awake. Hacing a constant exercise schedukle teaches teens to balance school work. This is very important in IA because this balance is difficult to find.
We learned that you don't have to be a star athlete to be in shape. Things like doing chores and playing with kids are both great examples of common alternatives to the sometimes hard to get gym membership. The most important thing however is balance and exercise teaches balance in school and balance in the mind. It creates a healthier mood in teens and extends their life expectancy.
Paige Waehrer. “Exercise for teens: safe ways to exercise”. Above.com. April 7, 2009. Above.com. Health’s Disease and Condition. Content is Review by Medical review board. Exercise About.com Sept. 30, 2009
How Can We Provide IA Students with exercise opportunities that fit their busy schedules
Dont we need to add some kind of interview?
We also need to add the video we made.
Btw Blair, I dont think that this music is appropriate (not just for the type of project we are doing). I know that we will put it on mute but do you know if you can change it because if Mr. K goes on here after our presentation he may be a little scared.
hey rebbecca are you on, if so idk why its not letting me save the last part of what i wrote, is it showing up for you because that is just a little bit freaking me out.
Comments (3)
Asha K. said
at 5:47 pm on Nov 11, 2009
Dont we need to add some kind of interview?
We also need to add the video we made.
Btw Blair, I dont think that this music is appropriate (not just for the type of project we are doing). I know that we will put it on mute but do you know if you can change it because if Mr. K goes on here after our presentation he may be a little scared.
Blair Prince said
at 12:12 am on Nov 13, 2009
hey rebbecca are you on, if so idk why its not letting me save the last part of what i wrote, is it showing up for you because that is just a little bit freaking me out.
Rebecca Hamburger said
at 12:35 am on Nov 13, 2009
umm its not showing right now blair
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