A deep squat, pictured here, is a fundamental movement pattern that all kids should be able to perform. Unfortunately, after sitting in desk chairs for years, many lose the foundational flexibility in their joints to perform this move.
While the curriculum focuses on the bridge between faith and fitness, the fitness component stands on its own. Health and physical education has become a rarity. Students are lucky to have P.E. Class one time per week. Only 4% of schools in our nation have P.E. every day.
It is time we begin integrating fitness ideas used universally by physical therapist, fitness experts and others into our regular Physical Education curriculum. I believe we can teach proper body awareness and mechanics just as we teach math and reading skills.
Approach the exercises you read about here and elsewhere as skills or abilities – better yet, view them as a new language your brain and body will be (re-)learning as opposed to simply a stress relieving, calorie burning modality. We learn our native language as children, then we continue to use this language to ensure we can communicate and never unlearn it. If only we would embrace our physical movement and mobility in the same way, we would most likely never lose God’s gift of our natural, human movement that breeds strong, resilient bodies that some say are built to last in a relatively strong and pain free state for 110 years.
Grade-Level Outcomes and National Standards
We have aligned the exercises and principles with national standards in education and other reputable youth fitness resources. Click here to open a four page PDF document outlining these standards and benchmarks.
People often ask me, “if I only did one exercise, what would it be?” The short answer is to get really good and strong at picking things up off of the floor, including yourself. The long answer involves the brief description of our 8 Everyday Human Moves.
Whether you are a PE Teacher, sports coach, parent or teacher of any kind, please check back to this page monthly for ideas.
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