JOPERD Table of Contents
No Gear? No Problem! Fitness Activities for Students With Limited Space and Equipment
Zachary Wahl-Alexander, Jenn M. Jacobs, Barrett Kaeb, and Kenneth Riley Jr.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010)
recommends that youth participate in at least 1h of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity each day to achieve
various short- and long-term health benefits. These daily
bouts of activity have been shown to significantly affect children’s
social (Tremblay et al., 2016), academic (Donnelly et al., 2016) and
physiological outcomes (Yang et al., 2007). Despite these positive
effects being universally recognized, only two-thirds of American-born children and adolescents meet prescribed recommendations
put forth by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
American College of Sports Medicine (Troiano et al., 2008). It is
likely that youth do not adhere to these guidelines and are not accumulating sufficient activity during school hours (Institute of
Medicine, 2013). Even more alarming, children from low-income
households (Stevens et al., 2017) and minorities (Wilson, 2008) are
at a higher risk of overweight and obesity due to significantly less
daily activity
One explanation for the health gap is a lack of opportunities to
engage in physical activity during the school day. Many children rely
on in-school activity and physical education as their main source of
fitness, yet numerous schools across the country have removed recess
and limited the frequency of physical education. Throughout a
school year, children regular get displaced during physical education
class time (i.e., assemblies, school pictures), affecting overall
effectiveness.
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