4.1: Why Get Physical

National Health Standards

• Compare the good things (benefits) and hard parts (barriers) of healthy habits, like being active every day.
• Learn how to set goals and make plans to improve your health, such as being more physically active.

Wellness Guidelines

• Be physically active more often.
• Sit still less often (this is called "sedentary behavior").

Instructions: In a group, or with a partner, talk about the questions below. If you're making progress on your goal, celebrate it! If you want to change your goal, ask your teacher for one-on-one help.

Let's talk about our SMART Goals:

• How is your current SMART goal going?
• What could help you make more progress? (These are your "grows.")
• What are you already doing well? (These are your "glows.")

GUIDELINE: Be active more often and sit less.

• Which guideline do you think matches today's lesson? Who has a SMART goal connected to it?

Instructions: Pick one activity from the list below.

1. Guideline Popcorn: As a group, quickly call out all 8 guidelines, one person after another, like popcorn popping.
2. Guideline Charades: Split into groups. Each group gets a guideline and must act it out silently while everyone else guesses.
3. Two Truths and One Lie:
4. Truth 1: Regular physical activity lowers anxiety and stress.
5. Truth 2: Regular physical activity boosts self-esteem (how good you feel about yourself).
6. Lie: Regular physical activity makes you more tired during the day.
7. Questions to discuss or write about:
8. What physical activities do you enjoy most?
9. Where do you usually do them?
10. What new activities would you like to try?
11. How do you usually feel after being active?

• Talk about why physical activity matters — not just for your body, but for your mind too.

Materials: Worksheet, slides, Fitness Personality Quiz, Academic Fitness Handout, Do Now, Physical Activity vs. Sedentary activity, Motives for Movement activity, Academics & Fitness activity, Exit Ticket.

Key Words to Know

(Based on definitions from the CDC, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Merriam-Webster, and the World Health Organization)

• Fitness: Being able to do everyday tasks with energy and without getting worn out.
• Physical activity: Any movement of your body that uses your muscles and burns energy.
• Exercise: Movement that is planned, structured, repeated, and done on purpose to improve fitness.
• Overload: Extra physical stress on your body when an activity is harder or longer than what you're used to.
• Sedentary: Sitting a lot and not moving much; inactive.
• Evaluate: To figure out how important or valuable something is.
• Benefit: A good or helpful result.
• Barrier: Something that makes an action difficult or hard to do.

Do Now: Your Fitness Personality

Instructions:

• Complete the Fitness Personality Quiz.
• Once finished, share your results with a partner or the whole group. What type of exerciser are you?

Discussion points:

• There are many ways to be physically active.
• Since everyone is different, we all like different kinds of activity.
• The activities you enjoy often match your personality. You can use your fitness personality type to help build your own exercise plans and goals.
• What does "fitness" mean? It's being able to do daily tasks with energy, without getting tired.

Quiz results:

• Mostly A's – Competitive: You love being part of a team, on the court or off. You're ready to play almost any sport — soccer, softball, even beach volleyball. Try to play hard a couple of times a week, but remember to rest too. Everyone needs downtime to recharge.

• Mostly B's – Social: You do your best in a group, especially with friends by your side. Try taking a class or joining a club, like martial arts, dance, or aerobics. Most classes meet a few times a week for 30 minutes or more — a great amount of exercise!

• Mostly C's – Solitary: You'd rather exercise on your own. Swimming, biking, or jogging in the park are great choices. Try to get moving a few times a week for at least 30 minutes.

• Mostly D's – Relaxed: You like a slower, calmer pace, but there are still plenty of ways to stay fit. Yoga and Pilates combine stretching and breathing to keep your body toned without leaving you out of breath. Aim to do these a few times a week.

Good to Know: Physical Activity vs. Sedentary

Discussion points:

• What does physical activity mean? It's any movement your body makes using your muscles that burns energy.
• Physical activity isn't just good for your outside (your body) — it's also good for your inside (your mind).
• Being active doesn't just change how your body looks. It changes how you think, how you feel, how long you live, and what you're able to do.
• Today we'll talk about why physical activity matters for both your body and your mind, so you can stay healthy overall.
• Fitness means being able to do everyday tasks with energy, without wearing out.
• Exercise is planned, structured, repeated movement meant to build or maintain fitness. It's one type of physical activity.
• We use energy all the time — our hearts beat, our lungs breathe, and our stomachs digest food, all using energy.
• But are we always doing physical activity? Not really. Sometimes our bodies need "overload" — extra physical stress from activity that's harder or longer than usual. When this happens, three things occur in your body:
• Your heart rate (pulse) goes up.
• Your breathing rate goes up.
• Your skin changes — it may turn pink or become sweaty.
• What does sedentary mean? It means sitting a lot and moving very little.
• How do you feel after sitting or lying down all day? You might feel:
• Sore or achy
• Tired
• Weak
• Anxious or sad
• Less focused
• How do you feel after being physically active? Is it different from how you feel after sitting all day? Which feeling is better? You might feel:
• Energetic
• Happy
• Clear-headed and focused
• When you live a sedentary lifestyle, you may feel sore, tired, weak, or moody — because our bodies are built to move!
• Sitting all day strains your muscles, and over time they can start to weaken.
• Sitting also makes it harder for blood to flow properly and deliver important nutrients to parts of your body, including your brain. In fact, a sedentary lifestyle has been linked to a higher risk of serious illnesses, like Type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
• Studies also show that sitting too much is linked to more negative feelings, like anxiety, and trouble paying attention. That's why getting physical is so important!

Optional videos to watch:

• What happens inside your body when you exercise? (British Heart Foundation, 2017)
• Why Sitting is Bad For You (TED-Ed, 2015)

Real World Relevance: Motives for Movement

Instructions:

• Brainstorm the benefits of daily physical activity, the barriers (obstacles) that get in the way, and ways to overcome them.
• Also think about emotional benefits and emotional barriers.
• As people share ideas, write them down on a board or chart paper.

Discussion points:

• How much physical activity should you get each day?
• Kids and teens should be active for 60 minutes a day. Adults should aim for 2½ to 5 hours of exercise each week.
• We'll look at the benefits of physical activity, how much time is recommended each day, the barriers people face, and how to get past each one. Evaluate means to figure out how important or valuable something is.

(Chart created by HealthCorps staff, based on information from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the CDC)

• Remember: what you enjoy doing probably falls somewhere between "sitting on the couch" and "running a marathon." Everyone is at a different point on this exercise spectrum, and it's okay to take small steps toward your daily goals.

Hands-On: Academics & Fitness

Instructions:

• Read an article that may be harder or more complex than what you're used to reading — and possibly less exciting.
• For example, an excerpt from a study called "Is exercise a viable treatment for depression?" (Blumenthal et al., 2012) explains that:

Depression is a common condition that can lower quality of life, raise health care costs, and increase the risk of other health problems, especially heart disease. This article looks at ways to measure depression and reviews current treatments. Common treatments include therapy and medication, but these don't work for everyone. Because of this, other approaches — especially aerobic exercise — have gotten more attention. The article reviews evidence that exercise can help improve symptoms of major depression and gives practical tips for helping people start...