Free Classroom Fitness Program for Teachers

Trying to find time to honor any type of fitness program in the classroom when PE has been virtually stripped from your school’s curriculum? Lucky to fit in one group activity per week along with all of the unexpected assemblies, special ed integration consults, math reviews and more? Kathy Kaehler, healthy living expert and personal trainer to the stars, has a great free program on her site that provides physical fitness activities to do with your students in workouts as short as one minute. Ready to read on?

Kathy’s program is called Schoolhouse Workout, and features a different one minute workout every month. Often, you’ll see Kathy leading it. Other times, a guest celebrity will be leading the troops. The workouts are in video, approximately one minute in length and are archived for your convenience. Your students won’t need any equipment, other than the occasional use of their desk chair. This makes it perfect for those teachers working in the trenches of various districts where supplies and equipment are either hard to come by, or difficult to replace such as remote international locations. As long as you have a decent internet connection, you’re good to go.

If your internet access is sporadic, get the workout parameters when you are at the internet cafe in the city and jot them down for use in whatever remote village you happen to be working in. Otherwise, just hit the play button and enjoy. Since they are only one minute long, I recommend using them in the following way:

If you are able to route the video to a larger classroom TV as a monitor, fantastic! Otherwise, just model for your students and roll with it.

Creative use of lesson length. Personally, I think the brevity of these one-minute workouts is the greatest strength of the program. Particularly in today’s schools where the term fitness program is virtually nonexistent. That being said, most teachers are used to a full thirty to forty-five minute activity. If that’s the way you still want to go in your classroom, fine. Use the one-minute video segments as a way to start the group activity off. To keep things more integrated for the kids however, I recommend a hybrid. For the first viewing of the video each month, use it as a kick off activity for something like kickball, fitness station rotation or my favorite frugal classroom fitness activity – the popsicle stick running program. ( See this craft stick project ideas post for instructions.)

From there, once the kids have become familiar with the order and moves of that month’s workout, use the one minute workouts throughout the day as a healthy way to transition between lessons. A few of the workout videos will require some room for push-ups and such, so you may want to select a couple of different workout videos to get you through the month. You have several options, since they are all archived on the site. Just choose one that requires a smaller amount of personal space if you are switching between two activities that are both desk related, or to take a minor break during a really long test. Have the kids flip over their papers to avoid peeking and rock out for sixty seconds to get the oxygen pumping.

To access the workouts, simply register on KathyKaehlerFitness.Com . Related Readings: Six Exercise Tips for Travelers and Affordable Inside Tips from a Celebrity Personal Trainer.

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About the author….  I am a self confirmed life hacker who has used frugal living and personal finance strategies to focus on early retirement, pursue personal business goals, and achieve debt free living.

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