exercise motivation
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PE Heart Rate Technology Improves Student Exercise Motivation

By introducing wrist heart rate monitors into their programs, PE teachers increase exercise motivation and accountability for students to learn intrinsic exercise skills that will serve as the foundation for a healthy lifestyle.

Students can gauge for themselves if they are on pace to meet the daily goal from what they see on the adidas Zone for IHT Spirit wrist heart rate monitors they wear during class. Immediately following class, students see through reports generated by the IHT Spirit System key workout metrics including: Read More

PE heart rate monitors
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PE Heart Rate Monitors Show Students Actual Effort vs Perception

By wearing PE heart rate monitors during class, students learn to improve their heart rate training performance by comparing their perceived effort level with their actual effort level.

Through a study with homeschool students in Kearney, Neb., Danielle Tilley used adidas Zone for IHT Spirit wrist heart rate monitors to test the students’ perceptions versus reality during a weekly PE class. Students wore the monitors while exercising at different levels – walking, jogging and sprinting for one-minute intervals. After each sprint, students let Tilley know how hard they exercised based on the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion. Read More

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Following teacher’s favorite activity, students pedal their way to improved fitness

By relating daily health lessons to her favorite activity, a Colorado teacher is developing heart rate training life skills for students in her middle school health class.

“Even though I’m in the health classroom, I’m constantly bringing in who I am and what I do and trying to set an example that these kids can buy into and continue with for the rest of their lives,” said Fort Lupton (Colo.) Middle School teacher Lindsay Yost.

When not in a gym or health classroom, Yost races mountain bikes – she won the 2013 U.S. Downhill National Championship – and coaches downhill riders during the summers. A former college heptathlete, Yost fuels her passion for exercise by focusing on her heart rate, both on her bike and in the gym. By teaching students what motivates her to remain active, she’s found an improved sense of motivation from her students when they exercise. Read More

frisbee fitness
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Fast-paced frisbee fitness PE lesson elevates student heart rate

Childhood favorite finds new purpose in Spirit Challenge-winning activity

By adding a new twist to a backyard game, Portland (Mich.) High School physical education students push themselves to exercise in a healthy fitness zone by re-connecting them with what many high schoolers consider a childhood past-time: the frisbee.

Portland P.E. teacher Andy Pulling’s Fun Frisbee Fitness lesson keeps students moving, uses national standards, can be duplicated at any grade level and teaches the importance of teamwork along with fitness. Pulling’s lesson ranked as one of six winning submissions in last fall’s IHT Spirit Video Challenge powered by adidas, and his superstar lesson is the March adidas Lesson for IHT Spirit.

“It’s just a kids’ toy at the secondary level,” Pulling said. “But when we teach them how to play ultimate frisbee or do frisbee golf, it’s kind of like their youthful excitement comes back to life.” Read More

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School’s focus on student fitness contributes to academic successes

Data from student-worn heart rate monitors and research about the positive impact physical education has on academic success convinced an IDEA Public Schools principal to make sure students who need academic support don’t get it at the expense of exercise and fitness.

“‘You will no longer take kids out of PE for academic intervention until they have had at least 30 minutes in P.E. utilizing the monitors,’” mandated IDEA Monterrey Park principal Curtis Lawrence.

IDEA students wear the adidas Zone for IHT Spirit wrist heart rate monitors during physical education and strive to exercise at an elevated heart rate for as long as they can during class or activity breaks. Students can see in real time if they are improving their fitness by exercising in the target heart rate zone (yellow for moderate to vigorous activity; red for vigorous activity) by the color displayed on the heart rate monitor. Read More