Surveying Physical Educators on Pull Ups and Childhood Obesity Prevention

I confess right up front that the following information represents a totally informal, and unscientific survey. However, as of this past week I’ve finally finished surveying exactly 100 physical education teachers, some by the phone, some in person, and I asked the following six questions.

1. Name
2. School and Location
3. Total Years of Physical Education Teaching Experience
4. The number of obese boys you’ve seen who can do pull ups
5. The number of obese girls you’ve seen who can do pull ups
6. The total number of obese students you’ve seen who can do pull ups

Zero Obese Students Can Do Pull Ups
As it turns out these teachers have an average of 8.8 years of teaching experience under their belt. Which is to say, collectively they have 880 years (8.8 years X 100 teachers) of teaching experience among them. And in those 880 years these 100 physical educators have seen ZERO obese boys, ZERO obese girls, and ZERO OBESE STUDENTS WHO CAN DO PULL UPS. On the flip side, in all of these 880 years of physical education experience EVERY STUDENT who could do pull ups was relatively lean, strong, and NOT OBESE!

Let’s Speculate
Now let’s do a little speculation. Let’s be ultra conservative and estimate that each of these teachers taught 100 students per school year. That means each teacher would have overseen 880 students (100 students X 8.8 years) during this period. And collectively they would have overseen 88,000 (880 students X 100 teachers) students. And out of 88,000 students these 100 teachers had never seen an obese child who could perform even one pull up. That is to say the obese child who can perform at least one pull up is as rare as the Loch Ness Monster or Big Foot. They just don’t exist.

Starting Young and Winning the War on Childhood Obesity
The implication of this survey of course is that, if we start early (kindergarten or even pre-school) and help kids across America learn to physically pull their own weight, we can turn the tide on childhood obesity. Yes with this frighteningly simple and cost-effective (ok it’s cheap) solution in hand, we can create an entire generation of students who can physically pull their own weight, and who will have naturally immunized themselves against obesity for life by learning and maintaining the ability to do at least one pull up. My only question is, what are we waiting for?

If other physical educators or coaches around the nation would like to weigh in on this survey, we’d be more than happy to add your contribution to the existing data. You can do so by going to the website listed below and clicking on the Survey Tab.

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Physical Education Aims and Objectives

Aim of Physical Education – The ultimate goal or direction is referred to as an aim, it point out way. It is final end. Aim is achieved some certain objectives.

Aim of physical education, like general education, is to develop human personality in its totality well planned activity programs. In some words, physical education aim at the all round development of the personality of an individual or wholesome development of human personality and it includes physical, mental, social, emotional and moral aspects to make an individual a good citizen who is able to make contribution in process of nation in one’s own way. Thus physical education means at making an individual physical fit, mentally alert, emotionally balanced, socially well adjusted, morally true and spiritually uplifted.

Objectives of Physical Education – Objectives are steps considered towards the attainment of the aim. They are the particular and precise means employed to realize an aim. The moment an aim is achieved it becomes an objective in the action that goal on continuing.

The three Objectives of physical education are -

1. The objective of physical fitness – It refers to that state where an individual has developed great endurance, speed, strength etc. Physical fitness is essential to leading a happy, vigorous and abundant life.

2. The objective of social efficiency – It concerned with one’s  proper  adaptation to group living. Physical education activities provides ample opportunities to develop traits such as cooperation, respect to others, loyalty,  sportsmanship, self confidence etc. All these qualities help a person to make him a good citizen.

3. The objective of culture – It aims at developing an understanding and appreciation of one’s own local environment as well as the environment which is world-wide in scope. By participation in various physical education activities such as dance, sports and games, a person fully understand the history, culture, tradition, religious practices etc and the aesthetic values associated with these activities

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Preventing Childhood Obesity Begins in Physical Education Class

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic that can threaten the health and life span of the world. Obesity is on the rise due to the lack of activity children have since schools are decreasing physical education classes.

Diagnosing obesity in children is different than in adults they use your body mass index (BMI). In children there are several factors in determining obesity. In children they measure your skin fold thickness, height and weight and their BMI. In children if there BMI is above the 95th percentile they are considered obese. Type 2 diabetes is rising…scientist…call this a major public health crisis. Newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes in children has increased from less than 5% before 1994 to 30% and 50% in more recent years.

Childhood obesity is not only predisposing kids for health risks but mental and social complications as well. Obese children are at risk for diseases such as hypertension, type II diabetes, and coronary heart disease. Once considered rare conditions in children, these diseases are seen with increasing frequency by pediatricians. With this rise of adult diseases in children it is decreasing the life expectancy of the next generation. With the rise of these diseases heath care costs will increase as well. This is an alarming rate because it can cause financial restraints on families who do not have access to health care. Families with limited access to health care will delay seeking treatment and will in turn have greater complications.

Children and adolescents aged 10-17 from families with an income below the poverty line were 74% more likely to be overweight or obese than those from families with a household income at 400% above the poverty line. Simply put, teachers need to address these issues within health education lessons [http://www.physical-education-lessons.com/category/health-education-lessons]. Other concerns with the rise in child hood obesity are children from families where the parents are always working and they are left home alone and depending on the neighborhood they live in it is not safe for them to play outside.

Another contributor to the rise in obesity is the food choices offered to school aged children. School lunches today are not filled with the essential vitamins and minerals children need to consume everyday and lunches contain almost two thousand calories in one serving. Vending machines are all around school buildings and they are filled with soft drinks other unhealthy foods. In our society children are consuming fewer amounts of fruits and vegetables and reaching for chips and soda. Vending machines are mainly filled with unhealthy foods so it makes it easier for kids to keep on getting bigger in size.

School lunch periods are decreasing in time due to academic requirements which makes it convenient for the child to consume food from the vending machine then eating a real lunch meal. Some schools have banned vending machines from schools or have set certain times for when students can use the vending machine. Preventive measures put in place by physical education teachers and health education teachers are helping students and parents fight the epidemic of childhood obesity.

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