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Fitness: Interval Walking - A Fun Ra . . .
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Fitness: Interval Walking - A Fun Rainy Day Activity
for Physical Education Classes
Dr. Sandy Kimbrough
Interval walking is a good indoor physical education acNeed a rainy-day fitness activity? Try this "Walking Intervals" workout in any gym or long space. It's sure to get heart rates up! Great for kids young and old!
Set-Up
In a gym or long space, define the following terms:
- Single: one length of the gym
- Double: down & back (two lengths)
- Triple: down, back, down (three lengths)
- Quadruple: down, back, down, back (four lengths).
On each end of the gym, post a large sign showing the workout (see right).
The idea is that students will walk two warm-up laps, then six singles (lengths of the gym) separated by short breaks, then four doubles, etc.. ...until they finish with 2 cool-down laps.
Execution
Explain the workout, then have students pair up and work their way through the workout. Walk with them and encourage those who are struggling to keep up.
Suggestions
- Stretch after the warm-up laps and after the cool-down laps.
- After EACH single, double, triple, etc, students MUST wait 10 seconds (or other length) of time before they can walk again OR wait until their heart rate recovers to a certain BMP (120 for 18 year olds, for example).
- Each interval MUST be walked at maximum speed. The idea is to really create a wave workout, where heart rates go up and down, up and down.
- You can also have students perform other exercises between intervals (for example, heel raises, wall sits, squats)
Reproducible Sheet
To see a reproducible page containing this interval walking workout, download the pdf version of this article below.
Conclusion
This is a great workout that doesn't require any equipment, can be done almost anywhere, and is a lot of fun!
Contributor: Dr. Sandy Kimbrough is an Association Professor and Assistant Department Head with the Department of Health and Human Performance at Texas A&M University-Commerce.
To download the pdf version of this
article, click here:
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© 2008, Physical Education Update, www.peUpdate.com
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