Fitness Challenge

Introduction

In the Fitness Challenge activity, you'll learn how to train for a sporting event. You'll choose a sport you enjoy and work out how to improve your performance by drawing up a training plan.

Training for your sport

Different sports and activities require different skills. When you train, you'll need to build up these skills. We've listed a few sports and activities below. We've also suggested the skills you'll need to develop if you want to do well at these sports. The skills we've chosen are: brains, stamina, motivation, strength, flexibility and speed.

Obstacle course: You need strength to climb over obstacles and motivation to keep going even when you're tired.
Ten-pin bowling: You need brains to work out where and when to throw the ball and you need strength to throw the ball as hard and fast as you can.
Hide and seek: You need brains to work out good hiding places and you need flexibility to be able to fit into small and hard-to-find places.
BMX racing: You need stamina to keep going when you're tired and you need speed so you can cycle faster than anyone else.
Swimming: You need speed so you can swim faster than anyone else and you need flexibility so you can do lots of different swimming strokes.
Skipping: You need stamina so you can keep going when you're tired and you need the motivation to keep training and practising every day.
Football: You need stamina so you can keep going for a 90 minute match and you need brains to put yourself in good positions and tackle your opponents.
Netball: You need the strength to jump higher and throw the ball further than anyone else and you need the flexibility to dodge your opponents.

Can you think of other skills you'd need to be good at these sports?

What's your favourite sport? Which skills would you need to develop to get really good at your favourite sport?

Training Plan

Why not draw up a training plan? This will help you get better at your favourite sport. First of all, work out which skills you wish to develop. Then work out which training activities will help you build up these skills. Finally work out how long your training session is going to last. We have drawn up some example training regimes below.

Flexibility: To build up flexibility, try ten minutes of stretching exercises every day. Stretching exercises might include turning your head from side to side, leaning over to one side and then the other, interlacing your fingers and stretching your arms straight out, twisting your body at the waist, stretching your calf and ankle muscles and sitting down and trying to reach your toes.

Stamina: To build up stamina, why not try cycling to school? Cycling is a great way of keeping your heart and lungs healthy. It also helps to maintain your weight at a healthy level. All of this means that you will be able to play sport for longer periods without getting tired.

Brains: The brain needs exercise too! Why not try taking up a game like chess or draughts? Or you could try crosswords or number puzzles such as Sudoku? If you're used to solving problems quickly and efficiently, you'll be able to apply this skill when you're playing games and sporting activities.

Strength: There are lots of ways of building up your strength. To build up strength in your arms, why not try lifting cans filled with sand for 10 minutes every morning? You could also try 10 press-ups every day. To build up strength in your legs, try squat thrusts or lunges. A squat thrust is when you get down on all fours and quickly bring your knees up to your chest. A lunge is when you step forward with one leg and lower yourself down until your back leg is a right angle at the knee. Try ten of each every morning.

Speed: If you want to be faster, you'll need to practice. Why not try sprinting as fast as you can for two minutes every morning? This could be in your garden or on the school field.

Motivation: To improve your motivation, why not try an activity that requires a lot of energy and determination? You could try a cross country run once a week. Why not go with a friend? Try to keep running for at least 30 minutes, even if you get tired out.

Why not ask your parents or your PE teacher to help you draw up a training regime? And once you've drawn it up, remember to stick to it!

You might want to measure how much your performance improves over time. For instance, if you're cycling to school, measure how long it takes you from one week to the next. You should be getting faster! If you're doing five minutes of squat thrusts every morning, count how many you manage to do each day. Are you improving?