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50 Exercises and Activities for At-Home P.E.

November 3, 2020 by Evan-Moor | 0 comments

Online school means hours of sitting in front of computers and screens, both for you and your children. One of the best ways to break up this screen time is with movement sessions, or simply at-home P.E.! One of the aspects of school that gets lost in the translation to online learning is P.E. Recreating physical exercise classes at home is very important for both mental and physical development. Here are some ideas and suggestions.

Why Is P.E. Important?

In addition to giving kids a break from online school, P.E. activities are extremely beneficial in development, and they improve:

Flexibility
Cardiovascular endurance
Muscular strength and endurance
Agility and balance
Coordination
Power and speed
Reaction times

Physical exercise also has a direct impact on the behavior and development of the brain. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , physical activity has an influence on cognitive skills such as concentration and attention. It can also improve children’s attitudes and behaviors.

Exercises for the Whole Family

It can be motivational and encouraging for children to do these exercises with you or the whole family. Take a break from your day to do some of these family-friendly exercises and activities!

PE Shed : This online resource has many great ideas for at-home P.E., including activities, games, and other resources to keep kids active.
Color matching game: Draw circles on the sidewalk using chalk, each a different color. Challenge your children to find items of similar colors and place them in the circles.
Red light, green light: Line everyone up on one side of your yard and have one person calling out “red light, green light.” To make it more fun, change the instructions from walking or running to jumping, skipping, or spinning!
Create an American Ninja Warrior course at home : Watch this video for ideas on how to create your own backyard ninja obstacle course!
Fill out a bingo sheet with different exercises and call them out at random one at a time.
After children complete the exercise, they can mark it on their bingo sheet. First to get bingo wins!
Soccer juggling in a group
Create your own obstacle course in your backyard
Children lead an exercise circuit – their pick!
Get Kids Moving workouts : These fun workouts are made especially for kids, and have fun themes like Superheroes, Harry Potter, Star Wars, and more!
Beanbag toss (use paper plates or tape for targets).
Bowling (set up plastic cups or other objects as targets and roll or kick the ball)
Exercise stations: Set up four stations in your backyard, each with a different exercise (hula hooping, jump roping, agility ladders, hopscotch, etc.) and do each for 30 seconds before rotating.
Sponge race: Using two teams, set up a bucket of water on one side of the race (one to share or one per team) and on the other side, place a cup or bucket for each team to fill. Children must race from one side with a sponge full of water and squeeze it out into the cup on the other side. First to fill their cup wins!
Balloon/beach ball striking: Don’t let it touch the ground!

Paper airplane contest: Design and make your own paper airplanes and then see how far they’ll fly! Use long hallways or big rooms to test distance or do fun tricks inside.
Obstacle course using household items
Treasure hunt: Hide an item somewhere in your home and write out clues or riddles for children to solve and find the item! You can also play hot and cold with this game, saying “warmer” as the person gets closer to the hiding spot and “colder” as he or she moves away from it.
The floor is lava! Don’t touch the floor as you get to the other side of the room.
Indoor bowling: Using softer objects and a hallway or clear space
Balloon volleyball
Indoor basketball: Use rolled-up socks as your ball and try to make it in targets, using yarn, paper plates, or baskets.
Agility ladders (use painter’s tape to mark ladder spaces).
Make an indoor laser maze using a hallway and painter’s tape.
Beanbag toss: Arrange targets in a line or spread out and see if you can land your beanbag on the target.
Hide-and-go-seek
Wax museum: Assign one person to be the guard. While his or her back is turned, everyone can move around freely, but when the person turns around, you have to freeze in your position! Don’t get caught moving.
Active board games like Twister
Family yoga or stretching: Cosmic Kids Yoga : This channel has fun yoga videos for kids and the whole family.
Indoor exercise routine (sit-ups, push-ups, jumping jacks, etc.)

Independent Activities for Your Child

Jump rope challenges: Assign a challenge each day. For example: 30 jumps without messing up, 10 skipping jumps in a row, etc.
Soccer exercises: Practice passing against a wall or juggling (set goals like 10–30 juggles in a row).
Shoot baskets, taping marks for where you want to practice shooting from.
Tennis against a backboard
Agility ladder exercises: Write down which ones they should do.
Create your own workout calendar: Your child can check the calendar to see which exercise or activity is assigned (jump rope, ladders, basketball, yoga, etc.). Here’s an example of an exercise calendar .
Cosmic Kids Yoga can be done by kids by themselves!
P.E. with Joe : This YouTube channel supplies fun, kid-friendly workouts and exercises that can be done indoors or outdoors.
Ring toss: Use beanbags and paper plates or hula hoops and a cone or water bottle.
Soccer ball bowling

Coach Wood Workouts : Coach Wood is a popular YouTube channel who does themed workouts for kids! He guides children through an activity or workout with a fun twist.
GoNoodle Games : With a variety of games and activities (for a short or long period of time) GoNoodle will get children moving and having fun throughout the day.
Balloon striking: Don’t let it touch the ground; challenge yourself by only using your foot or head.
Cup stacking: A challenge that improves dexterity and coordination
Workout circuit indoors: Assign each room an exercise (sit-ups, jumping jacks, hopscotch, etc.) and have your child complete the circuit.
Balance beam: Use a long thin object or painter’s tape on the floor and challenge your child to cross it without falling.
Put a twist on a regular indoor scavenger hunt by including a theme that your child enjoys! For example, make it a Pokemon, Star Wars, Harry Potter, or Princess scavenger hunt!
Balancing challenge: Balance items like beanbags, books, or other objects on your head as you walk across a room.
Kids HIIT Workout
KIDZ BOP Daily Dance Break
Digital games like Just Dance get kids moving and having fun. Just Dance Videos are available on YouTube.

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Classroom Exercise Breaks for Elementary Students

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Boost Grades, Improve Behavior

Teachers can help improve test scores and student behavior by incorporating physical activity breaks into their daily classroom routines.

Research has shown that students who do brief bursts of exercise before taking tests score higher. In addition, regular activity breaks during the school day can help sharpen students' abilities to focus and stay on task.

Before trying these exercises in your classroom, make sure none of your students have health conditions that require restrictions on physical activity. Make sure each student has plenty of space, and won't bump into classmates or anything else in your room.

Also check to see if all your students are wearing appropriate shoes, such as sneakers. If students touch the floor during any exercises, make sure they wash their hands with soap and water or hand sanitizer when they're done their exercise break.

When taking a break, encourage activities that get the body moving and the heart pumping, such as dancing, jumping, and running in place. You also can try some of these easy-to-do exercises that work on flexibility, strength, and cardio. Each of these fun exercises for K-5 students takes 2-3 minutes, and kids can do them right at their desks. No equipment is needed.

Start with a brief warm-up (like jumping jacks or jogging in place) before performing these exercises.

Light Exercises

Kids doing light physical exercises breathe normally as they do basic gross motor activities at a controlled pace.

Sky reaches

Do this three times:

Swing arms up to the sky.
Rise up on your tippy toes.
Reach for the sky while keeping your body tight.
Hold for 15 seconds.
Lower your heels and arms.

Shoulder blasts

Do this 10 times:

Hold your arms straight out to the sides.
Make arm circles forward (start with small circles, then gradually larger circles).
Reverse direction and make arm circles backward (large circles, then gradually smaller circles).
Raise your arms in front of your body and move your arms up and down.
Raise your arm above your head and wave them side to side, like a windshield wiper.
Pump your arms above head to "raise the roof."

Do this 10 times slowly:

Stand with your legs a little wider than shoulder-width apart.
Hold your arms out in front of your body.
Slowly bend your knees and squat down until your thighs are parallel to the floor.
Rise up slowly.

Do this five times:

Bend forward at your waist.
Reach down and touch hands to floor.
Walk your hands out for a count of 8.
Walk your hands to left for a count of 4.
Walk your hands back to the center for a count of 4.
Walk your hands right for a count of 4.
Walk your hands back for a count of 8.
Squat until your thighs are parallel to the floor (see squats ).
From this position, jump up reaching your hands and feet out like a star.
Land softly on your feet, dropping back to the squat position.

Mountain climbers

Do 20 foot switches:

Hands flat on the floor
Hands shoulder-width apart
Arms straight
Mimic a running motion by switching one foot at a time.

Students can add intensity by adding speed.

Moderate Exercises

Kids doing moderate physical exercises breathe harder than normal, move fairly quickly, and find it a little difficult to talk during the activities.

Sun salutation

Do this dynamic yoga stretch five times:

Start with your feet together, hands at your side, and your head in a neutral position.
Raise your arms out to the side and overhead.
Bend forward at your waist and put your hands on the floor.
Step or jump your feet back to the plank position (see mountain climbers ).
Do half of a push-up (can drop to the knees).
Drop your hips toward the floor, lift head and chest into an "up-dog," and hold for 5 seconds.
Lift your hips and drop your head and shoulders to a "down-dog," and hold for 5 seconds.
Step or jump your feet back toward your hands in a forward bend.
Rise slowly to a standing position.

Moving through positions more quickly will increase the cardio workout.

To enhance stretching and strength, kids can hold forward bends and the up- and down-dogs for longer than 5 seconds.

Do this fast exercise 20 times:

Stand up tall.
Hop forward, then immediately backward.
At the same time, raise one arm up and one arm down.
Keep hopping your feet front and back while alternating arms up and down simultaneously.

Hand pushes

Do this isometric exercise, five times, with a 20-second break between each:

Put your hands in front of your face, with your palms touching.
Push your palms and fingers against themselves.
Keep pushing your hands together for 10-15 seconds.

Students can push their hands together as hard as they are comfortable as long as it doesn't hurt. Make sure students breathe during this exercise, because many kids tend to hold their breath while pushing. Challenge students to stand on one leg while pushing, then repeat standing on other leg.

Do this dynamic exercise 12 times:

Start in the squat position (see squats ), feet a little wider than shoulder-width apart.
Put your hands between your legs, like a frog.
Jump upward, and softly land back to the frog position.

Students may want to try this variation: While jumping up, click your heels together.

Vigorous Exercises

Kids doing vigorous physical exercises breathe much harder than normal, move quite fast, and find talking to be difficult and labored during the activities.

Jump lunges

Do this 12 times slowly, making sure to stay balanced:

Stand tall with your feet together.
Place your hands on your hips or hold your arms out straight for balance.
Move into a lunge position by stepping one foot forward and bending your knee (don't extend your knee past your toes).
Hop and switch your feet so that your back foot comes forward to a bent-knee position, while the other foot goes back.

With this exercise, form is more important than speed.

Desk push-ups

Do this 12 times:

Put your hands firmly on the edge of your desk.
Step your feet back so you're leaning into your desk.
Bend your elbows and slowly lower your body toward your desk, keeping your back straight.
Push yourself away from your desk.

Make sure desks are stable and feet don't slip on floor. To increase difficulty, students can move their feet back farther from their desks or move their hands closer together on their desks.

On the floor, start in the plank position (see mountain climbers ).
Lift one arm up and turn your body sideways so that your body looks like the letter T.
Hold the T for 5 seconds.
Return to the plank position, then repeat with your other side.
Stand tall with your hands at your side.
Squat down to the floor (see squats ).
Put your hands on the floor.
Jump to the plank position (see mountain climbers ).
Jump your feet back to the squat position.
Star jump back up (see star jumps ).

Teaching Tips

20 Interactive Classroom Activities for College Students [Plus: Free List of 45+ Activities]

Planning to use interactive classroom activities intentionally can really transform the learning dynamic. Here are 20 activities to get you started.

Top Hat Staff

20 Interactive Classroom Activities for College Students [Plus: Free List of 45+ Activities]

How interactive are your classroom activities? Do you have less energy for class than you used to? Do you find student grades declining? And are the teaching methods you’ve always relied on not working as well as they once did? We spoke to two college instructors, Chris Merlo and Monika Semma. Their strategies for interactive classroom activities will energize your class and get the discussion moving again.

Why are interactive activities important in college?

6 community-building activities

5 communication activities for college students, 3 motivational activities for college students.

6 team-building activities for college students

Interactive classroom activities, in short

Why are interactive classroom activities important.

Merlo, a computer science teacher, says that interactive classroom activities are not new to students, and one main reason why teachers have trouble connecting is that they fail to adapt to their students’ perspectives.

“My six-year-old son doesn’t find iPads amazing; to him, they’ve always just existed. Similarly, to a lot of students today, experiences like team exercises and flipped classrooms, while foreign to many instructors are not new.

“If we care about reaching today’s students, who seem to have a different idea of student responsibilities than we had, perhaps we have to reach them on their terms.

“In my thirties, I could still find a lot of similarities with my twenty-something students. But now, in my forties? Not so much. What I’ve started to realize is that it isn’t just the little things, like whether they’ve seen Ghostbusters. (They haven’t.) It’s the big things, like how they learn.”

Semma, a humanities TA, found that the chalk-and-talk approach failed on her first day in front of a class. “It was a lot like parallel parking in front of 20 people,” she said. “I looked more like a classmate. I dropped the eraser on my face whilst trying to write my name on the board. One of my students called me ‘mom.’”

“I chalked it up to first day jitters, but that same quietness crept its way back into my classroom for the next tutorial, and the next tutorial and the next. While nearly silent in class, my students were rather vocal in the endless stream of emails that flooded my inbox. That way I knew they wanted to learn. I also knew that I had to find a way to make tutorials more engaging.”

From these experiences, Merlo and Semma now share some interactive classroom activities for students and for teachers that can turn a quiet classroom full of people unwilling to speak up to a hive of debate, making the student learning experience more collaborative for everyone.

Energize your college classroom and get discussions flowing. Download The Best Classroom Activities for College Courses to engage and motivate students.

1. Open-ended questions

Chris Merlo: Open-ended questions don’t take any planning. All they take is a class with at least one student who isn’t too shy. I remember a class a few semesters ago that started with nine students. Due to a couple of medical conditions and a job opportunity, three of the students had to drop the semester. The problem was that these three students were the ones I counted on to ask questions and keep the class lively! Once I was left with six introverted people, conversations during class seemed to stop.

By luck, I stumbled on something that got the students talking again. I said, “What has been the most difficult thing about [the project that was due soon]?” This opened the floodgates—students love to complain, especially about us and our demands. This one simple question led to twenty minutes of discussion involving all six students. I wasn’t even sure what a couple of these students’ voices sounded like, but once I gave them an open-ended opportunity to complain about an assignment, they were off to the races. A truly successful classroom activity.

2. What’s wrong with this example?

Chris Merlo: Students also love to find a professor’s mistakes—like me, I’m sure you’ve found this out the hard way. When I teach computer science, I will make up a program that, for instance, performs the wrong arithmetic, and have students find the bug. In a particularly quiet or disengaged class, you can incentivize students with five points on the next exam, or something similar.

If you teach history, you might use flawed examples that change a key person’s name, such as “King Henry VIII (instead of King John) signed the Magna Carta in 1215,” or match a person to an incorrect event: “Gavrilo Princip is considered to have fired the first shot in the Spanish Civil War (instead of World War I).” Beam these examples on the whiteboard, and let the students’ competitiveness drive them to get the right answer before their classmates.

3. Let students critique each other

Chris Merlo: This can go badly if you don’t set some ground rules for civility, but done well, classroom activities like this really help open up collaborative learning. One of my colleagues devised a great exercise: First, give students about half of their class time to write instructions that an imaginary robot can understand to draw a recognizable picture, like a corporate logo, without telling students what will happen later. Then assign each student’s instructions to a randomly chosen classmate, and have the classmate pretend to be the robot, attempting to follow the instructions and draw the same logo.

After a few minutes, introduce a specific student who can share their results with the class, then ask their partner to share the initial instructions. This method gives students a chance to communicate with each other (“That’s not what I meant!”) and laugh and bond, while learning an important lesson.

This exercise teaches computer science students the difficulty and importance of writing clear instructions. I have seen this exercise not only teach pairs of such students meaningful lessons but encourage friendships that extended beyond my classroom.

Get students participating with these 45 classroom activities

4. Pass the “mic”

Monika Semma: As an instructor, it’s amazing how much information you can gather from a student-centered review session. Specifically, if you leave the review in the hands of your students, you can get an easy and thorough assessment of what is being absorbed, and what is being left by the wayside. The more you encourage participation, the more you’ll see where your class is struggling and the more comfortable students will become with course material. Here’s how to transform a standard review into one of your more popular classroom activities:

A week before the review, ask students to email you two to five key terms or theories that they feel they need to brush up on. Take all that data and compress it until you have a solid working list of what students want to review most.
In class, provide students with visual access to the list (I found writing all the terms on a chalkboard to be most effective). Instruct the class to have their notes out in front of them, with a pad of paper or blank Word document at their fingertips, and encourage them to take notes as the review is in progress.
A trinket of sorts (I highly recommend a plush ball), used as a “microphone,” helps to give students equal opportunity to direct the review without putting individuals on the spot too aggressively. The rules are simple: she or he who holds the “mic” can pick one term from the list and using their notes, can offer up what they already know about the term or concept, what they are unsure of, or what they need more elaboration on.
Actively listen to the speaker and give them some positive cues if they seem unsure; it’s okay to help them along the way, but important to step back and let this review remain student-centered. Once the speaker has said their piece, open the floor to the rest of the class for questions or additional comments. If you find that the discussion has taken a departure from the right direction, re-center the class and provide further elaboration if need be.
Erase each term discussed from the list as you go, and have the speaker pass (or throw) on the “mic” to a fellow classmate, and keep tossing the ball around after each concept/term is discussed.

Students will have a tendency to pick the terms that they are most comfortable speaking about and those left consistently untouched will give you a clear assessment of the subjects in which your class is struggling, and where comprehension is lacking. Once your class has narrowed down the list to just a few terms, you can switch gears into a more classic review session. Bringing a bit of interaction and fun into a review can help loosen things up during exam time, when students and teachers alike are really starting to feel the pressure.

5. Use YouTube for classroom activities

Monika Semma: Do you remember the pure and utter joy you felt upon seeing your professor wheel in the giant VHS machine into class? Technology has certainly changed—but the awesome powers of visual media have not. Making your students smile can be a difficult task, but by channeling your inner Bill Nye the Science Guy you can make university learning fun again.

A large part of meaningful learning is finding interactive classroom activities that are relevant to daily life—and I can think of no technology more relevant to current students than YouTube.

A crafty YouTube search can yield a video relevant to almost anything in your curriculum and paired with an essay or academic journal, a slightly silly video can go a long way in helping your students contextualize what they are learning.

Even if your comedic attempts plunge into failure, at the very least, a short clip will get the class discussion ball rolling. Watch the video as a class and then break up into smaller groups to discuss it. Get your students thinking about how the clip they are shown pairs with the primary sources they’ve already read.

6. Close reading

Monika Semma: In the humanities, we all know the benefits of close reading activities—they get classroom discussion rolling and students engaging with the material and open up the floor for social and combination learners to shine. “Close reading” is a learning technique in which students are asked to conduct a detailed analysis or interpretation of a small piece of text. It is particularly effective in getting students to move away from the general and engage more with specific details or ideas.

If you’re introducing new and complex material to your class, or if you feel as though your students are struggling with an equation, theory, or concept; giving them the opportunity to break it down into smaller and more concrete parts for further evaluation will help to enhance their understanding of the material as a whole.

And while this technique is often employed in the humanities, classroom activities like this can be easily transferred to any discipline. A physics student will benefit from having an opportunity to break down a complicated equation in the same way that a biology student can better understand a cell by looking at it through a microscope.

In any case, evaluating what kinds of textbooks, lesson plans and pedagogy we are asking our students to connect with is always a good idea.

Brainwriting

Group size: 10 students (minimum)

Course type: Online (synchronous), in-person

This activity helps build rapport and respect in your classroom. After you tackle a complex lecture topic, give students time to individually reflect on their learnings. This can be accomplished through guided prompts or left as an open-ended exercise. Once students have gathered their thoughts, encourage them to share their views either through an online discussion thread or a conversation with peers during class time.

Concept mapping

Collaborative concept mapping is the process of visually organizing concepts and ideas and understanding how they relate to each other. This exercise is a great way for students to look outside of their individual experiences and perspectives. Groups can use this tactic to review previous work or to help them map ideas for projects and assignments. For in-person classes, you can ask students to cover classroom walls with sticky notes and chart paper. For online classes, there are many online tools that make it simple to map out connections between ideas, like Google Docs or the digital whiteboard feature in Zoom.

Group size: Groups of 5–10 students

Propose a topic or issue to your class. Group students together (or in breakout rooms if you’re teaching remotely) according to the position they take on the specific issue. Ask the groups of students to come up with a few arguments or examples to support their position. Write each group’s statements on the virtual whiteboard and use these as a starting point for discussion. A natural next step is to debate the strengths and weaknesses of each argument, to help students improve their critical thinking and analysis skills.

Make learning active with these 45 interactive classroom activities

Compare and contrast

Group size: Groups of 5–10 students

Ask your students to focus on a specific chapter in your textbook. Then, place them in groups and ask them to make connections and identify differences between ideas that can be found in course readings and other articles and videos they may find. This way, they can compare their ideas in small groups and learn from one another’s perspectives. In online real-time classes, instructors can use Zoom breakout rooms to put students in small groups.

Assess/diagnose/act

This activity will improve students’ problem-solving skills and can help engage them in more dynamic discussions. Start by proposing a topic or controversial statement. Then follow these steps to get conversations going. In online classes, students can either raise their hands virtually or use an online discussion forum to engage with their peers.

Assessment: What is the issue or problem at hand?
Diagnosis: What is the root cause of this issue or problem?
Action: How can we solve the issue?

Moral dilemmas

Group size: Groups of 3–7 students

Provide students with a moral or ethical dilemma, using a hypothetical situation or a real-world situation. Then ask them to explore potential solutions as a group. This activity encourages students to think outside the box to develop creative solutions to the problem. In online learning environments, students can use discussion threads or Zoom breakout rooms.

Conversation stations

Group size: Groups of 4–6 students

Course type: In-person

This activity exposes students’ ideas in a controlled way, prompting discussions that flow naturally. To start, share a list of discussion questions pertaining to a course reading, video or case study. Put students into groups and give them five-to-ten minutes to discuss, then have two students rotate to another group. The students who have just joined a group have an opportunity to share findings from their last discussion, before answering the second question with their new group. After another five-to-ten minutes, the students who haven’t rotated yet will join a new group.

This or that

Course type: Online (synchronous or asynchronous), in-person

This activity allows students to see where their peers stand on a variety of different topics and issues. Instructors should distribute a list of provocative statements before class, allowing students to read ahead. Then, they can ask students to indicate whether they agree, disagree or are neutral on the topic in advance, using an online discussion thread or Google Doc. In class, use another discussion thread or live chat to have students of differing opinions share their views. After a few minutes, encourage one or two members in each group to defend their position amongst a new group of students. Ask students to repeat this process for several rounds to help familiarize themselves with a variety of standpoints.

6 team-building classroom activities for college students

Snowball discussions .

Group size: 2–4 students per group

Assign students a case study or worksheet to discuss with a partner, then have them share their thoughts with the larger group. Use breakout rooms in Zoom and randomly assign students in pairs with a discussion question. After a few minutes, combine rooms to form groups of four. After another five minutes, combine groups of four to become a larger group of eight—and so on until the whole class is back together again.

Make it personal

Group size: Groups of 2–8 students

After you’ve covered a topic or concept in your lecture, divide students into small discussion groups (or breakout rooms online). Ask the groups questions like “How did this impact your prior knowledge of the topic?” or “What was your initial reaction to this source/article/fact?” to encourage students to reflect on their personal connections to the course concepts they are learning.

Philosophical chairs

Group size: 20–25 students (maximum)

A statement that has two possible responses—agree or disagree—is read out loud. Depending on whether they agree or disagree with this statement, students move to one side of the room or the other. After everyone has chosen a side, ask one or two students on each side to take turns defending their positions. This allows students to visualize where their peers’ opinions come from, relative to their own.

Get more interactive classroom activities here

Affinity mapping

Group size: Groups of 3–8 students

Course type: Online (synchronous)

Place students in small groups (or virtual breakout rooms) and pose a broad question or problem to them that is likely to result in lots of different ideas, such as “What was the greatest innovation of the 21st century?” or “How would society be different if _____ never occurred?” Ask students to generate responses by writing ideas on pieces of paper (one idea per page) or in a discussion thread (if you’re teaching online). Once lots of ideas have been generated, have students begin grouping their ideas into similar categories, then label the categories and discuss why the ideas fit within them, how the categories relate to one another and so on. This allows students to engage in higher-level thinking by analyzing ideas and organizing them in relation to one another.

Socratic seminar

Group size: 20 students (minimum)

Ask students to prepare for a discussion by reviewing a course reading or group of texts and coming up with a few higher-order discussion questions about the text. In class, pose an introductory, open-ended question. From there, students continue the conversation, prompting one another to support their claims with evidence from previous course concepts or texts. There doesn’t need to be a particular order to how students speak, but they are encouraged to respectfully share the floor with their peers.

Concentric circles

Group size: 20 students (maximum)

Students form two circles: an inner circle and an outer circle. Each student on the inside is paired with a student on the outside; they face each other. Pose a question to the whole group and have pairs discuss their responses with each other. After three-to-five minutes, have students on the outside circle move one space to the right so they are standing in front of a new person. Pose a new question, and the process is repeated, exposing students to the different perspectives of their peers.

Making your classes more interactive should help your students want to come to class and take part in it. Giving them a more active role will give them a sense of ownership, and this can lead to students taking more pride in their work and responsibility for their grades.

Use these 45 classroom activities in your course to keep students engaged

A more interactive class can also make things easier for you—the more work students do in class, the less you have to do. Even two minutes of not talking can re-energize you for the rest of the class.

Plus, these six methods outlined above don’t require any large-scale changes to your class prep. Set up a couple of activities in advance here and there, to support what you’ve been doing, and plan which portion of your class will feature them.

The reality remains that sometimes, students do have to be taught subject matter that is anything but exciting. That doesn’t mean that we can’t make it more enjoyable to teach or learn. It may not be possible to incorporate classroom activities into every lecture, but finding some room for these approaches can go a long way in facilitating a positive learning environment.

And let’s not forget, sometimes even an educator needs a brief departure from the everyday-ordinary-sit-and-listen-to-me-lecture regimen.

Educators In Conversation: How to Help Students ‘Do’ Sociology

A 6-Step Exercise for Discussing AI In Education

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Benefits of Physical Activity

Obesity and Excess Weight Increase Risk of Severe Illness; Racial and Ethnic Disparities Persist

Food Assistance and Food Systems Resources

Immediate Benefits

Weight management, reduce your health risk, strengthen your bones and muscles, improve your ability to do daily activities and prevent falls, increase your chances of living longer, manage chronic health conditions & disabilities.

Regular physical activity is one of the most important things you can do for your health. Being physically active can improve your brain health , help manage weight , reduce the risk of disease , strengthen bones and muscles , and improve your ability to do everyday activities .

Adults who sit less and do any amount of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity gain some health benefits. Only a few lifestyle choices have as large an impact on your health as physical activity.

Everyone can experience the health benefits of physical activity – age, abilities, ethnicity, shape, or size do not matter.

Some benefits of physical activity on brain health [PDF-14.4MB] happen right after a session of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity. Benefits include improved thinking or cognition for children 6 to 13 years of age and reduced short-term feelings of anxiety for adults. Regular physical activity can help keep your thinking, learning, and judgment skills sharp as you age. It can also reduce your risk of depression and anxiety and help you sleep better.

Both eating patterns and physical activity routines play a critical role in weight management. You gain weight when you consume more calories through eating and drinking than the amount of calories you burn , including those burned during physical activity.

To maintain your weight: Work your way up to 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity, which could include dancing or yard work. You could achieve the goal of 150 minutes a week with 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week.

People vary greatly in how much physical activity they need for weight management. You may need to be more active than others to reach or maintain a healthy weight.

To lose weight and keep it off: You will need a high amount of physical activity unless you also adjust your eating patterns and reduce the amount of calories you’re eating and drinking. Getting to and staying at a healthy weight requires both regular physical activity and healthy eating.

See more information about:

Getting started with weight loss .
Getting started with physical activity .
Improving your eating patterns .

Learn more about the health benefits of physical activity for children, adults, and adults age 65 and older.

See these tips on getting started.

The good news [PDF-14.5MB] is that moderate physical activity , such as brisk walking, is generally safe for most people .

Cardiovascular Disease

Heart disease and stroke are two leading causes of death in the United States. Getting at least 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity can put you at a lower risk for these diseases. You can reduce your risk even further with more physical activity. Regular physical activity can also lower your blood pressure and improve your cholesterol levels.

Type 2 Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome

Regular physical activity can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is some combination of too much fat around the waist, high blood pressure, low high-density lipoproteins (HDL) cholesterol, high triglycerides, or high blood sugar. People start to see benefits at levels from physical activity even without meeting the recommendations for 150 minutes a week of moderate physical activity. Additional amounts of physical activity seem to lower risk even more.

Infectious Diseases

Physical activity may help reduce the risk of serious outcomes from infectious diseases, including COVID-19, the flu, and pneumonia. For example:

People who do little or no physical activity are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19 than those who are physically active. A CDC systematic review [PDF-931KB] found that physical activity is associated with a decrease in COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths, while inactivity increases that risk.
People who are more active may be less likely to die from flu or pneumonia. A CDC study found that adults who meet the aerobic and muscle-strengthening physical activity guidelines are about half as likely to die from flu and pneumonia as adults who meet neither guideline.

Some Cancers

Being physically active lowers your risk for developing several common cancers . Adults who participate in greater amounts of physical activity have reduced risks of developing cancers of the:

Colon (proximal and distal)
Endometrium
Esophagus (adenocarcinoma)
Stomach (cardia and non-cardia adenocarcinoma)

If you are a cancer survivor, getting regular physical activity not only helps give you a better quality of life, but also improves your physical fitness.

Regular Physical Activity Helps Lower Your Cancer Risk

Learn more about Physical Activity and Cancer

As you age, it’s important to protect your bones, joints, and muscles – they support your body and help you move. Keeping bones, joints, and muscles healthy can help ensure that you’re able to do your daily activities and be physically active.

Muscle-strengthening activities like lifting weights can help you increase or maintain your muscle mass and strength. This is important for older adults who experience reduced muscle mass and muscle strength with aging. Slowly increasing the amount of weight and number of repetitions you do as part of muscle strengthening activities will give you even more benefits, no matter your age.

Everyday activities include climbing stairs, grocery shopping, or playing with your grandchildren. Being unable to do everyday activities is called a functional limitation. Physically active middle-aged or older adults have a lower risk of functional limitations than people who are inactive.

For older adults, doing a variety of physical activity improves physical function and decreases the risk of falls or injury from a fall . Include physical activities such as aerobic, muscle strengthening, and balance training. Multicomponent physical activity can be done at home or in a community setting as part of a structured program.

Hip fracture is a serious health condition that can result from a fall. Breaking a hip have life-changing negative effects, especially if you’re an older adult. Physically active people have a lower risk of hip fracture than inactive people.

See physical activity recommendations for different groups, including:

Children age 3-5 .
Children and adolescents age 6-17 .
Adults age 18-64 .
Adults 65 and older .
Adults with chronic health conditions and disabilities .
Healthy pregnant and postpartum women .

An estimated 110,000 deaths per year could be prevented if US adults ages 40 and older increased their moderate-to-vigorous physical activity by a small amount. Even 10 minutes more a day would make a difference.

Taking more steps a day also helps lower the risk of premature death from all causes. For adults younger than 60, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 8,000 to 10,000 steps per day. For adults 60 and older, the risk of premature death leveled off at about 6,000 to 8,000 steps per day.

Regular physical activity can help people manage existing chronic conditions and disabilities. For example, regular physical activity can:

Reduce pain and improve function, mood, and quality of life for adults with arthritis.
Help control blood sugar levels and lower risk of heart disease and nerve damage for people with type 2 diabetes.
Health Benefits Associated with Physical Activity for People with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities [PDF-14.4MB]
Key Recommendations for Adults with Chronic Conditions and Disabilities [PDF-14.4MB]

Active People, Healthy Nation SM is a CDC initiative to help people be more physically active.

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Physical Activity
Overweight & Obesity
Healthy Weight, Nutrition, and Physical Activity
Breastfeeding
Micronutrient Malnutrition
State and Local Programs
Physical Activity for Arthritis
Diabetes — Get Active
Physical Activity for People with Disabilities
Prevent Heart Disease
Healthy Schools – Promoting Healthy Behaviors
Healthy Aging

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CDC is not responsible for Section 508 compliance (accessibility) on other federal or private website.

Education Exercises

Education Exercises is at the developing stage of learning English focusing on the basic vocabulary and structures for social interaction and academic experiences. There are puzzles and quizzes to reinforce your learning so you feel confident to use different texts about education.

In order to play our Education crossword puzzle, you need to click on the numbered boxes to reveal the clues.

Here are the words from the education topic:

instructions
mathematics

Extra Education Exercises

Everyday English
Grammar Skills
Speaking Skills
Vocabulary Skills
Writing Skills
At the Doctor’s
Making Polite Requests
Saying When
A2 Phrasal Verbs Word Puzzle
Adverbs Word Search
Article Exercises
Feelings Exercises
Phrasal Verbs Crossword
Christmas Exercises
Clothes Exercises
Family Exercises
Food and Drink Exercises
House and Home Exercises
Numbers and Amount Exercises
People Exercises
Shopping Exercises
Signs and Notices Exercises
Time Exercises
Travel and Holidays Exercises
Valentine’s Day Exercises
Bank Robbers News Report
Cardboard Bike Magazine Article
Competition Short Story
Facebook News Article
Film Online Website Review
Football Match Email
Human Body Explanation
Party Invitation Email
Saving Energy Email
School Work Email
Subject Choices Email
Surprised Teacher Short Story
Things have Changed Email
Visiting a Relative Email
Work of Art Magazine Article
Reading Part 1 & 2
Reading Part 3 & 4
Reading Part 5
Writing Part 6
Writing Part 7

Part 1 - Read six short real-world texts for the main message.

A2 Key Part 1 Video
Short Messages Exercise 1
Short Messages Exercise 2
Short Messages Exercise 3

Part 2 - Read seven questions and three short texts on the same topic, then match the questions to the texts.

A2 Key Part 2 Video
Homework Advice
Teen Bloggers
Teen Hobbies

Part 3 - Read one long text for detailed understanding and main ideas.

Climbing Mount Everest
Don’t Skip Breakfast
Edinburgh Festival
Emirate Airline Manager
Family Castle
Getting to Sleep
London Police Force
Photography for Beginners

Part 4 - Read a factual text and choose the correct vocabulary items to complete the gaps.

A Dog’s Lifespan
Countryside
Digital Literacy
Firefighters
Hip Hop Fashion
London Madame Tussaud’s
Schnauzer Dogs
Social Media
The Night Shift

Part 5 - Complete gaps in an email (and sometimes the reply too) using one word.

Barbecue birthday party
Big Snowstorm
Birthday Party
Brighton Language School
Fuji Rock Festival
Holiday in Thailand
Pop Concert
School Life
School Trip
Summer Camp
Visiting London

Part 6 - Write a short email or note of 25 words or more.

Camping Holiday
Dentist appointment
Missed Game
Party Invitation
School Project
Sports Centre

Part 7 - Write a short story of 35 words or more based on three picture prompts.

Going Camping
Listening Part 1
Listening Part 2
Listening Part 3
Listening Part 4
Listening Part 5

Part 1 - Listen to conversations and choose the correct answer.

Five Conversations Set 1

Part 2 - Listen to a monologue and complete gaps in a page of notes.

End-of-Year Dinner
Film-making competition

Part 3 - Listen to a conversation and choose the correct answer.

Buying a Skateboard
Camping Trip
New Video Game

Part 4 - Listen to conversations and choose the correct answer.

Five Short Conversations 1

Part 5 - Listen to a conversation and choose the correct answer.

Daily Activities
Future Jobs
Halloween Costume
Asia and Vittoria
Luca and Federica
Sthefhany and Fayza
Word Puzzles
Word Searches
Appliances Crossword
Buildings Crossword
Documents Crossword
Entertainment Crossword
Halloween Crossword
Health Crossword
Human Body Crossword
Leisure Crossword
Measurements Crossword
Natural World Crossword
School Words Crossword
Sport Crossword
Technology Crossword
Travel Crossword
A2 Art Word Puzzle
A2 Colour Word Puzzle
A2 Education Word Puzzle Set 1
A2 Family Word Puzzle
A2 Food and Drink Word Puzzle
A2 History Word Puzzle
A2 Holidays Word Puzzle
A2 Leisure Word Puzzle
A2 Maths Word Puzzle
A2 Science Word Puzzle
A2 Shopping Word Puzzle
A2 Star Wars Word Puzzle
A2 The Natural World Word Puzzle
A2 Transport Word Puzzle
About the Countryside Word Search
Accessories Word Search
Appliances Word Search
Body Word Search
Buildings Word Search
Cleaning Word Search
Colours Word Search
Documents Word Search
Entertainment Word Search
Fourth of July Word Search
Geography Word Search
Halloween Word Search
Health Word Search
History Word Search
Jobs Word Search
Language Word Search
Leisure Word Search
Maths Word Search
Measurement Word Search
Music Word Search
Nationality Word Search
Natural World Word Search
Science Word Search
Sea Creatures Word Search
Services Word Search
Sports Word Search
Star Wars Word Search
Technology Word Search
Town Word Search
Travel Word Search
Weather Word Search

Cambridge English exams are designed for learners at all levels from the Elementary level Cambridge English: Key (KET) to the very advanced level Cambridge English: Proficiency (CPE). These exams give candidates proof of their ability to use English in a wide variety of contexts, relevant to work, study and leisure activities.

A2 Key | B1 Preliminary | B2 First

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Physical Education and Fitness

Physical Education Printables, Lessons & References

Promote good exercise habits with physical education resources for kindergarten through twelfth grade.

Newest Physical Education and Fitness Resources

View Physical Education and Fitness Resources By Type

Book Guides

Choice Boards

Classroom Tools

Daily warm-ups, editor's collections, games and apps.

Lesson Plans

Teaching Resource

Recommended physical education and fitness resources.

P.E. Activities for Elementary Students

Adapative P.E. Activities for Elementary

Health and Wellness Activities Choice Board and Certificate

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Capture the Flag

Baseball Math Worksheet

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Top 25 At-Home Exercises

Life can get busy, and oftentimes we find ourselves traveling or otherwise unable to get to our preferred health and fitness facility for a workout. ACE Certified Professional Ted Vickey offers these 25 moves to help you stay on track, no matter where you find yourself. Using only your own body weight,these versatile moves can help you create a total-body at-home workout that fits your needs and abilities.

Top 25 At-Home Workouts

Get more and save more with CEC Power Pass ™

CEC Power Pass gives you unlimited access to the knowledge you need to be your best.

Dr. Ted Vickey, MS, is the ACE senior consultant for emerging technologies and a long-time ACE Certified Personal Trainer. Referred to as "one of the most connected men in fitness," Vickey served as executive director of the White House Athletic Center under three presidents before starting FitWell Inc., a fitness management consulting company.

Get in the Know

Stay connected with us to get the latest health and fitness news, innovative workouts, healthy recipes and wellness tips.

5 Chest Stretch Variations

7 Core Stability Exercises

How to Find a Job as an ACE Certified Personal Trainer

Stuck in an All-or-Nothing Mindset? Here’s How to Break Free

Build your Glutes with this Strength Training Routine

Introduction

The mission of the Educational Exercises and Activities Community Group is to develop standards for educational exercises and activities and to make recommendations with regard to other standards.

With respect to educational exercises and activities, a large number of scenarios are to be considered. Educational exercises and activities can be URL-addressable Web resources, resources in learning objects, resources in digital textbooks, and the items of quizzes and exams. Varieties of educational exercises of activities under discussion range from multiple choice questions to those having multiple steps, WebGL 3D graphics and mathematics handwriting recognition .

Education and Training

Exercises and activities are utilized across education and training scenarios.

School Counseling

Exercises and activities are utilized in assessment by school counselors.

Career Counseling

Exercises and activities are utilized in assessment by career counselors.

Human Resources

Exercises and activities are utilized in assessment by human resources personnel.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence systems can utilize educational exercises and activities as training data.

Implementation Ideas

Educational exercises and activities can be composed of collections of hypertext and other multimedia files. Educational exercises and activities can also be represented as collections of such files in ZIP containers. Scenarios both with and without ZIP containers for collections of such files are in scope for this group.

ZIP containers for educational exercises and activities could utilize the EPUB Open Container Format .

Standardization activities could include specifying a new kind of package file for educational exercises and activities.

Reasons for providing the capability to include multiple variants of an educational exercise or activity in the same ZIP container include accessibility, internationalization and portability. With respect to accessibility, variants could provide different accessibility features. With respect to internationalization, variants could be in different languages. With respect to portability, variants could be designed for different technologies, feature sets or configurations. There could, then, be multiple variants of an educational exercise or activity with a package file for each in a ZIP container. Each variant's package file could be referenced in a container.xml file, per the Open Container Format , and such references could be differentiated via XML attributes . Variants of educational exercises and activities could also be described and differentiated via the metadata of a new kind of package file.

Educational exercises and activities within ZIP containers might run in nested browsing contexts resembling those of object elements or inline frames . The JavaScript environments and API's available for such educational exercises and activities could be topics for specification. Some other topics pertaining to such uses of nested browsing contexts include styling the contents of nested browsing contexts, potentially the inheritance of styles and stylesheets, and the interoperation of hypertext-to-speech and media overlay functionalities across browsing contexts.

Structural Semantics

See also: http://www.idpf.org/epub/profiles/edu/spec/

Metadata and Ontology

Different educational exercises and activities can be interrelated. For instance, educational exercises and activities sharing deep structure can be said to be isomorphic. An example pair of isomorphic tasks are Tower of Hanoi and Monsters and Globes .

Accessibility

Educational exercises and activities can make use of hypertext-to-speech and media overlay functionalities .

Automata could be of use for tasks including, but not limited to, processing user interface layer events into event streams (e.g. Experience API or Caliper ) and processing such event streams. Graph-based technologies (e.g. flowcharts, activity diagrams and workflows) could be of use for tasks including, but not limited to, cognitive modeling. Technologies for discussion include semantically-annotated graphs and semantically-annotated automata .

Timed automata could function as the skeletons upon which software logic providing interactive exercises or activities could be constructed, upon which system behaviors could be attached, for example providing hints and feedback, and upon which assessment-related computations could occur. Timed automata could contain multiple routes of progression through exercises and activities. During learners' particular routes of progression, assessment objects could be constructed and updated. Assessment objects could be more complex than scalars, for example containing data pertaining to learners' timed routes of progression as well as notes. Timed automata, processing event streams into assessment objects while producing system behavior, could be processed on either a client or a server.

We can envision playlists of educational exercises and activities, including with performance-based routes or progressions.

Discussion Topics

Internationalization, portability, routes of progression through an exercise or activity, cognitive modeling, hints and feedback, scoring and assessment, mental chronometry, event streams, real-time event streams, experience api and caliper, timed automata, modeling exercises and activities, describing variants of an exercise and activity, describing exercises and activities, kinds of exercises and activities, academic disciplines, curricula topics and subtopics, learning objectives, learning object metadata, interrelating different exercises and activities, isomorphic exercises and activities, indexing, search and retrieval, javascript api, interoperability, intelligent tutoring systems, cognitive tutors, learning management systems, learning record stores, virtual assistants, office software, integrated development environments, computer algebra systems, learning analytics, educational data mining, playlists and collections, dynamic and adaptive, routes of progression spanning multiple exercises or activities, longer-term, digital rights, content authoring, automatic item generation, existing technologies.

Main article: Existing Technologies

International Artificial Intelligence in Education Society
International Alliance to Advance Learning in the Digital Era
Generalized Intelligent Framework for Tutoring
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On Teens, Nutrition, and Exercise: How to Encourage Healthy Habits

Experts across Tufts outline the challenges for today’s teens when it comes to healthy eating and physical activity, and how parents and caregivers can help

Ask a teenager whether they’re eating healthy or getting enough exercise, and you might get a blank look.

With school getting more demanding, extracurricular activities multiplying, and college applications looming, teens have a lot going on. Many are also starting to work jobs, care for younger siblings, and take on other family duties–even amid drastic changes to their hormone levels and bodies, as well as their sense of who they are and their relationships with family and peers.

woman with dark hair and pink blouse smiling at camera

Dietitian Venus Kalami, N20

“It all comes together in a way that can be really wonderful, but also really overwhelming,” said Venus Kalami, N20, director of pediatric nutrition at the company Solid Starts, who has worked heavily with teens in her seven years of experience as a clinical dietitian.

Erin Hennessy , dean for research strategy and associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts and director of the project ChildObesity180 , agreed. “In the order of things that teens have to be concerned about, nutrition and exercise are low,” she said.

But as a public health concern, they’re high on the list. Whether they know it or not, most teens are not meeting the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in major ways, according to Christina Economos , dean of the Friedman School and founder of ChildObesity180.

Christina Economos

They’re eating fewer fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and more added sugars, saturated fat, and sodium than the guidelines advise. And only one in five adolescents are meeting the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for aerobic and muscle-strengthening activities (60 minutes of physical activity a day, 30 of them “vigorous”).

Due to demanding schedules and other factors, many teens find it difficult to eat regular meals and stay hydrated, Kalami said, which leads to lower energy levels and worse moods.

If not addressed, it can affect their health in the long run, too. Not building enough muscle and bone can lead to lower bone density in adulthood. Obesity in adolescence makes adult obesity almost 18 times more likely–and almost 30% of teens today have overweight or obesity, compared to 15% 60 years ago. On top of that, a record high 10% of U.S. households with children are food insecure, and rates of eating disorders among teens are on the rise. All this only got worse over the pandemic, with many parents out of work, teens stuck at home, and high levels of stress across the board.

But there are things that teens and the adults around them can do to promote healthier eating and more exercise, Tufts experts agreed–and there is reason for optimism, Hennessy added.

Erin Hennessy

“Over the past few decades as we’ve seen an increase in obesity rates, we have also seen a shift in interest among children, teens, and young adults who are becoming much more interested in food, food justice, agriculture, the environment, and how those pieces are interconnected,” Hennessy said. “They’re coming to us at the Friedman School with far more understanding and knowledge about the field than I’ve ever seen, and it’s great to see that kind of shift and personal engagement with those topics.”

Tips for vegetarian and vegan teens

Contrary to popular belief, kids and teenagers can be vegetarians or vegans and still eat a healthy, complete diet that meets all their nutrient needs.
Eating vegetarian or vegan does not automatically make for a healthy diet.
Cow’s milk is not less healthy than plant-based milks, and can play an important role in a healthy diet if you’re vegetarian but not vegan.
If you’re vegan, drink plant-based milks for calcium and vitamin D—particularly soy milk, which has high bioavailability of these nutrients.
Eat high-protein plant-based foods, such as nuts, beans, and seeds—quinoa is a great high-protein alternative to rice or pasta. Read the ingredients before buying meat substitutes, which can be high in added sugars and sodium.
Eat plant-based foods high in iron, such as beans and leafy greens. Try to consume vitamin C-rich foods (such as citrus fruits) at the same time to increase your iron absorption.
If you’re vegetarian, consume eggs and dairy to meet your vitamin B12 needs. If you’re vegan, consume nutritional yeast or B12-fortified products such as plant-based milks or yogurts.

Source: Christina Economos, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy

Challenges for Teen Nutrition and Exercise

As children become teens, their energy and nutrient needs shoot up to an all-time high, because their bodies are growing. Particularly important for this growth are protein (for new tissue of all kinds), calcium and vitamin D (for bones), and iron, especially for those who are beginning to menstruate.

At the same time, teens’ schedules are getting busier, and their sleeping hours are shifting, leading to more barriers with eating regular meals and instead, leaning more on snacking. They are eating less at home, where parents might offer a healthy menu, and more with their friends or on their own–which leads to more fast food, processed snacks, soda, and sports drinks, especially at high schools with nearby convenience stores. “There’s a whole system that pushes the production, distribution, access, marketing, and palatability of unhealthy processed and ultra-processed foods ,” Economos said.

Teens’ higher order executive functions such as impulse control and long-term thinking are still developing, making it tougher to make nutritious choices in a landscape already skewed toward unhealthy options. And with adolescence comes greater self-consciousness about one’s body and eating, more scrutiny and comparison on social media, and increasing levels of judgment from a society with unrealistic expectations about body size and weight–adding an extra level of stress, which drives emotional eating.

“There are growth spurts that cause their height and weight to shift in ways they haven’t experience before,” Hennessy said. “They can feel like their bodies are no longer in their control, which can cause stress and anxiety.”

More teenagers are also struggling with food allergies or intolerances, or medical conditions requiring dietary limitations–and the stress that comes along with them. “We can see a lot of over-restriction out of fear of accidentally ingesting something,” Kalami said. “And this may affect social life, hanging out with friends, participating in team sport events, and many domains of life.”

On the exercise side of things, Hennessy pointed out that research shows teens—particularly those who identify as girls—are less physically active than younger children. It helps to have access to team sports, exercise programs, or any physical activity opportunity and the support for engaging in these opportunities. But it also takes an environment—like having green space and neighborhoods safe to walk in—to also be physically active. Many teens from marginalized communities don’t have this type of access, she said.

And even parents’ most well-meaning efforts to improve teens’ eating and exercise can backfire. Studies show that an authoritarian parenting style, or one that’s high in control (lots of rules, restriction and controlling parental behaviors) and low in responsiveness (a lack of openness, warmth, support), is correlated with disordered eating symptoms in youths up to 18 years old, and high-risk behaviors such as substance abuse.

“Some younger adolescents are more comfortable with the rules and structure that their parents create and lay down,” Hennessy said, referring to the developmental psychology concept of the legitimacy of parental authority. “But older teens especially feel there are particular domain areas that their parents should not be making rules about, like who their friends are, or the ways they move their bodies, or what they ingest.” This can cause tension between parents and their teens.

Tips for teens with food allergies and intolerances

Get the facts. If you suspect you have a food allergy or intolerance, visit an allergist for a blood test, skin prick test, or oral food challenge to determine what foods cause what reactions. If you were diagnosed a long time ago, visit an allergist again and see what treatment options may be available to you.
Don’t unnecessarily cut out foods. Over-restriction can also be problematic. If you can comfortably consume a food without having difficulties, keep doing so. Try not to cut out foods you don’t have reactions to.
With food allergies, take precautions . Read food labels and learn to properly interpret them. Ask about ingredients and cross-contamination potential at restaurants. Get an EpiPen prescription and always carry one in your purse or backpack, in addition to any other allergy medications; make sure your family or friends know how to administer it if you can’t (and what you’re allergic to).

Source: Dietitian Venus Kalami, N20

Tips to Promote Better Nutrition in Teens

In light of these many factors, what can parents do to supporting teens in nourishing their bodies and finding forms of exercise that make sense for them? Tufts experts offered guidance ranging from being aware of specific nutrients, to including teens in food-related decision-making in the family.

Margie Skeer , interim chair of the public health and community medicine department at Tufts University School of Medicine , advised having regular family meals. Besides being linked to higher fruit and vegetable consumption and lower rates of disordered eating among adolescents, family meals have a protective effect against other high-risk behaviors, such as substance abuse.

It’s also essential to recognize the many forces in play beyond individual choice, and to approach nutrition and exercise as not solely the teen’s problem, but a function of the overall health of the teen’s family and the broader environmental context in which the family is situated, Hennessy said.

Margie Skeer. Photo: Anna Miller

It’s essential to recognize the many forces in play beyond individual choice, and to approach nutrition and exercise as not the teen’s problem, but a function of the overall health of the teen’s family and environment, Hennessy said.

“How can we help teens develop a healthy relationship with food and movement, and create preferences that will carry them forward?” she asked. “How do we help create that foundation to return to throughout life for those who don’t have it, and how do we maintain it for those who do?”

Start with yourself. “How do I get my teen to go on a diet / exercise?” is a common online search phrase around teens and nutrition. But Hennessy suggested first stepping back and asking, “How am I role modeling healthy behaviors for my child?” and to shift the thinking from focusing on one child to thinking about the whole family and how the whole family can support and adopt healthy eating and movement behaviors.

Provide structure without being intrusive. Structure refers to the way parents organize their child’s environment to facilitate their child’s competence. What does that look like in practice? Setting rules and limits, providing limited or guiding choices, setting routines, role modeling, involving teens in food preparation and meal selection, and making healthy food available and accessible.

Know your teen’s nutritional needs. Consult a pediatrician or dietitian, Economos said, as well as resources such as the USDA’s MyPlate Nutrition Information for Teens . Pay special attention to whether your teen is getting enough dairy or plant-based dairy alternatives (for calcium and vitamin D), and iron sources such as red meat, beans, leafy greens, and fortified cereals.

Watch for changes and patterns. Rather than focusing on your teen’s size or weight, watch for new behaviors such as skipping meals, starting to eat much more or less, as well as higher stress levels around food, Hennessy said. Observe how often these behaviors repeat and provide support for your teen, and if there is ever a concern about certain behaviors, consult your healthcare provider.

Connect with your teen. Kalami has often asked about teenage clients’ passions and interests, which can provide the will and the ways to improve health. Skeer emphasized not just spending mealtimes with teens (ideally at least half of all meals), but making sure it’s quality time—meaning a relaxed, supportive environment with open communication and no distractions (such as phones). “Parents eating meals with teens conveys that spending time together is important to them,” Skeer said.

Empower your teen. Instead of prescribing healthy habits, learn your teen’s goals around eating–for example, being a vegetarian–and help them accomplish them in a healthy way, Hennessy said. Economos highlighted the importance of including kids in meal planning and preparation from a young age, teaching them culinary skills and healthy approaches to eating.

Look to local resources. Organizations like Girls on the Run can bring teenage girls together with supportive adults to walk, jog, and run in their neighborhoods, while local dance classes could introduce elements of culture and fun, Economos said. Teens can also get together to walk or train for a 5K, or take free online classes on yoga or strength training. “Goal setting as a group, and a structure where people care if you’re coming, can be really helpful,” Economos said.

Find one small change that works. Whether it’s swapping in nuts for potato chips, setting phone alarms to drink water, dancing to Zumba videos, or going to the park with a friend or family member, it’s the small, realistic changes that make a difference, Kalami said–and you can start with just one.

Support balance and variety. Encourage not just physical health, but overall “food-related quality of life,” said Kalami–especially among teens anxious about eating the wrong thing. “One of the main things I advocate for is minimizing unnecessary restriction, and loosening it up so we can get some flexibility, freedom, and variety back in our lives,” Kalami said.

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Mindfulness exercises

See how mindfulness helps you live in the moment.

If you've heard of or read about mindfulness meditation — also known as mindfulness — you might be curious about how to practice it. Find out how to do mindfulness exercises and how they might benefit you.

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a type of meditation in which you focus on being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling in the moment, without interpretation or judgment. Practicing mindfulness involves breathing methods, guided imagery, and other practices to relax the body and mind and help reduce stress.

Spending too much time planning, problem-solving, daydreaming, or thinking negative or random thoughts can be draining. It can also make you more likely to experience stress, anxiety and symptoms of depression. Practicing mindfulness exercises can help you direct your attention away from this kind of thinking and engage with the world around you.

What are the benefits of meditation?

Meditation has been studied in many clinical trials. The overall evidence supports the effectiveness of meditation for various conditions, including:

High blood pressure (hypertension)

Preliminary research indicates that meditation can also help people with asthma and fibromyalgia.

Meditation can help you experience thoughts and emotions with greater balance and acceptance. Meditation also has been shown to:

Improve attention
Decrease job burnout
Improve sleep
Improve diabetes control

What are some examples of mindfulness exercises?

There are many simple ways to practice mindfulness. Some examples include:

Pay attention. It's hard to slow down and notice things in a busy world. Try to take the time to experience your environment with all of your senses — touch, sound, sight, smell and taste. For example, when you eat a favorite food, take the time to smell, taste and truly enjoy it.
Live in the moment. Try to intentionally bring an open, accepting and discerning attention to everything you do. Find joy in simple pleasures.
Accept yourself. Treat yourself the way you would treat a good friend.
Focus on your breathing. When you have negative thoughts, try to sit down, take a deep breath and close your eyes. Focus on your breath as it moves in and out of your body. Sitting and breathing for even just a minute can help.

You can also try more structured mindfulness exercises, such as:

Body scan meditation. Lie on your back with your legs extended and arms at your sides, palms facing up. Focus your attention slowly and deliberately on each part of your body, in order, from toe to head or head to toe. Be aware of any sensations, emotions or thoughts associated with each part of your body.
Sitting meditation. Sit comfortably with your back straight, feet flat on the floor and hands in your lap. Breathing through your nose, focus on your breath moving in and out of your body. If physical sensations or thoughts interrupt your meditation, note the experience and then return your focus to your breath.
Walking meditation. Find a quiet place 10 to 20 feet in length, and begin to walk slowly. Focus on the experience of walking, being aware of the sensations of standing and the subtle movements that keep your balance. When you reach the end of your path, turn and continue walking, maintaining awareness of your sensations.

When and how often should I practice mindfulness exercises?

It depends on what kind of mindfulness exercise you plan to do.

Simple mindfulness exercises can be practiced anywhere and anytime. Research indicates that engaging your senses outdoors is especially beneficial.

For more structured mindfulness exercises, such as body scan meditation or sitting meditation, you'll need to set aside time when you can be in a quiet place without distractions or interruptions. You might choose to practice this type of exercise early in the morning before you begin your daily routine.

Aim to practice mindfulness every day for about six months. Over time, you might find that mindfulness becomes effortless. Think of it as a commitment to reconnecting with and nurturing yourself.

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Bystritsky A. Complementary and alternative treatments for anxiety symptoms and disorders: Physical, cognitive, and spiritual interventions. https://uptodate.com/contents/search. Accessed June 14, 2018.
Seaward BL. Meditation and mindfulness. In: Managing Stress: Principles and Strategies for Health and Well-being. 9th ed. Burlington, Mass.: Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2018.
Shapiro SL, et al. The Art and Science of Mindfulness: Integrating Mindfulness into Psychology and the Helping Professions. 2nd ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association; 2017.
Lymeus F, et al. Building mindfulness bottom-up: Meditation in natural settings supports open monitoring and attention restoration. Consciousness and Cognition. 2018;59:40.
Blanck P, et al. Effects of mindfulness exercises as stand-alone interventions on symptoms of anxiety and depression: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Behaviour Research and Therapy. 2018;102:25.
AskMayoExpert. Meditation. Rochester, Minn.: Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Research; 2018.
Khoury B, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for healthy individuals: A meta-analysis. Journal of Psychosomatic Research. 2015;78:519.
Practice mindfulness and relaxation. Springboard Beyond Cancer. https://survivorship.cancer.gov/springboard/stress-mood/practice-mindfulness. Accessed June 14, 2018.

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How Exercise Strengthens Your Brain

Physical activity improves cognitive and mental health in all sorts of ways. Here’s why, and how to reap the benefits.

An illustration of a person running; various colored dots surround the top of the runner; a large white brain shape is in the background.

By Dana G. Smith

Growing up in the Netherlands, Henriette van Praag had always been active, playing sports and riding her bike to school every day. Then, in the late-1990s, while working as a staff scientist at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in San Diego, she discovered that exercise can spur the growth of new brain cells in mature mice. After that, her approach to exercise changed.

“I started to take it more seriously,” said Dr. van Praag, now an associate professor of biomedical science at Florida Atlantic University. Today, that involves doing CrossFit and running five or six miles several days a week.

Whether exercise can cause new neurons to grow in adult humans — a feat previously thought impossible, and a tantalizing prospect to treat neurodegenerative diseases — is still up for debate . But even if it’s not possible, physical activity is excellent for your brain, improving mood and cognition through “a plethora” of cellular changes, Dr. van Praag said.

What are some of the benefits, specifically?

Exercise offers short-term boosts in cognition. Studies show that immediately after a bout of physical activity, people perform better on tests of working memory and other executive functions . This may be in part because movement increases the release of neurotransmitters in the brain, most notably epinephrine and norepinephrine.

“These kinds of molecules are needed for paying attention to information,” said Marc Roig, an associate professor in the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy at McGill University. Attention is essential for working memory and executive functioning, he added.

The neurotransmitters dopamine and serotonin are also released with exercise, which is thought to be a main reason people often feel so good after going for a run or a long bike ride.

The brain benefits really start to emerge, though, when we work out consistently over time. Studies show that people who work out several times a week have higher cognitive test scores, on average, than people who are more sedentary. Other research has found that a person’s cognition tends to improve after participating in a new aerobic exercise program for several months.

Dr. Roig added the caveat that the effects on cognition aren’t huge, and not everyone improves to the same degree. “You cannot acquire a super memory just because you exercised,” he said.

Physical activity also benefits mood . People who work out regularly report having better mental health than people who are sedentary. And exercise programs can be effective at treating people’s depression, leading some psychiatrists and therapists to prescribe physical activity. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate aerobic activity or 75 minutes of vigorous aerobic activity per week is a good benchmark.

Perhaps most remarkable, exercise offers protection against neurodegenerative diseases. “Physical activity is one of the health behaviors that’s shown to be the most beneficial for cognitive function and reducing risk of Alzheimer’s and dementia,” said Michelle Voss, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Iowa.

How does exercise do all that?

It starts with the muscles. When we work out, they release molecules that travel through the blood up to the brain. Some, like a hormone called irisin, have “neuroprotective” qualities and have been shown to be linked to the cognitive health benefits of exercise, said Christiane Wrann, an associate professor of medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School who studies irisin . (Dr. Wrann is also a consultant for a pharmaceutical company, Aevum Therapeutics, hoping to harness irisin’s effects into a drug.)

Good blood flow is essential to obtain the benefits of physical activity. And conveniently, exercise improves circulation and stimulates the growth of new blood vessels in the brain. “It’s not just that there’s increased blood flow,” Dr. Voss said. “It’s that there’s a greater chance, then, for signaling molecules that are coming from the muscle to get delivered to the brain.”

Once these signals are in the brain, other chemicals are released locally. The star of the show is a hormone called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or B.D.N.F., that is essential for neuron health and creating new connections — called synapses — between neurons. “It’s like a fertilizer for brain cells to recover from damage,” Dr. Voss said. “And also for synapses on nerve cells to connect with each other and sustain those connections.”

A greater number of blood vessels and connections between neurons can actually increase the size of different brain areas. This effect is especially noticeable in older adults because it can offset the loss of brain volume that happens with age. The hippocampus, an area important for memory and mood, is particularly affected. “We know that it shrinks with age,” Dr. Roig said. “And we know that if we exercise regularly, we can prevent this decline.”

Exercise’s effect on the hippocampus may be one way it helps protect against Alzheimer’s disease, which is associated with significant changes to that part of the brain. The same goes for depression; the hippocampus is smaller in people who are depressed, and effective treatments for depression , including medications and exercise, increase the size of the region.

What kind of exercise is best for your brain?

The experts emphasized that any exercise is good, and the type of activity doesn’t seem to matter, though most of the research has involved aerobic exercise. But, they added, higher-intensity workouts do appear to confer a bigger benefit for the brain.

Improving your overall cardiovascular fitness level also appears to be key. “It’s dose-dependent,” Dr. Wrann said. “The more you can improve your cardiorespiratory fitness, the better the benefits are.”

Like Dr. van Praag, Dr. Voss has incorporated her research into her life, making a concerted effort to engage in higher intensity exercise. For example, on busy days when she can’t fit in a full workout, she’ll seek out hills to bike up on her commute to work. “Even if it’s a little,” she said, “it’s still better than nothing.”

Dana G. Smith is a Times reporter covering personal health, particularly aging and brain health. More about Dana G. Smith

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13 Team-Building Exercises Your Staff Will Actually Enjoy

Haley DeLeon
December 6, 2022
Human Resources
Text-based Story

Whether your team is in-person, remote, or some combination of the two, team-building exercises are a critical HR technique for creating and maintaining an effective team.

However, team building sometimes can get a bad rep. The very mention of it may inspire eye-rolling and groans.

So, make sure your team-building efforts are effective and enjoyable for everyone with these tips and activities.

Why Are Team-Building Exercises Important?

According to Gallup , engagement at work is at an all-time low — only 32% of employees are engaged, and 17% are actively disengaged.

One way to help close the engagement gap is with team building. Team-building exercises can help employees get to know each other on a personal level, boosting morale and building camaraderie and trust. Improved communication skills, productivity, and creativity can also come from team building because employees collaborate in more out-of-the-box ways.

13 Enjoyable and Effective Team-Building Exercises

Not all team-building exercises are created equal, and not all will make sense given your team structure, environment, and goals.

Before you choose any of the team-building exercises below, consider your end objective. Are you looking to help team members get to know each other better? Or do you want to encourage creative thinking and cross-departmental communication?

Each of the following team-building exercises is fun, engaging, and serves a purpose.

13. Two Truths and a Lie

In this classic icebreaker, participants share two honest events or facts about themselves and one lie. The other listeners must decide which one is the lie. Employees will learn more about each other and become more comfortable communicating.

In general, icebreakers can help welcome new hires and introduce new team members because they are great for building familiarity and relationships between colleagues.

12. Compliment Circle

There are many ways to execute this morale-boosting exercise. You can spend five minutes having team members compliment each other with whatever comes to mind. For example, “Big shoutout to Sarah for leading that training last week.” Or, you can have each person address the coworker to their right, giving everyone get a chance to be highlighted. This activity is a great way to boost morale and employee recognition.

11. The Marshmallow Challenge

In this activity, small groups are given 20 spaghetti sticks, one marshmallow, and one yard of string and tape with the goal of creating the tallest freestanding structure possible. Colleagues must work together and be inventive to win, so this activity is ideal if you want to foster collaboration and creativity.

10. Show and Tell

Remember when you’d bring something exciting to share with the class in elementary school? Show and Tell is also relevant the workplace. Instead of bragging about your pet rock, you can encourage employees to share what they are working on or if they have learned anything new. Consider having a Friday afternoon Show and Tell where employees can share team updates, industry news or even personal achievements. Allow time for people to ask questions and give feedback so you can maximize the benefits of this morale-boosting activity.

9. Hack Day

Want to foster creative problem-solving and open communication? Consider hosting a Hack Day , or a day where everyone drops their normal workload and spends their time completing a special project that benefits the team or company. You can also create small teams from people across departments to work on different cross-functional projects and think outside the box.

8. Human Knot

This might sound familiar if you attended summer camp as a kid. In this activity, which is ideal for large teams, members join right and left hands with the person opposite them — not the person next to them. When all members have their hands in a knot, the group has to work together and follow the rules to untangle themselves. The results are, once again, communication, trust, following instructions, and some fun!

7. Scavenger Hunt

Scavenger hunts are great for new hires or helping people get to know each other better. You can create a list of different facts or artifacts and divide employees into groups to see who can find everything the fastest. This can help employees learn more about the company and each other.

6. Murder Mystery Game or Escape Room

A murder mystery game or escape room can be a great way to have employees practice clear communication, problem-solving, and collaboration. Employees will have to work together to solve clues in either of these scenarios to determine the murderer or escape. Many companies now offer murder mystery and escape room games online, so virtual teams can get in on the fun.

5. Slideshow

If you’re looking to hone your employees’ presentation and oral communication skills, a slideshow or Lunch and Learn can be a great way of doing so. Splitting employees into groups to present on whatever topic they all decide they are interested in can help them delegate tasks, analyze an issue, improve public speaking skills, and sharpen their ability to work together in new ways.

4. Common Factor

Finding commonalities can help build connections and solidify existing employee relationships. Common Factor helps colleagues find these connections quickly. For this game, employees are asked to move to a designated area of the room if certain statements apply to them. Some questions to ask include:

Do you own a pet?
Are you a parent?
Are you a grandparent?
Are you a musician?
Do you like country music?
Do you like horror movies?
Have you visited more than ten countries?
Are you a twin or triplet?
Have you ever met a celebrity?
Are you left-handed?

In a virtual environment, it could be as simple as raising your hand if the question applies to you. As more employees discover what they have in common, they’ll build trust and relationships.

3. Shark Tank

Have you ever watched Shark Tank? In this game, based on the TV show, teams pitch mock products in front of a group of “Sharks” (senior team members) to secure investments. This exercise promotes collaboration, entrepreneurship, teamwork, presentation skills, and unconventional thinking. Participants must develop an imaginary product and create a professional pitch, including the brand name and slogan, business and marketing plan, and financial data.

2. Egg Drop

You may have done this activity in school. Each team has limited time and supplies to construct a carrier to keep an egg safe from a two-story drop. Teams must collaborate and think creatively to win.

1. Memory Wall

Having team members share memories creates team bonding opportunities and fosters morale. In this exercise, write a few work-related topics on a whiteboard or sticky board, such as “work travel” and “my first day.” Gather your team together and have everyone choose one of the topics to share a story about from their time with the company. As people are telling their stories, ask other team members to write down words to add to the wall. As more people share their stories and add words to the wall, the result is a positive memory cloud that everyone will be a part of.

Tips for Effective Team Building

To ensure your team-building exercises accomplish their intended purpose, follow these tips from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) :

Remember that team building is a process. It’s not just a singular event — team building takes time and regular implementation. With new employees joining and some employees leaving the team, as well as company updates, team building should be a consistent component of your HR efforts.
Be specific about the goal. Team-building exercises should have specific objectives, such as introducing new team members or inspiring creative thinking. Instead of “building a stronger team,” consider a goal like “apply creative problem solving to create a better onboarding process.”
Share the desired outcomes with the team. That way, they know the goal of the exercise, and they’ll be more engaged. This can also help fight off the skepticism that sometimes accompanies team building from cynical employees.
Incorporate participant preferences and comfort zones. In a post-pandemic era, the Human Knot may not be a feasible or desirable game for all teams. Also, some exercises are more effective in person, while others may be suitable for remote teams.
Be realistic about expectations. Not every team-building exercise will appeal to all your employees, and you can’t please everyone.

Team-Building Exercises: Part of Your HR Toolkit

HR plays a key role in fostering employee engagement and growing retention, and team building is an important part of that. Whether you want to enter the HR field or grow in your existing career, USF offers the tools and knowledge busy professionals need to succeed in this demanding profession.

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Clinical Somatics Exercises for Full Body Relief

Level one & level two courses.

In the online Level One & Level Two Courses, you’ll learn how to use groundbreaking Clinical Somatics exercises to alleviate common musculoskeletal conditions, improve your posture and movement, and prevent recurring pain and injuries. By the end of the courses you’ll be self-sufficient, able to prevent and relieve your own pain by doing the exercises you feel that you need each day.

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Level One Course Curriculum

Clinical Somatics exercises are slow, gentle, and therapeutic. The exercises are appropriate for all ages and fitness levels. In the two-month online Level One Course , you’ll learn Thomas Hanna’s Clinical Somatics exercises one by one through video demonstrations, audio classes, and written explanations. The Level One & Two Courses are designed to give you a learning experience similar to working with a private instructor. You’ll spend several days focusing on each exercise before moving on to the next one. This focused time gives you the opportunity to become completely comfortable with the exercises and the effects that each one has on your body. The pace of the course is set, so you cannot skip ahead, but you can feel free to move more slowly through the course if you want to. You have lifetime access to the course.

Periodically, you will do audio Daily Practice Classes that combine the exercises into sequences. At the end of the course, you’ll receive a comprehensive audio Daily Practice Class that includes all of the exercises. You can download and save all of these audio classes forever. Throughout the course, you’ll receive a daily email letting you know that there is a new exercise to learn, a new class to use, or suggesting what to practice that day. Ultimately, you will have learned the exercises well enough that you are able to assess yourself and do what you need on a daily basis to prevent and relieve your pain and continue to improve your posture and movement.

Level One focuses on releasing muscle tension in the core of your body: your back, waist, abdomen, shoulders and hips. The core of your body is where your posture and movement patterns begin; it is your foundation. It is very important to address problems and imbalances in your core before moving outward to your extremities.

In the two-month online Level One Course, you’ll learn how to:

Use Thomas Hanna’s technique of pandiculation to release chronic muscle tension, relieve chronic pain, and retrain your muscle memory

Alleviate back pain, disc problems, joint pain, kyphosis, lordosis, scoliosis, sciatica, iliopsoas syndrome, osteoarthritis, uneven leg length, and more

Learn exercises that release the lower back, hips, abdominals, obliques, shoulders, iliopsoas muscle, and more
Improve posture, mobility, balance, body awareness, and muscular control
Prevent recurring injuries and degeneration
Improve athletic performance and speed recovery time

Reduce stress and anxiety, and improve sleep and breathing

Develop a daily practice that addresses your individual needs

One-time cost of Level One Course: $45.

*Save $25 by registering for Level One & Two at the same time. Scroll down for more info!

Clinical Somatics exercises are slow, gentle, and therapeutic. The exercises are appropriate for all ages and fitness levels. In the two-month online Level One Course , you’ll learn Thomas Hanna’s Clinical Somatics exercises one by one though video demonstrations, audio classes, and written explanations. The Level One & Two Courses are designed to give you a learning experience similar to working with a private instructor. You’ll spend several days focusing on each exercise before moving on to the next one. This focused time gives you the opportunity to become completely comfortable with the exercises and the effects that each one has on your body. The pace of the course is set, so you cannot skip ahead, but you can feel free to move more slowly through the course if you want to. You have lifetime access to the course.

Level One & Two Combo

Save $25 by registering for Level One & Two at the same time!

When you register for the Level One & Two Combo, your Level Two Course ( scroll down for course description ) starts automatically when you complete Level One. You have lifetime access to the courses, and you can move through the courses as slowly as you want to.

Normally $120 Now just $95!

How can Clinical Somatics change your life?

“I spent a year lost in the dysfunctional Kaiser system…a blur of doctors, MRIs, spinal epidurals, physical therapy, painkillers, ice, heat, and TENS, and nothing helped. It seemed as if I was headed for multi-level fusion surgery. I was absolutely at the end of my rope when someone posted a link to Clinical Somatics in a Facebook back pain support group. In 5 minutes I had enrolled and was doing the first day’s practice. That night I noticed I could reach things on the tables on both sides of my bed. Over the next few weeks all the pain, which I had been spending most of my life trying to manage, went away. I have gotten my life back, the life I thought was gone for good. Incredible bang for the buck for my $45!”

“ Well, of course, the first thing I love about Clinical Somatics is that it works! And the thing I like about both the Level One and Level Two classes of Clinical Somatics is Sarah! She is truly the perfect teacher–she knows her subject, imparts it with love, precision and patience and is always encouraging. Thank you, Sarah!”

“ I just wanted to express my gratitude for giving me my life back! After suffering from sciatic pain caused by a chronically tight iliopsoas muscle and uneven hips for almost a year, I have finally gotten relief. After about two to three weeks into the program, I started noticing a reduction in pain, and it just continued to decrease from there. I’ve spent thousands of dollars seeing chiropractors and multiple physical therapists, none of which were able to figure out my problem, let alone help me recover. Your program is truly remarkable and the results I got from such simple movements still astonishes me.”

“ Somatics has brought back my quality of life. I have a spinal condition called spondylolisthesis with pars fracture (Grade II). What it entails for me: back pain, sciatica, protrusion of vertebrae, etc. I have been using the daily Somatics exercises consistently for the past two months. I can say without hesitation these exercises work. All the benefits as described here online and in my readings have been enlightening. Moreover, living without the pain and discomfort is life altering. “

“I have been practicing the Level One Course since August. I started this journey with major psoas issues (iliopsoas syndrome) and pain in my lower back, hips, and SI joints due to arthritis, bone spurs, and slipped disks in L3 and L4. After a few days the pain began to subside, my posture was better, and I could walk for longer distances. At this time I live relatively pain free. For three years I lived with high levels of pain and could not walk longer than a few blocks. This practice is amazing! ”

“ Somatics has totally transformed my life. It started with back and anxiety problems. After my first class I didn’t want to move. I felt totally at ease and peace. I wasn’t anxious and my back pain was almost nonexistent. After a couple weeks of classes my back pain had subsided. After that I started doing the Level One and Level Two courses here and my body and mind has never felt better. I practice every single day. It has helped not only my back pain but has completely calmed my nervous system. ”

Level Two Course Curriculum

The three-month online Level Two Course is structured in a very similar way to the Level One Course, but it moves a little faster, with twice as many exercises as the Level One Course. And while the Level One Course is focused on working with the core of the body, Level Two moves outward to the extremities. You’ll work with the neck, shoulders, face & jaw, hips, legs, and feet.

The Level Two Course also includes four proprioceptive exercises. The word proprioception means “how you sense your body in space.” As a result of adapting to habitual muscular patterns, many people have an altered, inaccurate sense of their posture. Their proprioception has gradually adapted over time, giving them the sense that they are standing straight up and down even though their spine is curved to some degree forward, backward, or to one side. The proprioceptive exercises help you to retrain your proprioception so that you can improve your posture and have an accurate sense of how you’re sitting and standing.

Throughout the course, you can download and save all of the audio Daily Practice Classes. You have lifetime access to the course.

The Level One Course and Level Two Course together contain all of the Clinical Somatics exercises that are included in all of the audio class downloads that I offer.

*Please note: Before enrolling in the Level Two Course, you must complete the Level One Course.

In the online Level Two Course, you’ll learn exercises that relieve:

Tension and pain in the hips, leg muscles, feet, neck, shoulders, face, and jaw

Forward head posture

Frozen shoulder

Leg spasms & cramps

Plantar fasciitis

Sciatica & piriformis syndrome

Temporomandibular joint disorders

Thoracic outlet syndrome

Uneven leg length

One-time cost of Level Two Course: $75.

The Pain Relief Secret

How to Retrain Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, and Overcome Chronic Pain

by Sarah Warren, CCSE, RSME

If you want to get out of pain for good, The Pain Relief Secret is a must-read. The book explains how Clinical Somatics retrains the nervous system, gives valuable insight into how you developed your unique patterns of tension and pain, and makes you aware of what you’re doing in your daily life that could be prolonging or worsening your tension and pain.

Relieve your muscle and joint pain and take care of your body at any age.

Learn the exercises one by one

Fully understand each exercise with video demonstrations, audio classes, and simple written explanations

Gradually incorporate the exercises into your daily routine

Practice the gentle, relaxing exercises for just 15-30 minutes per day

Feel the benefits of each exercise

Feel how each exercise affects your muscle tension, pain levels, posture, mobility, and muscular control

Relieve your pain and become self-sufficient

Learn how to relieve and prevent recurring pain and injuries by taking care of yourself on a daily basis

Get started today!

Don’t be content to let your physical well-being, posture, movement, and athletic performance decline as you get older. You can relieve your own pain and prevent recurring injuries and degeneration with just 15-30 minutes a day of gentle, relaxing Clinical Somatics exercises. Start learning today!

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Exercises for Neuromuscular Reeducation

Physical Therapist Working with a Patient

Exercises for neuromuscular reeducation are part of a therapeutic technique that addresses various adverse conditions that arise from faulty nerve and muscle activities. According to Peter Levy, D.C., more than 90 percent of the soft tissue injuries that chiropractic professionals encounter can benefit from neuromuscular reeducation exercises. The exercises are particularly beneficial for unhealthy movement patterns that persist after injuries. For example, patients sometimes continue limping months after a hip or leg problem is eliminated.

Video of the Day

Neuromuscular reeducation exercises can help you achieve a variety of goals, which include improving balance, coordination, posture and proprioception. Proprioception is your sense of the relative position of different body parts. Injuries, repetitive use, poor posture and unhealthy biomechanics can make your movement patters become inefficient. The broad goal of neuromuscular reeducation exercises involves restoring a natural mind-body connection by coordinating your mental perception with physical behavior. Neuromuscular reeducation exercises aim to restore natural and energy-efficient movement patterns, optimize joint biomechanics and reduce pain that may result from neuromuscular deficiencies.

Exercises for neuromuscular reeducation may help improve a variety of conditions associated with postural problems, aches and pains. Jacob Quihuis, D.C. administers neuromuscular reeducation exercises to patients that have back and neck pain, and problems with flexibility or joint mobility. Neuromuscular reeducation exercises can help improve persistent poor posture, which can contribute to repetitive strain injuries. Individuals with poor circulation and emotional stress may also benefit from neuromuscular reeducation exercises.

Physical therapists that administer exercises for neuromuscular reeducation assess factors that may contribute to pain that a particular patient is experiencing. Trigger points are locations on your body that can cause pain on other parts of your body. Neuromuscular reeducation exercises can relieve pinched or pressed nerves that cause pain. Elevated stress can also adversely affect your nervous and musculoskeletal system. Neuromuscular reeducation exercises are particularly important for improving postural distortions, which weaken supporting muscles and lead to faulty movement patterns that can intensify pain.

Neuromuscular reeducation exercises include a variety of functional strengthening, stretching, balancing and coordination activities. Practitioners that administer these exercises encourage patients to focus on joint positioning and movement. The key to many neuromuscular reeducation exercises is maintaining balance while performing specified movements. For example, pelvic tilt exercises introduce you to proper pelvis positioning, and then may encourage you to maintain the tilt while moving your legs. Unilateral balancing exercises help you establish a proper pelvic tilt while balancing on one foot. A variety of stretching and bending movements on an exercise ball also have neuromuscular applications.

The Chiropractic Center: Neuromuscular Reeducation
North Dallas Integrated Health: Step 1 Pelvic Tilt & Step 2 Unilateral Balance
North Dallas Integrated Health: Step 3 Swiss Ball Seated Leg Lifts & Step 4,Bridges
Nmrseminars.com: The Levy Approach to Neuromuscular Reeducation

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Exercise Starter Kits (ESKs)

Campus Resilience Program Exercise Starter Kits (ESKs)

Exercise Starter Kits are self-conducted tabletop exercises (TTX) tailored for the academic community. Each kit includes a set of scalable tools aimed to test existing emergency plans, protocols, and procedures, while also strengthening preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities. Available within each ESK are the following customizable templates:

An Exercise Conduct Briefing for presentation during the TTX
A Situation Manual to provide background information on the TTX, scenario content, as well as discussion questions for participants
A Facilitator Guide for assisting facilitators in delivering the TTX
A Participant Feedback Form Template for players to provide candid feedback on the TTX
An After-Action Report Template for summarizing key strength and areas for improvement following the TTX

For more information on the CR Program’s Exercise Starter Kits, read the Exercise Starter Kit one-pager .

K-12 Exercise Starter Kits

The K-12 Exercise Starter Kits currently focus on an active shooter incident and are broken into three (3) K-12 school levels: Elementary School, Middle/Junior High School, and High School. To obtain one or more of the K-12 Exercise Starter Kits, please use this link .

Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Exercise Starter Kits

The Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Exercise Starter Kits are available on improvised explosive device , tornado , hazardous material release , earthquake, cyber breaches , hurricanes , and active shooter incidents . For more information on the IHE Exercise Starter Kits, read our press release . To obtain one or more of the Exercise Starter Kits, please use this link.

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Diabetes Overview

Healthy Living with Diabetes

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How can I plan what to eat or drink when I have diabetes?

How can physical activity help manage my diabetes, what can i do to reach or maintain a healthy weight, should i quit smoking, how can i take care of my mental health, clinical trials for healthy living with diabetes.

Healthy living is a way to manage diabetes . To have a healthy lifestyle, take steps now to plan healthy meals and snacks, do physical activities, get enough sleep, and quit smoking or using tobacco products.

Healthy living may help keep your body’s blood pressure , cholesterol , and blood glucose level, also called blood sugar level, in the range your primary health care professional recommends. Your primary health care professional may be a doctor, a physician assistant, or a nurse practitioner. Healthy living may also help prevent or delay health problems from diabetes that can affect your heart, kidneys, eyes, brain, and other parts of your body.

Making lifestyle changes can be hard, but starting with small changes and building from there may benefit your health. You may want to get help from family, loved ones, friends, and other trusted people in your community. You can also get information from your health care professionals.

What you choose to eat, how much you eat, and when you eat are parts of a meal plan. Having healthy foods and drinks can help keep your blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels in the ranges your health care professional recommends. If you have overweight or obesity, a healthy meal plan—along with regular physical activity, getting enough sleep, and other healthy behaviors—may help you reach and maintain a healthy weight. In some cases, health care professionals may also recommend diabetes medicines that may help you lose weight, or weight-loss surgery, also called metabolic and bariatric surgery.

Choose healthy foods and drinks

There is no right or wrong way to choose healthy foods and drinks that may help manage your diabetes. Healthy meal plans for people who have diabetes may include

dairy or plant-based dairy products
nonstarchy vegetables
protein foods
whole grains

Try to choose foods that include nutrients such as vitamins, calcium , fiber , and healthy fats . Also try to choose drinks with little or no added sugar , such as tap or bottled water, low-fat or non-fat milk, and unsweetened tea, coffee, or sparkling water.

Try to plan meals and snacks that have fewer

foods high in saturated fat
foods high in sodium, a mineral found in salt
sugary foods , such as cookies and cakes, and sweet drinks, such as soda, juice, flavored coffee, and sports drinks

Your body turns carbohydrates , or carbs, from food into glucose, which can raise your blood glucose level. Some fruits, beans, and starchy vegetables—such as potatoes and corn—have more carbs than other foods. Keep carbs in mind when planning your meals.

You should also limit how much alcohol you drink. If you take insulin or certain diabetes medicines , drinking alcohol can make your blood glucose level drop too low, which is called hypoglycemia . If you do drink alcohol, be sure to eat food when you drink and remember to check your blood glucose level after drinking. Talk with your health care team about your alcohol-drinking habits.

A woman in a wheelchair, chopping vegetables at a kitchen table.

Find the best times to eat or drink

Talk with your health care professional or health care team about when you should eat or drink. The best time to have meals and snacks may depend on

what medicines you take for diabetes
what your level of physical activity or your work schedule is
whether you have other health conditions or diseases

Ask your health care team if you should eat before, during, or after physical activity. Some diabetes medicines, such as sulfonylureas or insulin, may make your blood glucose level drop too low during exercise or if you skip or delay a meal.

Plan how much to eat or drink

You may worry that having diabetes means giving up foods and drinks you enjoy. The good news is you can still have your favorite foods and drinks, but you might need to have them in smaller portions or enjoy them less often.

For people who have diabetes, carb counting and the plate method are two common ways to plan how much to eat or drink. Talk with your health care professional or health care team to find a method that works for you.

Carb counting

Carbohydrate counting , or carb counting, means planning and keeping track of the amount of carbs you eat and drink in each meal or snack. Not all people with diabetes need to count carbs. However, if you take insulin, counting carbs can help you know how much insulin to take.

Plate method

The plate method helps you control portion sizes without counting and measuring. This method divides a 9-inch plate into the following three sections to help you choose the types and amounts of foods to eat for each meal.

Nonstarchy vegetables—such as leafy greens, peppers, carrots, or green beans—should make up half of your plate.
Carb foods that are high in fiber—such as brown rice, whole grains, beans, or fruits—should make up one-quarter of your plate.
Protein foods—such as lean meats, fish, dairy, or tofu or other soy products—should make up one quarter of your plate.

If you are not taking insulin, you may not need to count carbs when using the plate method.

Plate method, with half of the circular plate filled with nonstarchy vegetables; one fourth of the plate showing carbohydrate foods, including fruits; and one fourth of the plate showing protein foods. A glass filled with water, or another zero-calorie drink, is on the side.

Work with your health care team to create a meal plan that works for you. You may want to have a diabetes educator or a registered dietitian on your team. A registered dietitian can provide medical nutrition therapy , which includes counseling to help you create and follow a meal plan. Your health care team may be able to recommend other resources, such as a healthy lifestyle coach, to help you with making changes. Ask your health care team or your insurance company if your benefits include medical nutrition therapy or other diabetes care resources.

Talk with your health care professional before taking dietary supplements

There is no clear proof that specific foods, herbs, spices, or dietary supplements —such as vitamins or minerals—can help manage diabetes. Your health care professional may ask you to take vitamins or minerals if you can’t get enough from foods. Talk with your health care professional before you take any supplements, because some may cause side effects or affect how well your diabetes medicines work.

Research shows that regular physical activity helps people manage their diabetes and stay healthy. Benefits of physical activity may include

lower blood glucose, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels
better heart health
healthier weight
better mood and sleep
better balance and memory

Talk with your health care professional before starting a new physical activity or changing how much physical activity you do. They may suggest types of activities based on your ability, schedule, meal plan, interests, and diabetes medicines. Your health care professional may also tell you the best times of day to be active or what to do if your blood glucose level goes out of the range recommended for you.

Do different types of physical activity

People with diabetes can be active, even if they take insulin or use technology such as insulin pumps .

Try to do different kinds of activities . While being more active may have more health benefits, any physical activity is better than none. Start slowly with activities you enjoy. You may be able to change your level of effort and try other activities over time. Having a friend or family member join you may help you stick to your routine.

The physical activities you do may need to be different if you are age 65 or older , are pregnant , or have a disability or health condition . Physical activities may also need to be different for children and teens . Ask your health care professional or health care team about activities that are safe for you.

Aerobic activities

Aerobic activities make you breathe harder and make your heart beat faster. You can try walking, dancing, wheelchair rolling, or swimming. Most adults should try to get at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity each week. Aim to do 30 minutes a day on most days of the week. You don’t have to do all 30 minutes at one time. You can break up physical activity into small amounts during your day and still get the benefit. 1

Strength training or resistance training

Strength training or resistance training may make your muscles and bones stronger. You can try lifting weights or doing other exercises such as wall pushups or arm raises. Try to do this kind of training two times a week. 1

Balance and stretching activities

Balance and stretching activities may help you move better and have stronger muscles and bones. You may want to try standing on one leg or stretching your legs when sitting on the floor. Try to do these kinds of activities two or three times a week. 1

Some activities that need balance may be unsafe for people with nerve damage or vision problems caused by diabetes. Ask your health care professional or health care team about activities that are safe for you.

Group of people doing stretching exercises outdoors.

Stay safe during physical activity

Staying safe during physical activity is important. Here are some tips to keep in mind.

Drink liquids

Drinking liquids helps prevent dehydration , or the loss of too much water in your body. Drinking water is a way to stay hydrated. Sports drinks often have a lot of sugar and calories , and you don’t need them for most moderate physical activities.

Avoid low blood glucose

Check your blood glucose level before, during, and right after physical activity. Physical activity often lowers the level of glucose in your blood. Low blood glucose levels may last for hours or days after physical activity. You are most likely to have low blood glucose if you take insulin or some other diabetes medicines, such as sulfonylureas.

Ask your health care professional if you should take less insulin or eat carbs before, during, or after physical activity. Low blood glucose can be a serious medical emergency that must be treated right away. Take steps to protect yourself. You can learn how to treat low blood glucose , let other people know what to do if you need help, and use a medical alert bracelet.

Avoid high blood glucose and ketoacidosis

Taking less insulin before physical activity may help prevent low blood glucose, but it may also make you more likely to have high blood glucose. If your body does not have enough insulin, it can’t use glucose as a source of energy and will use fat instead. When your body uses fat for energy, your body makes chemicals called ketones .

High levels of ketones in your blood can lead to a condition called diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) . DKA is a medical emergency that should be treated right away. DKA is most common in people with type 1 diabetes . Occasionally, DKA may affect people with type 2 diabetes who have lost their ability to produce insulin. Ask your health care professional how much insulin you should take before physical activity, whether you need to test your urine for ketones, and what level of ketones is dangerous for you.

Take care of your feet

People with diabetes may have problems with their feet because high blood glucose levels can damage blood vessels and nerves. To help prevent foot problems, wear comfortable and supportive shoes and take care of your feet before, during, and after physical activity.

A man checks his foot while a woman watches over his shoulder.

If you have diabetes, managing your weight may bring you several health benefits. Ask your health care professional or health care team if you are at a healthy weight or if you should try to lose weight.

If you are an adult with overweight or obesity, work with your health care team to create a weight-loss plan. Losing 5% to 7% of your current weight may help you prevent or improve some health problems and manage your blood glucose, cholesterol, and blood pressure levels. 2 If you are worried about your child’s weight and they have diabetes, talk with their health care professional before your child starts a new weight-loss plan.

You may be able to reach and maintain a healthy weight by

following a healthy meal plan
consuming fewer calories
being physically active
getting 7 to 8 hours of sleep each night 3

If you have type 2 diabetes, your health care professional may recommend diabetes medicines that may help you lose weight.

Online tools such as the Body Weight Planner may help you create eating and physical activity plans. You may want to talk with your health care professional about other options for managing your weight, including joining a weight-loss program that can provide helpful information, support, and behavioral or lifestyle counseling. These options may have a cost, so make sure to check the details of the programs.

Your health care professional may recommend weight-loss surgery if you aren’t able to reach a healthy weight with meal planning, physical activity, and taking diabetes medicines that help with weight loss.

If you are pregnant , trying to lose weight may not be healthy. However, you should ask your health care professional whether it makes sense to monitor or limit your weight gain during pregnancy.

Both diabetes and smoking —including using tobacco products and e-cigarettes—cause your blood vessels to narrow. Both diabetes and smoking increase your risk of having a heart attack or stroke , nerve damage , kidney disease , eye disease , or amputation . Secondhand smoke can also affect the health of your family or others who live with you.

If you smoke or use other tobacco products, stop. Ask for help . You don’t have to do it alone.

Feeling stressed, sad, or angry can be common for people with diabetes. Managing diabetes or learning to cope with new information about your health can be hard. People with chronic illnesses such as diabetes may develop anxiety or other mental health conditions .

Learn healthy ways to lower your stress , and ask for help from your health care team or a mental health professional. While it may be uncomfortable to talk about your feelings, finding a health care professional whom you trust and want to talk with may help you

lower your feelings of stress, depression, or anxiety
manage problems sleeping or remembering things
see how diabetes affects your family, school, work, or financial situation

Ask your health care team for mental health resources for people with diabetes.

Sleeping too much or too little may raise your blood glucose levels. Your sleep habits may also affect your mental health and vice versa. People with diabetes and overweight or obesity can also have other health conditions that affect sleep, such as sleep apnea , which can raise your blood pressure and risk of heart disease.

Man with obesity looking distressed talking with a health care professional.

NIDDK conducts and supports clinical trials in many diseases and conditions, including diabetes. The trials look to find new ways to prevent, detect, or treat disease and improve quality of life.

What are clinical trials for healthy living with diabetes?

Clinical trials—and other types of clinical studies —are part of medical research and involve people like you. When you volunteer to take part in a clinical study, you help health care professionals and researchers learn more about disease and improve health care for people in the future.

Researchers are studying many aspects of healthy living for people with diabetes, such as

how changing when you eat may affect body weight and metabolism
how less access to healthy foods may affect diabetes management, other health problems, and risk of dying
whether low-carbohydrate meal plans can help lower blood glucose levels
which diabetes medicines are more likely to help people lose weight

Find out if clinical trials are right for you .

Watch a video of NIDDK Director Dr. Griffin P. Rodgers explaining the importance of participating in clinical trials.

What clinical trials for healthy living with diabetes are looking for participants?

You can view a filtered list of clinical studies on healthy living with diabetes that are federally funded, open, and recruiting at www.ClinicalTrials.gov . You can expand or narrow the list to include clinical studies from industry, universities, and individuals; however, the National Institutes of Health does not review these studies and cannot ensure they are safe for you. Always talk with your primary health care professional before you participate in a clinical study.

This content is provided as a service of the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), part of the National Institutes of Health. NIDDK translates and disseminates research findings to increase knowledge and understanding about health and disease among patients, health professionals, and the public. Content produced by NIDDK is carefully reviewed by NIDDK scientists and other experts.

NIDDK would like to thank: Elizabeth M. Venditti, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.

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6. Gap-fill sentences - education words . These can be used with a wordsearch, crossword, another exercise or just on their own. 1. The school is known for _____ excellence. 2. There is accommodation for five hundred students on _____. 3. Maths is an important part of the school _____. 4.
Physical Activities For Kids: Get Active At Home!
This 12-minute video contains fun physical exercises for kids they can do at home. These are mini-workouts children can perform in order to get stronger, bur...
At-Home Workouts
Bent Knee Push-up. A great starting option if you struggle with the correct form using a full Push-Up. View Exercise ». 5. Downward-facing Dog. Slow and controlled movement very important - wonderful calf stretch. View Exercise ». 6. Bent-Knee Sit-up / Crunches.
Educational Exercises and Activities Community Group
Introduction. The mission of the Educational Exercises and Activities Community Group is to develop standards for educational exercises and activities and to make recommendations with regard to other standards.. With respect to educational exercises and activities, a large number of scenarios are to be considered. Educational exercises and activities can be URL-addressable Web resources ...
On Teens, Nutrition, and Exercise: How to Encourage Healthy Habits
On the exercise side of things, Hennessy pointed out that research shows teens—particularly those who identify as girls—are less physically active than younger children. It helps to have access to team sports, exercise programs, or any physical activity opportunity and the support for engaging in these opportunities.
Mindfulness exercises
You can also try more structured mindfulness exercises, such as: Body scan meditation. Lie on your back with your legs extended and arms at your sides, palms facing up. Focus your attention slowly and deliberately on each part of your body, in order, from toe to head or head to toe. Be aware of any sensations, emotions or thoughts associated ...
How Exercise Strengthens Your Brain
Exercise offers short-term boosts in cognition. Studies show that immediately after a bout of physical activity, people perform better on tests of working memory and other executive functions ...
13 Team-Building Exercises Your Staff Will Actually Enjoy
When all members have their hands in a knot, the group has to work together and follow the rules to untangle themselves. The results are, once again, communication, trust, following instructions, and some fun! 7. Scavenger Hunt. Scavenger hunts are great for new hires or helping people get to know each other better.
Somatics Exercises
Learn exercises that release the lower back, hips, abdominals, obliques, shoulders, iliopsoas muscle, and more. Improve posture, mobility, balance, body awareness, and muscular control. Prevent recurring injuries and degeneration. Improve athletic performance and speed recovery time. Reduce stress and anxiety, and improve sleep and breathing.
Home
Backed by Science, Proven by Results . N1 training is the source of information, programs and coaching for those looking for the a completely individualized exercise execution, training programs and nutrition. From the most comprehensive exercise library in existence, training programs, to the best online coaches. Get Started.
Exercises for Neuromuscular Reeducation
Exercises for neuromuscular reeducation may help improve a variety of conditions associated with postural problems, aches and pains. Jacob Quihuis, D.C. administers neuromuscular reeducation exercises to patients that have back and neck pain, and problems with flexibility or joint mobility. Neuromuscular reeducation exercises can help improve ...
Exercise Starter Kits (ESKs)
Exercise Starter Kits are a set of tools and resources for K-12 communities and institutions of higher education (IHE) to self-conduct a tabletop exercise (TTX). The Exercise Starter Kits reinforce specific emergency plans, protocols, and procedures, while also testing and strengthening preparedness, response, and recovery capabilities.
Exercise and Physical Fitness: Just the Facts
Aerobic exercise. Aerobic exercise has many health benefits, among which is preventing the onset of Type 2 diabetes and improving cardiovascular health. This type of exercise extracts glucose from the blood for use by the body's muscles. In addition, because aerobic exercise burns both fat and carbs, it is beneficial in managing weight.
Healthy Living with Diabetes
Healthy living is a way to manage diabetes. To have a healthy lifestyle, take steps now to plan healthy meals and snacks, do physical activities, get enough sleep, and quit smoking or using tobacco products. Healthy living may help keep your body's blood pressure, cholesterol, and blood glucose level, also called blood sugar level, in the ...
Jane Elliott, anti-racism teacher, slams efforts to limit how race is
'Education should make it impossible to accept the bigotry' But today, teaching children about racism using that exercise or versions of it can be considered inappropriate for K-12 classrooms ...