Category: 5 Minutes

Chair Fun – Leg Extensions

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Description

Sit on the edge of the chair with your back straight. Pull your belly button in to engage your ab muscles and protect your back muscles. With your knee bent, lift one leg up slightly and hold for a few seconds. Straighten your leg out as far as you can without dropping it down to the floor. Bring your leg back into a bent position but don’t lower your foot back to the ground. Repeat extensions to a straightened leg 20 times. Then lower your leg down and put your foot on the floor. Repeat with the other side. This exercise is great for strengthening your leg muscles!

Chair Fun – Leg Lifts

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Description

Sit on the edge of the chair with your back straight. Pull your belly button in to engage your ab muscles and protect your back muscles. With your knee bent, lift one leg up slightly and hold for a few seconds. Then do 50-100 small pulses. Make this movement from your hip. (Pretend like your leg is a lever making your knee go up.) Don’t let your leg drop below parallel. Repeat on the other side. This exercise is great for strengthening your leg muscles!

Love Football – make a goal post!

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Description

Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart. Raise your arms out at your sides and up to your shoulder level. Make a gentle fist with each hand. Bend each arm at the elbow with your fists pointed up at a 90 degree angle. Keep your neck relaxed. Your upper body will look like a goal post ready for a field goal. Do 50-100 small pulses up and down with your elbows, pushing your fists straight up toward the ceiling. Keep your goal post looking nice and perfect!

Modification Options

  1. Poor balance: Lean back against a wall or sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground, shoulder-width apart.
  2. Do one arm at a time and stabilize self by holding onto a chair or table.

Pass Through

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Description

Hold the resistance band or PVC pipe with a wide grip (more than shoulder width) in front of your body. Stand with your feet shoulder width apart. While holding the band or PVC pipe, slowly raise your arms over your head and then behind your head. Keep going until you reach a gentle stretch. Slowly bring your arms back to the front of your body. Repeat 10 times.

Modification Option

Poor balance: Lean back against a wall or sit in a chair with your feet flat on the ground, shoulder width apart.

Leg Lifts (3 ways)

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Description

1) Ask youth to pull their chairs out from their desks and sit in their chairs. Remind them to sit up straight, while holding onto the sides of their chairs. Then ask them to bring both of their legs up (keeping their ankles together and legs straight) and extend their legs as high as they are able. Hold at the top, do a small “pump” action and lower legs back to the floor. Repeat 15 times.

2) Ask the youth to stand behind their chairs, holding the back for balance. Then ask them to bring their right leg out to the side to a 45-degree angle. Hold at the top, do a small “pump” action and lower leg back to the floor. Repeat 15 times. Switch legs.

3) Repeat #2, lifting leg behind to a 45-degree angle.

Modification Option

Seated Options: Leg kicks, seated marching, moving legs apart and together (adding theraband for resistance)

Clean a Mess

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Description

After a messy art project involving paper, place four waste baskets around the room (one in each corner). Ask youth to clean up the mess by crumpling up the paper and shooting the paper balls into the waste baskets. Youth must be standing before making a basket. The game is over when all paper is picked up (including any paper around the baskets, floor and desks).

Food and Fitness Freeze Frames

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Description

Have students use their arms and legs to make body shapes to resemble foods from selected food groups from the MyPlate diagram (example – fruits – use your arms/legs/body to form the shape of an apple, orange, or banana).

Variation: Have the students stretch their muscles while they shape the form of a fitness person in action

(example, tennis player, basketball player shooting a basket). Hold each action shot for 20 seconds to stretch muscles and then rotate to a different position.

For the final stretch have the students’ think of their own fitness pose or fruit and on your call have them create the pose. If time allows – go around the room asking students what pose they have created or have other students guess their pose.

Mobile Math

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Description

Divide the class in half to review math problems. Each student stands by their desk (paper and pencil on desk). Call out a math problem such as 4+5=. One half of the class jumps 4 times, then the other half jumps 5 times. Each student writes down their own answer. Continue with other math problems, and vary the movements: clapping, touch toes, jumping jacks, side bends, high-knees. Have students pick the movements.